Across the Years News

Tuesday, January 1, 2008 3:30 am

Latest through 200 miles is Carrie Sauter a few minutes ago. She's now going off for a break. The last of the 72-hour runners with a shot at 200 is Ray Krolewicz, who will probably get there with an hour or two left. Hans Bauer has a decent shot at 200 for the 48-hour runners, and Tim Englund has an outside chance as well, as both of them have now passed previous leader Debbie Richmeier. Scott Eppelman probably will hit 175 or 180, and Lisa Bliss is now moving well again after a break, with 19.5 miles to go to pass Debbie and take the women's 48-hour win. Daniel Larson has been moving really well, with several laps under 3:30 as he closes in on 24-hour leader Dave Putney, who finished on day 1. My guess now is that Daniel will do it, in the process also setting a race PR for himself. Conditions are getting a bit worse, as warmer temperatures earlier this evening have given way to a brisk northeasterly wind and everybody is just trying to keep warm, which is especially hard for runners that have used up most of their energy already.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008 12:35 am

Happy New Year from ATY! We just got done with the traditional champagne, party favors and walk around the track. Paul Bonnett's fireworks this year were excellent, especially one that reminded me of a machine gun, shooting blasts into the sky as it swept back and forth. Now most everybody is back to business. It was also fun to watch both Craig Slagel and Juli Aistars pass 200 miles. Craig's said that's it for him, but I hope he decides to do a few more laps later. Juli is continuing, and I'm not even sure she noticed us cheering for her as she passed through 200, she was zoned in so completely. Welcome to 2008!

Monday, December 31, 2007 11:10 pm

Dave again. I came back from a break for a couple hours to find that things had changed a bit. Paul DeWitt has now dropped from the 24-hour, leaving Daniel Larson and Wendell Doman as the two main contenders to first-day leader Dave Putney's 131+. Daniel and Wendell are the only ones running consistent laps much below 4:00. Martina Hausmann is now pulling away in the 72-hour women's race, though Juli Aistars is moving again. Unless he can pull out a really super effort in the last ten hours of the race, Tony Mangan will come up short of 300 miles, and John Geesler has essentially conceded the race win to Tony. In the 48, Hans Bauer and Tim Englund have a decent shot at 200 miles, with Scott Eppelmann a bit more of an outside chance. Lisa Bliss continues moving toward Debbie Richmeier for the women's lead.

It was nice a few hours ago to welcome both Ron Vertrees and John Surdyk to the race's 1000-miles-all-time club, just after John passed 151 miles tonight.

Other than that, things are moving along. Some people are winding down, while others are back pushing again, trying to get in as much more as possible before the 9:00 a.m. finish tomorrow. A brisk breeze has kicked up, which pushed the side of the aid-station tent out a bunch and caused it to contact one of the propane heaters and burn a big hole in the fabric.

More after the midnight ceremony and lap together!

Monday, December 31, 2007 6:20 pm

We understand there has been discussion about some greetings not showing up in the list of greetings you can view on the ATY website. As far as we know things are working correctly. Some runners requested that messages to them be kept private and not posted for general viewing. Lynn Newton implemented that feature this year, which is why some messages might seem to be missing.

Monday, December 31, 2007 12:20 pm

Dave again. The third-day 24-hour runners started at 9:00, and it's been really interesting to watch them. Paul DeWitt has run consistent laps between 2:15 and 2:20, finishing his first marathon in 3:13 on his quest for 165+ miles. He looks very strong. He's trailed by David Horner and past 24-hour ATY champions Wendell Doman and Daniel Larson. Paul has passed the first of the 24-hour runners from earlier days, and the others will do so within the next half hour or so. First-day 48-hour starter Debbie Richmeier finished with 167+ for a PR. We'll see how it holds up with the second-day starters moving up the leader board toward her. Tony Mangan's goal now is 300 miles for the 72-hour, and it will be close. He looks pretty good, though. John Geesler is having a bit of a hard time, but is approaching 200 miles now. He'll miss getting as good a distance as he usually does, but he's as cheerful and philosophical about it as always, and keeps moving along. If you've never met him, John is truly one of the good guys in this sport. The real big move I've seen since early this morning is Martina Hausmann, who has closed from almost 60 laps behind 72-hour women's leader Tracy Thomas to trail by less than a mile. With a bit of luck both of them will break Tracy's women's race record of just a hair over 250 miles. It's anybody's guess who'll get there first, but as usual Martina is doing what I call her Terminator routine--it doesn't matter what happens, she JUST KEEPS COMING.

It looks like today will be the best weather-wise for the whole race, with temperatures here at Nardini Manor up about 10 degrees from the start of the race on Saturday. With things now into the last day, everybody's looking pretty good, the earlier-day starters can finally see the finish in the distance, and it's going to be a good day!

Sunday, December 30, 2007 9:30pm

Phil Rosenstein decided to drop out with a stress fracture for those who are tracking his race.

Sunday, December 30, 2007 6:15pm

Dave again. It's been a good day today out at Nardini Manor. Afternoon temperatures got into the 60s, with nice clear skies, and only a bit of a breeze from time to time--ideal running weather for those in the four races currently going on (the 72-hour, both 48-hours and the second-day 24-hour.) The front-runners continued to lead, with Tony Mangan now holding about a 30K lead on John Geesler, and Tracy Thomas with just a bit less over Maryland's Carrie Sauter, who is trailed by Martina Hausmann and Juli Aistars, all in the 72-hour. Debbie Richmeier continues in the overall lead for the 48-hour, with women holding three of the top four spots. Tim Englund, Jesse Doggett and Hans Bauer lead the second-day 48-hour runners, and they're coming on quickly. Several of today's 24-hour runners are approaching 50 miles, and have started passing the back of the pack from yesterday's race. Several of the serious contenders in the 24-hour will start tomorrow, however.

