Crawford Smokes Leona Divide 50! And the Zane Grey odds….
Tom Crawford….the guy I passed with a few miles to go at Moab….just crushed the field at the Leona Divide 50. LD legend Jorge Pacheco ran second and Ashland’s newest fast guy Nick Lewis slipped under 7 hours to run 3rd. All three of these times would have won the race many times. How ironic it is to keep seeing faster times in Ultras these days…..I keep getting older and I have to keep getting faster to keep up. Tom’s time was a stellar 6:25, Jorge 6:40, Lewis 6:56.
Michelle Barton threw down a 7:17 to take the women’s race! Not sure if that’s a record, but a great run for her as well, congrats Michelle!
Now, a brief look at the field at the ugliest 50 miler in the US…
1. Josh Brimhall 3-1. Josh being the previous winner gets the nod, but he’s gonna have his hands full at this one. It’s as technical as it gets and the next guy in this list is a pretty good technical runner. Josh just ran a 1:18 half marathon in SLC…ahh, but that doesn’t matter here. 🙂 2. Speedgoat Karl 4-1. I’ll give myself some love and put me close to winning. Previous runs here show I have the fastest times on this track, with a little room to spare, but that was a while ago. I’m excited to see how I do at 50 miles. I’ve got a new trick up my sleeve too, one that will be revealed race day morning. 🙂 3. Scott Jaime 5-1. Definately as fast as the two in front, but not sure how he’ll do when he can’t find the trail. He lost it at Antelope, so I expect it to happen again :-). This one is ugly to follow….all in good fun of course! 4. Ian Torrence 6-1. Ian has also run around 8:30, so he’s got it in him is he can rekindle the spark at a course he knows as well as anyone. 5. Todd Walker 8-1. Another guy pretty quick, he’ll round out the top 5. 6-7. Nick and Jamil Coury 10-1. Jamil has won it before, but I feel he’s gonna feel some pressure on the start line this time. They both know it well, so shouldn’t lose any time looking for the route. One of them will likely run top 5…flip a coin. 8. Andy Jones-Wilkins 12-1. He’s in tough company when it’s technical. We’ll have the beer cold for him when he’s done…unless it’s all gone. 🙂 9. Ian Moore 13-1. Don’t know much about Ian other than he’s only 23, so us old guys never really know sometimes. He’s my guinea pig to go out too hard… 10. Ron Gutierrez 16-1. Ron replaces Chris for the number ten spot.The Ladies:
1. Diana Finkel 2-1. 27 hours at Hardrock….she’ll run away if she’s reasonably fit, but will have to hang tough if she’s gonna beat my second pick. 2. Jane Larkindale 4-1. She’s run it before and has all the tools to be close. If she runs smart, she’ll be in it for sure. 3-4. Jody Chase and Honey Albrecht should round out the next two.. The Speedgoat 50k is now near 70% full, so sign up soon or get shut out. I’ll even say it’s tougher than Zane Grey…..scary! The Pony Express Trail is moving forward. Tune in for more details as time goes by. The site for this RedBull project will be at the one and only Whereskarl.com site….
