BRIGHTON RENEGADE WOMAN 23 MILER

1	Blyth Larrabee	2:51	5:30:18
2	Krista Stapp   Lynda Stapp	3:34	7:00:30

HONEYCOMB SCRAMBLE 11 MILER
 

1	Doug Wahlquist   Steve Allen	1:53
3	Tom McFarland	2:12
4	Brad Merrill	2:32
5	Joanne Sorensen   Stan Crane	3:34
7	Kathy McFarland   Joan Moellmer	3:45
	DNF  - Shane Martin

39 starts for all 3 events.
   Congratulations to Karl Melzer who was victorious for the men with an incredible  new course record of 4:14:24.   Kudos to Jill Bohney with a nice win in 5:57:20 for the women. My greatest appreciation for Dale Heisler, who was sitting out this one with a heel injury and fortunately for all the runners, manned the Guardsman Pass aid station.   Thanks also to Doug Wahlquist and Brad Merrill  for helping out with the aid stations.  Thanks to you all for bringing food for the finish line and aid station.  In fact, Lise Brunhart made home cooked cookies for our dinning pleasure.  Yumm.
     “In the beginning, trails were without substance and our lives dwelt within a void.  But now that we have given trails substance by traveling on them, our lives have departed the void and we dwell on high, indeed on the highest ridge tops as the mountains bring blessings of joy.”
                                                      ......................Thoughts on Clayton Peak -----Trail Gurula
     The Brighton Marathon is a challenging feast for the eyes and soul.  It climbs to 10,000 feet or greater 6 times.  You see 9 or 10 mountain lakes if you know where to look. A great panorama view of the Uintah Mountains unfolds before your eyes.   You get a great view of the Pfeifferhorn, Devils Castle, American Fork Twins, Mount Superior, Kessler Peak, Mount Raymond, Silver Peak, Sunset Peak, Mount Millicent, Mount Tuscarora and many others.  The colorful flowers put on a show quite unparalleled except for Mount Timpanogas.  The low point of the course is 7,300 feet while the high point is about 10,600 feet.  There is over 6,000 feet of ascent and ditto that for descent.  The trails are often very good and just as often, nasty. No one finishes the Brighton Marathon without some major discomfort.  The challenge is very great and the rewards of finishing are superb.
     The race has been run since 1988 so this is the 15th year.  It was designed as a loop course to make it easy on the transportation factor, which is difficult for many.  It also has a nice stopping point 11 miles into the run at the Mill D trailhead with car access.  I call that section the Honeycomb Scramble in honor of Mike Shaffer who passed away last year.  I met Mike at this run in 1990 and he promptly took a different route from Twin Lakes Pass to Davenport Hill ridge by traversing along the Honeycomb Cliffs Mountain.  We laughed about that a lot and over the years.  I passed through that section the day before the race this year and fond memories of Mike returned. Mike has either run the race or helped with the aid stations most of those 15 years.  I am grateful that Bob Henderson introduced him to me and for the time we spent together.
   The weather was extreme this year -  107.1 degrees F down in Salt Lake for a new all time high.  There really wasn’t much wind to cool the runners off.  What a cooker!  I am quite impressed how well the runners all handled it.  They took good care of themselves out there.  Another feature to add to the challenge this year was the severe fly hatch.  Deer flies were biting everywhere I went.  Mosquitoes and gnats were also bad in places and even the Horse flies were out trying to bite pieces off of unsuspecting runners.   It bugs ya, man!
      Some runners left shortly after 6 am to beat the heat but the majority of runners left shortly after 7am.  After the last group left, Dale Heisler and I recopied the list of runners so he could mark them off as they came through the Guardsman Pass aid station.  In the early days, I could just put a jug or two of water up there.  I could still do that I guess, but the runners really appreciate the help and a friendly face out there.