It's been a great day and almost a half so far. I've really enjoyed one of the main activities that seems to happen at this race (and most other ultras, but especially here), catching up with old friends from all over. It's truly a three-day party, with a lot of running, walking, shuffling, eating, and napping thrown in. Some people that I've talked to before about these timed-event things say it must be really boring, but I'd challenge any ultra person to show up here and get bored! There's always something going on. Even for us spending time slowly freezing in the timing tent, there's always something to do, from checking the software's running correctly to printing and posting laps to sending updates to the net, writing this blog or just hanging out reminiscing. It's ALL good, even the cold parts!

More later, with any luck before I head for bed around 1:00 a.m.
Dave

Sunday, December 30, 2007 10:44am

Day 2 has started!
Dave here again. Day 2 of Across The Years started a little less than two hours ago. After RD Paul Bonnett's pre-race meeting, the second set of 24 and 48-hour runners took to the track right at 9:00, after the first set of 24-hour runners finished. It was kind of odd for a few minutes, looking at the scoreboard and seeing lap totals like "295 laps" next to "2 laps", and watching the different speeds of the runners, some fresh and some having just passed 24 hours of their 48 or 72-hour journeys. Last night took a toll on everybody, as temperatures were unseasonably cold here (certainly somewhere in the 30s), with a bit of wind from time to time. Performances of note included 24-hour runner Dave Putney, whose 131+ miles led all runners for the first day. Tony Mangan was closing fast, though, passing 24 hours about 3 laps behind Dave, but doing the 72-hour. John Geesler and Tracy Thomas also did well with more than 100 in the 72-hour, and both look strong right now. Carrie Sauter missed 100 in 24:00, but passed that under 25 hours. Don Lundell, June Gessner, Matt Watts and Jenny Hoffman rounded out the first-day 24-hour finishers over 100 miles, but I expect several people to join them on day 2 or 3. One to look for on Monday is Paul DeWitt, who wants to shoot for 165 miles+ to break the American record.

Today looks to be good, with temperatures supposed to rise a bit, though the wind has also picked up. Hopefully most of the technical issues that plagued us yesterday and caused a lot of interruptions with our sending lap totals to the net are over (keep your fingers crossed!) Back with more in a few hours.

December 29, 2007 8:37pm

Dave Combs here. I just wanted to issue an apology to those watching on the web. We've been having some technical issues here with the timing equipment and uploads to the race website. We're not sure exactly why, but it may just be the amount of stuff we have at the race site drawing power, combined with the amount of information we're trying to forward to the web and a bit of a slow net connection. That's why occasionally you'll see laps with missing times on various runners live totals. We've had some timing glitches, but have verified that laps have been adjusted correctly for any affected runners. For those of you interested in why John Geesler and Tony Mangan keep showing lap times of 00:00, it's due to a technical problem with their wearing two timing transponders in case they manage to break a record. The software I wrote to figure out lap times didn't quite deal correctly with having two separate times for the same runner that were right close together, but both "correct". I'll have to work on that for next year--we don't want to change something like that right now! ;-)

The race conditions have been interesting--high 30s at the start, probably mid-60s during the afternoon, but it's chilling off again now that the sun has been down a while. The runners seemed to enjoy it, but we're freezing in the timing tent, even with a heater! ;-) Tony Mangan keeps cranking out the laps, with John Geesler trailing by a bit. Tracy Thomas is once again leading for the women. Dave Putney leads both the 24-hour race and the overall laps for everyone, with Pam Reed, June Gessner and Jenny Hoffman taking spots 2-4 in the 24-hour. ULTRA list folk Ron Hamilton and Fred Dummar lead the 48-hour runners.

More later as the night wears on,
Dave


December 29, 2007 5:34pm

We now have successfully uploaded new videos from today's races onto our YouTube channel.

This first is a look at pre-race activities:



Here is this morning's start!



December 29, 2007 10:56am

We are now 2 hours into the race and the runners have just changed directions for the first time. Juli Aistars and Don Charles Lundell were the first to switch.

John Geesler and Tony Mangan are neck and neck in the 72 hour race with Tracy Thomas and Glen Turner following close behind.

We currently have two videos completed and awaiting upload to our youtube channel. Our connection out at Nardini Manor is still holding us back, but we should have these up shortly.

-Jamil



December 28, 2007, 8:48 PM
Greetings from Across the Years! I was out at the site this afternoon, where people are hard at work making preparations, while people are beginning to arrive. I was there only three hours today, and had to leave a bit earlier than I planned, so didn't get to meet some of the people I expected would be arriving in the afternoon.

The facility has never looked better, especially before the race, as the trail has been nicely groomed, and the property has had some improvements to it, including more lighting in the outlying areas.

The weather has been unseasonably cold recently, and reached only the mid-fifties today, but was mostly sunny. The forecast is for partly cloudy tomorrow, and sunny conditions the rest of the race, with temperatures warming to the mid-sixties by the end of the race. The nights may be somewhat cold, though, and if history is any indication, may prove to be difficult to deal with by those who are unprepared for it. We have seen a number of 24-hour runners packing up and leaving at 1:00 AM, finding that the cold is more than they can deal with. But for those who can, it could mean higher than usual mileages.

We have assembled what is by far the best field of runners for this race ever, and expect a tremendous race tomorrow.

Labels: ultra running multiday ultrarunning aty across the years