CAPON VALLEY 50K

THANKS TO DON PARKS AND WWW.IPLAYOUTSIDE.COM FOR MUCH OF THE PRIOR YEAR INFO

2009    2008    2007    2006    2005    2004    

2009  RUN

 When we saw the weather forecast Friday night, we almost cried.  We had been through 2 weeks of rain with only intermittent periods of sunshine.  Our trail volunteers, Lynn Golemon and Rosie Rollins, reported that the creeks were up a little and that the trails were really muddy.  Ruritan Park was too soggy to be used for camping AND ThE WEATHERMEN WERE CALLING FOR SHOWERS FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY MORNING.  Fortunately, the weather folks were wrong. After the race, Race Director, Robin conducted a drawing for the 5 grand prizes, $100 VISA gift certificates.  The winners were Jeff Holdaway, Stephen Dobson, Heather Schaffer, Brett Welborn, and Bill Susa.  The top 25 finishers also chose prizes from a variety of locally made arts and crafts and baked goods.    

    Our Friday night registration mixer was a big success.  Over 55 runners snacked on trays of fruit, veggies, cheeses and sandwich wraps.  Several runners camped at the Capon Valley Ruritan grounds and were treated to a beautiful evening with a full moon.

    Registration resumed at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning with a light fog hanging over the valley.  The runners congregated in the Ruritan building for a high-carb breakfast and promptly began their 31.5 mile trek at 7:00 AM.  140 of our 158 registered runners started the race.  Due to the trail conditions and a hot and humid afternoon, only 126 of them finished.  Karsten Brown of Front Royal, VA was the first man across the finish line (last year he came in third) with a time of 4:05:23.  He was followed by Matt Woods at 4:12:54 and Sean Andrish at 4:22:10.  The first woman to cross was Sophie Speidel at 5:20:03. 

2008 RUN

You ran 31 miles through drizzle, mud, high creeks, and finally sunshine, and came back full of smiles and thanks. You were GREAT and you made our 10^th Anniversary a big success.  Special thanks go to those of you who sent us such great feedback!

    The creeks should have been low. Last summer was so dry that local farmers sold their cattle because they couldn't raise enough hay to feed them over the winter. Winter went by with almost no snow and the spring rains skipped over the Capon Valley. So when Diana Boehm of Dripping Springs, TX e-mailed me on April 17^th about the creeks, I (Carol) told her they were running low -- then the rains came! We've had rain off and on for the last 3 weeks and it POURED Friday and Friday night. Runners told me the mud in places was thick enough to cover their shoes and some of the creeks were calf-high.

    Our first place runner, Jason Bryant of Elkin, NC, ran a phenomenal time of 3:55, 28 minutes before the second place runner, Robin Kane (a male runner from Arlington, VA, not our female Race Director). The first female was Kendra Horger from Richmond, VA, finishing in a time of 5:07. Only 120 of the 159 registered runners started the race. Despite the less than ideal weather conditions, 115 of them finished the race.

After the race, Race Director, Robin conducted a drawing for the 2 grand prizes -- trips for 2 to Las Vegas including roundtrip airfare on Southwest Airlines from anywhere Southwest’s fly’s to Las Vegas and two nights hotel accommodations at the Las Vegas Hilton or similar accommodation. Twenty-one runners qualified for the drawing. The winners were Robin Kane (the runner) and 15^th place Jay Manwiller of Reading, PA.

     RESULTS

2007 run

Congratulations to all of you who completed the 2007 race.  Almost half of you have run this course before. This year's winner, Aaron Schwartzbard (3:52:09)  cut more than 10 minutes off last year's finishing time, setting a record for the longer course introduced in 2005.  Second place finisher, Brian Schmidt (3:54:26), also beat last year's course record.    The first woman finisher, Antoinette Lucas, came in third, running the course in 4:22:29.  For their accomplishments, Aaron and Antoinette received round trip airline certificates from American Airlines.

    We were honored this year  to host three members of the U. S. military, Dan Stasny, Jeffrey Clemons,  and  Michael McGlynn.  In all, 132 of the 135 starters completed the run and received certificates for their efforts.  Our oldest runner, Arthur Moore, was 69.   

2006 RUN

RACE DIRECTOR'S STORY

Runners and campers began arriving for our 8th annual Capon Valley 50K Run early on Friday, May 5th. We had perfect weather, mid 60's with very low humidity, and the run began at 8 AM on May 6th.

The 109 runners left the Ruritan Park in a pack, but since we have added a few hills on the way to Aid Station 1 (my horse barn), by the time the runners arrived at stop 1, there was a good spread.

The run went so smoothly this year that I (as race manager) had nothing to do, and it was lovely. Our volunteers have blossomed into fantastic aid station organizers and runner aids, leaving me with the ability to arrive at each stop, make sure all was in place, and move on to the next, then on to the finish.

Serge England-Arbona finished at 4:02:58, 15 minutes ahead of last year's finishing time. In years prior to 2005 the course was a little shorter, so this is a record time for our new course - which added 2 miles and several significant hills. Mark Hoon and Robert Magin finished in second place together at 4:19:42. The first 3 runners were all from Maryland. Our first woman, Monica Bachmann from Pennsylvania finished at 5:10:20. 109 runners started the course, and 102 runners finished, 7 dropped out due to various pulls and injuries.

The Ruritan outdid itself, as usual, with its wonderful chicken barbecue dinner, pasta salad and wonderful home made desserts, along with vegetarian ribs, after the runners had a nice hot shower!
 

It was our best ever run, and we thank all of our incredible volunteers who, with their kindness and attention to detail, made this such an impressive event. Once again, all proceeds from the run will support the Capon Springs Volunteer Fire and Rescue, the Ruritan Club and Edgebrook.org. I have already received endless compliments via e-mail from the runners, thanks so much for your kind words and we hope to see you next year.

Although I am a horse back rider, not a runner, I love bringing together folks from the ultra running community for a day of camaraderie and fun and sharing with you our much-loved trails through the Capon Valley in Hampshire County, West Virginia. We have as much fun putting this run together as you have running it. Our hope is that you'll find the trail challenging and leave with great memories, a new friend or two and plans to come back next year.

Lynn Golemon

CAPON VALLEY 50k RUN - 5/06/06
122 Registered
109 Total Started
102 Total Completed
15 States represented

75 Men Starters 80 registered
5 Men - pulls
93% -- % Completion-Men                                                                                                             Thanks for 8 years as RD

34 Women Starters 42 registered
2 Women - pulls
94% -- % Completion-Women

2005 RUN

The New Face of the Capon Valley 50K
by Lynn Golemon, race director

The 7th annual Capon Valley 50K was the most difficult Capon Valley race so far. Some of our experienced runners have been telling us for years that the course was short. So over the last year we measured the entire course with a GPS and a topo map, and guess what... they were right.

Our first aid station has always been early in the race - 2.9 miles - so before that seemed a natural place to add mileage. Unfortunately, any time you add mileage in West Virginia you also add hills. We added 2 miles to the race - 1 mile out and 1 mile back from the first aid station - and removed the 1/2 mile around the flat track at the Ruritan, so that made it seem longer than the extra mile and a half to many of the runners.

The weather, along with a bit of new gravel road made the course even more difficult for the runners this year. It was by far the hottest race day we have ever had at 82 degrees with high humidity and very little wind. The rain and cool temperature of previous years were sometimes hard on the volunteers, but the runners loved it. We extended the finishing t