Catching up on a few newsworthy events and performances from the world of Montana trail running:
MTC Trail Work: 9 Volunteers gathered Saturday for a trip up to the Reservation Divide Trail to do some maintenance in the Lolo National Forest. The spectacular setting made for an enjoyable morning in the mountains for all involved. Because of remote location, our day meant a lot of running and little heavy lifting. The trail has been completely blocked by deadfall for over a decade, but it's in great shape now. In fact, it would make an ideal spot for a weekend adventure run, since it can be accessed from various spurs from the Nine Mile Valley and traverses near the crest of the ridge line. The biggest threat to a trail of this type falling into disrepair is lack of use. So grab a map and find your adventure.
IMTUF 100 (Idaho Mountain Trail Ultra Festival): On September 20th, Missoula's Tod Bachman took the win at this challenging 100 near McCall, Idaho in 23:21. This is the second win for a Missoula runner at this 4-year old event. Seth Swanson won it back in 2012. What makes Tod's performance especially impressive is that he volunteered for our challenging trail work day less than a week later. Well done Tod!
Bear 100: A handful of Montana runners made the trek down to run in this Utah classic this weekend. Steve Liechty of Victor ran tough among a deep field to take 5th overall! Former Missoulian John Fitzgerald also earned a top-ten spot finishing 8th. James Pyke from Bozeman and Matt Ellwein of Helena also recorded 100 mile finishes. Finally, a performance of note came from Missoula's JB Yonce who finished around the 28 hour mark, despite temperatures in excess of 90-degrees for portions of the run. At 68-year old, JB was The Bear's oldest finisher, but even more amazing is that he finished the Big Horn 100 in June. Well done JB, Steve, John, James, and Matt! Full results here.
Yellowstone Rendezvous Run: On Sunday hundreds of trail runners gathered in West Yellowstone for a fast race on the Rendezvous Ski Trails over several distances. Get the full results here.
Disco Dash 20K: Held at Discovery Ski Area on Sunday, this race follows ski and mountain bike trails over a big loop on varied terrain. We'll update when we get the results.
Group Runs: Due to scheduling difficulties among some of our more dedicated group runners, we're moving the Mountain Monday group run to another day. This week, we'll try for our traditional Thursday at noon time slot. We'll still meet at the trout statues on the north side of the Clark Fork below Higgins Bridge. We'll run up Sentinel. It's hard, but we try to keep it at a conversational pace for most people. It usually takes about an hour and a half to cover 8.5 miles. So if you have the time come run the whole thing, great! But if not, consider coming for some of the run.
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| MTC Trail Work Volunteers atop the Reservation Divide |
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| Lots of views like this on the Reservation Divide |
Bear 100: A handful of Montana runners made the trek down to run in this Utah classic this weekend. Steve Liechty of Victor ran tough among a deep field to take 5th overall! Former Missoulian John Fitzgerald also earned a top-ten spot finishing 8th. James Pyke from Bozeman and Matt Ellwein of Helena also recorded 100 mile finishes. Finally, a performance of note came from Missoula's JB Yonce who finished around the 28 hour mark, despite temperatures in excess of 90-degrees for portions of the run. At 68-year old, JB was The Bear's oldest finisher, but even more amazing is that he finished the Big Horn 100 in June. Well done JB, Steve, John, James, and Matt! Full results here.
Yellowstone Rendezvous Run: On Sunday hundreds of trail runners gathered in West Yellowstone for a fast race on the Rendezvous Ski Trails over several distances. Get the full results here.
Disco Dash 20K: Held at Discovery Ski Area on Sunday, this race follows ski and mountain bike trails over a big loop on varied terrain. We'll update when we get the results.
Group Runs: Due to scheduling difficulties among some of our more dedicated group runners, we're moving the Mountain Monday group run to another day. This week, we'll try for our traditional Thursday at noon time slot. We'll still meet at the trout statues on the north side of the Clark Fork below Higgins Bridge. We'll run up Sentinel. It's hard, but we try to keep it at a conversational pace for most people. It usually takes about an hour and a half to cover 8.5 miles. So if you have the time come run the whole thing, great! But if not, consider coming for some of the run.