Kathleen did it again!
Kathleen Cusick was first woman and second overall at this past weekend’s Cloudsplitter 100 miler, held on the Pine Mountain Trail in Breaks Interstate Park in southeastern Kentucky, near the Virginia line. This was the second year of the race, and the second year that Kathleen finished second overall and first woman. Fellow VHTRC member Keith Knipling was sixth overall out of the 47 starters and 36 finishers. Both tried to one-up each other in their description of the challenge presented by the race: the course itself, with nearly 26,000 feet of elevation gain; the course markings, as for the second year staying on course was a challenge; and finally the mud from the large amount of rain that pounded the area before and during the race.
As noted in the news teaser, this is just another feather in Kathleen’s cap for 2015. Below is a list of her 100 and 24 hour events for this year alone:
- February - TWOT (finished four loops, just ahead of a blizzard)
- March - Clinch 100 Miler in Florida (1st overall, in 18:23)
- April - 24 Hour Relay for Cancer in Hampton (2nd woman, plus she raised over
- $3,000 for cancer research)
- May - MMT 100 (1st woman, 7th overall in 24:31)
- June - Old Dominion 100 (1st woman and 4th overall; 19:06)
- July - Vermont 100 (2nd woman, 12th overall, in 18:51)
- August - Eastern States 100 in PA (1st woman, 4th overall, 24:57)
- September - Pine Creek Challenge 100 in PA (1st overall, in a personal best
- 16:45)
- October - Cloudsplitter 100 (see above)
Not a bad year, though the obvious questions are: what was Kathleen doing with her time in January, as surely there must have been a 100 mile challenge out there for her somewhere that month; and what will the rest of the year bring? Congratulations!