Cam Baker Completes the Double Direction Ring

Congratulations to Cam Baker. Cam became the first person to complete a Double Direction Ring, finishing both the clockwise and counterclockwise direction of the Massanutten Trail. Cam also posted the FKT for a double, besting Ryan Henry's old record of 52 hours. (Ryan ran two loops, but both in the clockwise direction.)

Finishing!

Cam's finishing time was 51 hours 25 minutes 30 seconds.


 The weather on Friday was excellent, sunshine and temperature around sixty degrees, with some rain in the afternoon.

Jim Harris ran the Ring (clockwise) with Cam on Friday.  There were two crewed stops by Kimba Love*Ottobre, at Camp Roosevelt and Moreland Gap.  Kimba also dropped aid at Edinburg Gap and Woodstock for their overnite aid stops.

Jim Harris Cam Baker at Moreland Gap

Cam looking good, just 100 miles to go

Jim and Cam completed The Ring, finishing in the Signal Knob parking lot at 247 AM. Cam then regrouped and turned around, heading up Signal Knob by himself. Jim would sleep and then crew for Cam around the course for the rest of the RR.

There was a considerable change in the weather from Friday to Saturday. The cold front moved in, dropping the temperatures, with a sustained wind all day.  

Snow squall on Signal Knob

With the Reverse Ring beginning at 6 AM, Cam would be able to utilize some of the Aid Stations that were supporting the runners and have some companionship out there on the trail.

Cam at Woodstock

The winds never relented, and it was cold out on the trail.   Cam did pick up Jeff Gura as a companion as he left Camp Roosevelt, for the 25 mile final push, but Jeff had to go on as Cam did take a 30 minute nap.


Cam's 30 minute nap allowed Kimba, the last runner on the course, to catch up to Cam, and she paced him into his finish.

 

The first thing Cam did after finishing was to sit down and take off his shoes. 

Jim and Cam with Marty McFly. They had run into Marty on Friday, on the Eastern Ridge. Marty was just finishing his hike and he got to witness Cam's historic run.

NEO TC Kim Cam Jim

Another "Gate-to-eight, times two," adventure

On Saturday, February 25, NEO Trail Club members David Peterman and Lloyd Thomas were among four runners to add their name to the list of finishers of the Ohiopyle 50k "Gate-to-eight, times two," challenge.

An overnight dusting of snow provided decent footing with cold temps on top of the ridges. The group ran together for the first gate-to-eight in 3h 25m before heading out for the second trip.

Peterman finished in a FKT of 6 hours, 52 minutes on the double out-and back course. LT and Vince Rucci completed the challenge in 7:01 and Dave Wank in 7:09.

2012 Iditarod Trail Invitational

The 2012 Iditarod Trail Invitational begins this Sunday, February 26.





 The Iditarod Trail Invitational follows the historic Iditarod Trail.

The famous sled dog route runs 1000 miles through frozen Alaska every March since 1973 in memory of those brave individuals who brought the important serum to Nome in 1925 during a diphterie outbreak.

Using bicycles as a means of transportation on Alaska's frozen rivers and tundra might seem a little odd and a crazy idea, but men looking for gold around 1900 that couldn't afford a dog team actually used what they then called a "wheel" and followed the gold rush from Dawson City to Nome on the Yukon River on bicycles.

 In the year of 2000 the race followed the entire length of the Iditarod Trail to Nome on the Bering coast.

The Iditasport race format included a mandatory overnite 30 miles into the race.

 The race is now a straight through race with 7 checkpoints on the route to McGrath.

Participants can bike, ski, or run the distance.   Participants also chose their distance-McGrath-350 miles, or Nome-1000 miles.

This is the most remote and longest winter ultra race in the world.  

NEO TC member Rick Freeman is signed up for the (natch) finish in Nome, 1000 miles.

Check out the website, it is fascinating reading. 

Best of luck to Rick Freeman, and Tim Hewitt, we will be following from the warmth of our houses cheering you on!

Racing Results

Congratulations to Courtney Russell.  Courtney is training for a road marathon and got in some speed work today.

Courtney finished second in her age group, in 22.22. Nice work!

Jim Harris Finishes The Wild Oak Trail

Jim Harris joins a very small club of individuals who managed to run 4 loops of The Wild Oak Trail in Virginia, February 10-11.  This is 104 miles.

Mile 90. Coming off trail from Big Bald Knob Mtn

Best pic to sum up 90 miles of TWOT

Jim at Mile 90; 19 degrees and 25 MPH winds

Jim and Eva Pastalkova

Jim and Eva Pastalkova, at his finish.  Eva ran Jim back in to his finish

Finish!!!

NEO Trail members Bill Losey, Bob Combs, and Mike Keller met up in Boulder, CO last Thursday to run up Green Mountain. Much talk of other NEO members exploits (sending good wishes to Slim, King Paul, and Kimba at TWOT) was had, and we even avoided being eaten by mountain lions.

KOM Miles

King Paul Lefelhocz says to get your miles in to Jim Harris. You have till the 10th of February to get credit for your January miles.

Don't be late.

Rocky Raccoon

Heavy rain preceded in the days before the Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Race. Bob Combs kept wading through the mud in possibly worse conditions ever to complete the race in 25 hours 40 minutes. Congratulations Bob!

Dirty Dog 10K+

NEOTC went 1-2 at the 6th annual Dirty Dog 10K+ on Saturday, February 4th.
Eric Harris won the race in a time of 41:19.
He was chased by Todd Hanks who was 2nd with a time of 43:22.
Also participating from NEOTC was Pat Dillon in 47:38, Robert Clark in 56:42, and Barefoot Johnny Onder in 1:10:41.
Newest NEOTC member Richard Ellison who joined the morning of the race finished with a 1:11:24 effort.
Special thanks to Joe Novicky for sweeping the course, and Moose pushed at the end to get his last runner in under the 2 hour mark.
Moose finished as the designated last place finisher with a time of 1:59:26.

The course was wet and muddy, but times were not much slower than in years past.
Afterwards the NEOTC race tear down crew had a little issue with the Rhino.
Pics as promised.

Here is the first picture where we got the Rhino stuck.

This muck was deep and stinky.

This is closer view to show how much muck we were in.
The Rhino was almost floating on it's skid plate.

Here are the 5 tow straps hooked together to reach an anchor point for the winch.
It was a good Lesson in Physics for Baby Sasquatch.

This shot shows the rut we had to drag the Rhino through to get it past the swamp where we were stuck
Do I need to mention how much this mud stank!

This is the after shoot once we made it back to the parking lot.

Second Vehicle recovery for NEOTC that I am aware of.
Can't wait to see how severe the next one will be.

Rocky Raccoon 100

Saturday morning the Rocky Raccoon 100 starts.
Bob Combs will be toeing the line looking to see what 6 months of living at attitude will do for him


Here is the link for live results.
RR100

Dirty Dog 10K+

The run is this Saturday.

Will be a very wet and sloppy run.

Arrowhead 135

With 135 miles worth of trail, the Arrowhead 135 is a tough race.
Monday morning at 7:04 the race started.
Today, Wednesday, there are still people out there heading for the finish line.

Results here.