OutdoorType

Will Ramos Photography Goes to the Races…
EX2 Adventures Off-Road Marathon & Half Marathon
Sunday, May 6 2007

Part 11 of our 31 Part Series “Better Know the 2007 Adventure Racing Season” found us back at Prince William Forest Park located just across the street (if by street you mean highway, and if by highway you mean Interstate 95) from the Crossroads of the Marine Corps, Quantico.

Lots more race report after the jump!

Weather-wise the third time was the charm for our third visit to the park for an EX2 race in as many months. Photos from the March Backyard Burn showed the park still lingering in full on winter mode, the forest full of the browns and greys of a wintry sleep.

The April showers deluge that accompanied the Greenhorn AR wreaked havoc on racers as well as our camera gear, but peeking out from under the hoods of our Gore Tested Parkas we saw woods showing the first hint of spring. Now, here on the first Sunday of May, only a few weeks since the last race, green had exploded throughout the woods with many of the trails overgrown by leafy goodness.

EX2’s third Off-Road Marathon and Half-Marathon was run under a bright blue, cloudless sky though the previously mentioned leafy greens kept most of the trails in a cool, dark shade. At race start the temperature hovered around 55°F and a steady wind blew 20 mph and occasionally gusted higher.

According to the National Weather Service “a Wind Chill value cannot be calculated for temperatures greater than 40 degrees Fahrenheit,” and while conditions seemed perfect for distance running across rugged terrain those left to stand in the shade were often reduced to shivering (especially those of us holding large metal objects with bare hands).

45 minutes into the race the first runners passed a photographer on the trail just beyond the 6 mile aid station. The 2006 full marathon winner, Brian Schmidt, who was looking for a repeat win, had half-marathoner (and eventual winner) Pat Staiger hot on his heels. A steady stream of racers shortly followed the pair of lead runners.

Last year Schmidt won the full marathon by crossing the finish line 21 minutes ahead of the second place runner. This year, by mile 20, Schmidt held another tremendous lead, running a full 15 minutes ahead of the next racer. Not knowing his exact location on the race course, one photographer roughly estimated that Schmidt was maintaining a blistering pace, averaging less than 8 miles a minute. Unfortunately, a repeat win was not in the cards for him. At Aid Station #5, just three and a half miles down the trail and 22.4 miles into the race Schmidt called it quits.

The race course is a 13.1 mile loop (of which full marathon runners complete two laps) that consists of approximately four miles of forested fire roads and nine miles of twisty single-track trail.

EX2 race director, Jim Harman, subjected runners to numerous stream crossings and a decent amount of elevation gain and loss. With only six other people DNFing the full marathon now has an 88% finishing rate over the past three years.

With Schmidt out of the race the top five runners, Ryan Emmons, J Scowcroft, David Christen, Steve Core, and Nancy Kleinrock slogged their way up the series of hills comprising the last mile of the race course and crossed the finish line only minutes apart.

Emmons of Woodbridge, VA and a veteran of many EX2 races took the top prize finishing first among full marathon runners with a time of 4:04:39. Nancy Kleinrock of Trumansburg, NY who happened to be in town on business was the first place female and fifth overall. She crossed the finish line at 4:12:05.

Tracy Betts of Springfield, VA was the second place female finishing 51 minutes behind Kleinrock but 17 minutes AHEAD of the next closest runners. Betts admitted after the race to having trained very little for this, her first EX2 Off-Road Marathon. In fact, supposedly she had not run in nearly two weeks. (Now that’s my kind of tapering program!) Kristen Hughes of Elkridge, MD was the third woman across the finish line at 5:20:03. A veteran of this spring’s Backyard Burn series Hughes finished second in her age group at the marathon.

By the time Will Ramos Photography made it back to the finish line all of the Half Marathon runners had pretty well packed up and gone home so we don’t have any fun stories to share. However, we can report that men from the 30-39 age group took the top 4 places overall in the half marathon and 5 of the top 10 places.

Pat Staiger, 38 of Minneapolis, MN finished the race with a time of 1:40:26. Eric Greitens, 33 of Washington, DC, who has found himself at more than one EX2 race, crossed the line second at 1:44:13. Thomas Moore, 36 of Bolling AFB, DC finished third overall at 1:48:57.

The top three women to finish all came from the 29 and under age group. Finishing 14th overall was Jennifer May, of Washington, DC, at 1:55:10. In 22nd place was Caroline Regan of Alexandria, VA who crossed the line 1:58:07. Earlier this year Regan dominated her age group in the Backyard Burn 5-mile series. Her combined total of 191 points for four races was 72 points more than the second place winner. Rounding out the top three female finishers was Adri Logalbo from Washington, DC who finished at 2:00:45.

Congratulations to everyone who competed in Sunday’s race! Be sure to check out all of the race photos at Will Ramos Photography.

We can’t wait to see everyone in two weeks at the Rocky Gap Adventure Race!