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Race 3: The Slab Results
– Mackey makes it
a clean sweep!
This is what the Slab looked like the day before our race.
"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" - Springfield town motto
Despite officially postponing this race for one day, a record nine people showed up to race last night, including series leader Dave Mackey and Slab record-holder Jon Sargent. While conditions didn’t lend themselves to any records, this was the closest of the season. Last year the Slab was the first race in the series and only attracted eight racers. Tonight we expect to have another group of similar size. - See report here.
Jeff Valliere was on hand to shoot photos and pace the leaders into the base of the rock. That was the plan anyway, but Dave was too fast and he arrived at the base of the rock first, in just over 13 minutes. Jon Sargent was about a minute back, but held his position on the face, and gained on the very treacherous, snowy, slippery descent back to the Fern Canyon Trail. Dave did more bushwhacking and burst out onto the trail just a couple seconds before Jon came by. The race was on, but Dave's footspeed was too much for Jon, though he finished only 23 seconds behind for our closest finish ever.
Garrett flies on the Slab
Things were no less exciting for third place. Stefan was still recovering from a debillitating adventure race the weekend before and had trouble getting the legs going. A solid week of keeping to a strict regiment of assal horizontology did not leave me in ideal condition for a fast time on the Slab, but I vowed to at least do some suffering. Dave Stewart took things out hard, as usual, and opened up a sizable gap on me by the time we hit the face. I closed on him on the face, also as usual. After a few minutes I had passed Dave and moved into third place. I followed Tony Bubb up the lower section, until I passed him. Tony started three minutes early and Joseffa and Kre started seven minutes early.
Dave was behind me, but not by enough. He's a fast downhill runner and I knew I needed more space to hold him off. We got to a confusing section on the ridge and I knew where to go - up a dark, wet ramp - and scampered up it quickly to get out of sight. I didn't want to help Dave with the directions. This worked great and Dave probably lost half a minute deciding where to go there. I zipped along the ridge as quick as I could, pushing for more space. I hit the downclimb after 9:58 on the rock. The downclimb is steep, but easy and short at only about twenty feet. Back on the ground things got nasty. I screwed up the descent twice. First, by trying to traverse to the Fern Canyon Trail too early and then by going over to it way too late. I was following probably Mackey's footprints in the snow. Conditions here were nasty and I figured at least 1.5-2 minutes slower than dry conditions.
I hit the trail and didn't see or hear anyone. I pushed pretty hard down the trail but got complacent. With about five or minutes to go, I thought I heard something looked over my shoulder to see Dave coming for me. I had about 70 yards on him. I pushed really hard now, desperate to get to the steep, singletrack finish before he caught me. I made it barely and pushed very hard on the steep finish, taking some big risks for me, as Dave was right on my heels. I held him off for the first time in the series and finished just three seconds ahead of him!
Results:
|
Place |
Scrambler |
Base of the Slab |
Top of downclimb (climbing split) |
Finish |
| 1 |
Dave Mackey |
13:15 |
|
34:57 (12:19) |
| 2 |
Jon Sargent |
14:00? |
|
35:20 (12:17) |
| 3 | Phil Gruber | 37:57 | ||
| 4 | Bill Wright | 15:52 | ~26:00 | 38:03 (~12:00) |
| 5 | Willie Mein | ~15:25 | ~27:00 (11:35) | 40:05 (~13:05) |
|
|
|
|
|
40:25 (14:39) |
| 6 |
Dave Stewart |
|
|
40:28 |
| 7 | Mark Cartwright | 16:57 | 29:10 (12:13) | 43:03 (13:53) |
| 8 | Homie Prater | 16:03 | 43:?? | |
| 9 |
Stefan Griebel |
|
|
44:45 (17:14) |
| 10 | Tony Bubb | 18:00 | 31:00 (13:00) | 47:00 (16:00) |
| 11 |
Garrett?? |
|
|
49:00 |
|
|
Tony Bubb (Wed) |
|
|
51:50 |
| 12 | Hamish Gowans | ? | ? | 5?:?? |
| 13 |
Joseffa Meir |
|
|
|
| 14 |
Kre Reischel |
|
|
|
Thursday's Race: Slab Take Two
Last night we had a smaller group, but it included Homie, Willie Mein, Hamish, Mark Cartwright (newcomer) Phil Gruber, and myself and Tony, repeating from the night before. Jeff Valliere showed up once again, having already run Bear Peark, to pace the leaders to rock. I was returning mainly to break 40 minutes. I had screwed up the descent through the woods and knew I could improve. Though I didn't expect conditions to change much, they did. Things were much drier and conditions were at least a minute faster and probably more.
Unfortunately Phil Gruber showed up late and missed the start. I wouldn't see him until after I finished, but most others saw him earlier. Jeff led us up the steep start with me following. Soon Willie went by, running strong. I tried to limit his lead, but he at least 30 seconds on me at the Slab. Mark was right on my heels for the first five minutes but then dropped off and I couldn't see anyone behind me until I neared the Slab, when I noticed Homie closing on me. He was only ten seconds behind me at the start of the climbing.
Once again Tony took a headstart and I closed on him up the face. As I passed him I screwed up and went too far to the right. I had to downclimb a bit and then make a horizontal traverse to the left. Back on track, I sped up the rock. Willie took the more traditional route further left and I wouldn't see him again until the finish. I hit the top of the ridge and buzzed over to the descent, not sure if I was in the lead or Willie was still ahead. When I didn't hear anyone on the ground, I knew I was in the lead.
My watch stopped working for me on the approach, so Jeff took over my timing. Because of that I don't know my time on the face. I got to the tree at the top of Syzygy in around 8m30m according to Jeff, so that I probably did the climbing in around ten minutes once again. I dropped to the ground and was surprised to find good conditions down here. I was still careful on the upper, rocky section, but nailed the correct traverse through the woods to the Fern Canyon Trail. I pushed hard on the run out, knowing I was faster than the day before, but not knowing my current time. I was hoping that Jeff would meet me at the base of the Slab and pace me on the way out, giving me timing information, but he was back at the start.
I pounded down the trail and crossed the finish line in 38:03 - a huge improvement over the day before, but still about a minute off my PR from last year. I lost this minute completely on the approach, which sitll took me nearly 16 minutes. Willie finished next and then I was surprised to see Phil Gruber run down the trail. He won the day with a time of 37:57 and I was disappointed that we didn't get to start together. Everyone had a great time once again. I added the results to the previous day.
Special thanks to our
photographer: Jeff Valliere!
