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Title:
Paleozoic Trail Runs - Devonian Fall
Date:
Saturday November 15th, 2014
Author:
Bill & Michelle (RDs)
Report:
Paleozoic Trail Runs
Devonian Fall
2nd Annual Fall-Season Paleozoic 50-Km and 25-Km
Trail Runs on the Palos Trail System
!
A cold quiet-stillness wrapped the Palos forest on Friday, race eve as I ran, marking our racecourse with bright orange arrows and red wire-flags. There were not many others out on the trails. Below average temperatures persisted on race day, but with a bustle of 140 runners the atmosphere sparked with ultra-high energy.
Saturday November 15 race-day conditions: low temperature of 21° F at 7:05 am, high temperature of 33° F at 2:05 pm, WSW winds at 12 mph, gusting to 19 mph, sunrise 6:40 am, sunset 4:32 pm. Historically, November 15th has averages: high temperature of 49° F, low temperature of 35° F.
Volunteers Jeni Goodwin, Patti Downey, Tom Kohler, Bob Thom, Ian Stevens, and Linda Leyden reported early-morning at Pioneer Woods, Grove #2 for aid station set up and to greet runners for their 7:30 am check-in.
Our
Paleo-Dev 50-Km
was underway at 8:30:44 am, followed by
Paleo-Dev 25-Km
at 9:30:02 am. Shutters clicked and spectators cheered runners along their first three-quarter-mile expanding concentric parade loop, after which runners disappeared into the forest, taking to the trails.
A midpoint, unmanned aid station was set trailside at approximately 3.6-miles outbound. Full-service amenities awaited, staffed by Patti and Tom at Wolf Road Woods, Grove #2, our turnaround aid station.
Paleo-Dev 50-Km
runners completed two full laps of our out-n-back racecourse, while
Paleo-Dev 25-Km
runners enjoyed a one-lap tour.
Late in the day... reports of some runners "going off course" trickled in. Turns out a critical intersection was intentionally sabotaged. This discovered during course clean-up (day after race day) when I found half-a-dozen red wire-flags had been pulled from their original settings, then re-staked to misleading positions. Despite running some extra distance, those runners who fell victim to this sabotage maintained a positive outlook, "taking it all in stride."
Even later in the day... as twilight surrendered to dusk, reports of coyotes lingering along the final mile-of-trail spooked some runners. Indeed, a couple runners even doubled-back and called our primary aid station, before persisting past the menacing forest creatures.
At the finish... customized finisher-medals, white-bean chicken chili, and a warm out-of-the-wind tent greeted all runners. Top overall and masters runners earned very special awards. Top-three age division runners collected special pint-glass awards. More than one dozen
Paleo-Dev 50-Km
participants earned "My First Ultra" pint-glass awards.
Congratulations to our swift runners of
Paleozoic Trail Runs - Devonian Fall
!
Paleo-Dev 50-Km
...
Top Male Open:
Jean-Bernard Flanagan, 48 of Libertyville - 3:40:53.0
Top Female Open:
Shelley Cook, 39 of Waukegan - 4:51:11.9
Top Male Masters:
Alec Bath, 45 of Waukegan - 4:10:45.6
Top Female Masters:
Jennifer Leslie, 49 of Chicago - 5:20:48.3
Paleo-Dev 25-Km
...
Top Male Open:
Dan Regalado, 27 of Oak Lawn - 1:35:11.1
Top Female Open:
Paula O'Connor, 45 of Oak Park - 1:57:56.4
Top Male Masters:
Lester Arguelles, 48 of Chicago - 1:57:22.7
Top Female Masters:
Stephanie Ebert, 43 of Palos Park - 2:12:09.8
Timing, webcasting, and finish-line scoring... all managed by us through our website at
RunRace
. Check out Results and our Webcast through the links...
Results:
Results on RunRace
Webcast:
Webcast with Checkpoint Splits
Let's give a rousing "shout out" to our race volunteers, many of which are accomplished runners, all of whom performed "beyond the call!"
Pioneer Woods Aid Station
:
Jeni Goodwin (Captain, who provided "Volunteers Rock" care-paks, and extra-special runner treats), Bob Thom (heavy-lifting, clever "quick fixes", provider of heated areas), Linda Leyden (runner-turned-volunteer), Ian Stevens (most dedicated vol in Chicagoland).
Wolf Road Woods Aid Station
:
Patti Downey & Tom Kohler (Bourbon Chase teammates, parents of enthusiastic cross country runners). In addition, Patti & Tom set up / maintained the timing mats and unmanned aid station of Wolf Road Woods.
Course Marking / Course Cleanup
:
Bill & Michelle Thom
Click the "View Photos" tab (above) to see a gallery of photos captured mostly at our start/finish area, "
Pioneer Woods
." These photos
(under the "View Photos" tab)
have been optimized for display on the internet... if you'd like a "high-resolution" original contact me and I will reply with an email attachment... be sure to specify which photo(s) you'd like.
Congratulations to all runners of
Paleozoic Trail Runs - Devonian Fall...
summoned by the primordial instinct to go-long, who toed-the-line and answered-the-call, in these very challenging conditions
!
Want more photos? Be sure to check out these amazing shots taken by Paleozoic Trail Runs veteran, David Wiskowski along with his wife, Mersedeh:
David Wiskowski Photography: Paleozoic 50k/25k
Links & Recaps as Generously Provided by Participants of
Paleozoic Trail Runs - Devonian Fall
!
Tammy Chase
,
Paleo-Dev 50-Km, #14
Tammy's blog:
Run like a mama
Website:
http://www.runrace.net/findarace.php?id=14319IL
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Posted:
November 18th, 2014 2:58 pm
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