   I drove down to Mill D and set out on foot to put up a few extra ribbons on that last stretch from Spruces to the Mill D trailhead through Reynolds Flat (some of you still found a way to get lost there).  Then I sat out the fluids and munchies for the runners to nibble on and waited.  In only moments, Doug Wahlquist and Steve Allen, part of the earlier group came flying in.  Doug stopped and stayed around to help me man the aid station.  Jeff Lamora, the 2001 winner, in what I believe is the fastest split for that section, came dashing by the aid station in 1:39. Karl Meltzer, who would normally be running the Hardrock 100 but it got cancelled, was 2 minutes back.  He had that “look” in his eye.  Watch out course record, I told myself.  Jeff said that Karl passed him going up to Blunder Fork and slowly pulled away.  Both Jeff and Karl came in to Guardsman Pass way under 4 hours.  Incredible times.  Awesome finish section times were also seen this year.  Karl ran the last part in 50 minutes, Jeff had 55 minutes and Dave Hunt did it in 57 minutes.  Thanks again to Dale Heisler who recorded the in and out times at Guardsman so finish section times could be provided.  Karl went on to finish in 4:14:24 with Jeff in 4:27:30.   Brandon Sybrowsky had run a 4:22:43 course record back in 1998 when we went down to Solitude before climbing up to the finish at Brighton.  The course was changed to the Clayton Peak route in 1999 and Curt Bates held that course record of 4:41 set in 2000 until this year. This course again had a slight change since we do not go down to Bloods Lake anymore.  The trail is blocked off by the property owners because it is a “watershed”. Grizz wondered why there were horses, dogs, and swimmers down there at Bloods Lake in watershed country on the day of the race.  I guess they are afraid of Ultraunner cooties.  At any rate, we aren’t welcome down there.  The ridge route is shorter by distance by not by time.  Approximate miles are 11 miles to Mill D.  Guardsman Pass is about 21 miles.  The finish is about 26 miles and feels like more, doesn’t it?  Hopefully, we can do the same course next year.  It was a thrill to see all of you participate.  Terrific effort everyone.
    I ran the course for the 14th time Friday, 12 July and set a new longest time for myself.  Ugh.  It was very hot and very hard.  I got off to a late start and didn’t feel very well.    But on the bright side, the scenery was great and I didn’t go fast enough to trash my legs.  The climb up the 10,420 peak and Clayton was difficult but you know,  that little hill just past Scotts pass is the one that bugs me most.  It usually  takes 10 minutes but cost me 14 minutes this year in the heat.  It is hard to shift gears from running to steep, steep hiking.  The heart rate climbs way up and the calves complain.  What a mean little hill.
    At the risk of slighting someone, I would like to praise Stephen Utley for going the distance.  It has been 16 months since his last attempt at this distance due to injury.  Linda Wahlquist was a real champ for finishing.  Both would be age group winners for sure if we paid much attention to that sort of thing.  Kathie Utley had a great run after some down time from long trail runs, too. Shauna Heisler had a good outing in prepping for Wasatch this year.  It was great to see the Larrabee family come to tackle the course and especially Cory.  Blyth became (with  Krista and Linda Stapp)  a “Renegade Woman”.   I was delighted to see Adam and Cindy finish this very tough course and proud of them for toughing out that last section.  They spent many a happy moment imaging what kind of torture the Gorilla deserves for designing such a killer course.   I thought the rocks were my fault but the steep hills, too?  High praise, indeed.
     It was interesting to look at times for the last section.  Thanks to Dale again for collecting times in and out at Guardsman Pass.  Below are the results:
TIME               NAME
    50 min           Karl Meltzer
    55                 Jeff Lamora
    57                  Dave Hunt
 1:02 hr            Tim Seminoff
                         Dan Haesloop
 1:08                Tim Spence
                        Charlie Vincent
 1:12                John Diroll
 1:13                Jill Bohney
                        Missy Berkel
 1:16                Dan Simpson
                        Stephen Utley
 1:18               Corey Larrabee
 1:20               Roger Adams
                       Ulrich Brunhart
                       Grizz Randall
 1:21               Kathie Utley
 1:24               Stan Larrabee
                       Shauna Heisler
 1:30               Greg Moellmer
                       John Moellmer
 1:36               Lise Brunhart
                       Candy Lavicky
1:43                Linda Wahlquist
2:09               Cindy Andrus
                       Adam Grobben
2:25               Irv Nielsen
Kudos to all for participating!
The Prince of Rocks
Gorilla Irv