2003 Report

Report

Congratulations to all who finished and/or participated in the inaugural running of the new Potomac Heritage 50K course on November 2! November 2 was a very warm day and foliage was at its peak on the trails. Fifty-five runners started. All finished a significant portion of the course and 31 finished the entire course.

I was particularly pleased with the number of female entrants. Out of the initial field of 68 entrants, 30 were women. We thought this might be due to the presence of one of People Magazine’s “50 most eligible bachelors”, but it turned out that most of the women were unaware of this celebrity presence.

The first 50K runner to arrive at the finish was Mike Wedemeyer, who finished in 5:15. He was followed by Scott Mills in 5:35. VHTRC president Joe Clapper was keeping pace with the leaders but thought he would get to the beer faster if he hitched a ride to the finish at mile 26. The first women 50K finishers were Linda Wack and Gaynor Bourgeois in 6:29. Meggie Havemann arrived about 1 minute later in 6:30.

Due to the addition of the single track trail portions not included in the previous version of the run, the course may have been a bit slower than the original Potomac Heritage 50K. A small pack of runners arrived in less than 6 hours and 30 minutes and a few more in less than 7 hours. The bulk of the runners finished somewhere between 7 and 9 hours. The very warm temperatures this year may also have slowed people down a bit. Many people also reported doing bonus miles.

We had some difficulties keeping the course markings up and apologize to those who might have encountered a scarcity of course markings late in the run. Olwen Huxley spotted a little girl walking with a handful of green ribbons in Battery Kemble park. We replaced these ribbons, but later learned that ribbons had also later disappeared in Dumbarton Oaks Park.

Many thanks to the wonderful volunteers. Jaret Seiberg, Seth Mosier, and I worked on the run for several months. Amy Bloom, Steve Platt, Michele Bur, Mike Priddy, Linda Poteate, Mary Deppa, Peyton Robinson, Carolyn Sutherland, Don Kresal, Tom Corris, Jeff Hearell, and John Hayward all helped out a lot! Big thanks to Mike Bur for performing the run day “whipping boy” role! (I guess that pays back the pacing debt he owes me from Leadville.)

Photos

Collages: Starters | Collage One | Collage Two |

Results

Results (fat-ass style) with important notations are included below. We kept track of times for a little while, but reporting of times was entirely optional, so only some of the times are included.