Sixty runners and race walkers gathered on a cool July morning for the start of the Mountain Madness 12K. An early start ensured we could beat the heat and the road traffic entering Genesee Park. Early morning spectators included the Genesee Buffalo who put up an appearance close to the turnaround.

This is one of the most difficult courses on the CMRA calendar, starting with a 250 ft climb on a paved road followed by a steady decent on dirt roads to the 6K turnaround point.

Once the race started Esmeralda Martinez led the women's race from start to finish winning comfortably in a impressive 50:03 over 3 1/2 minutes ahead of second place Christine Adamowski finishing in 53:40.

The men's race was closer with Jonathan Huie finishing first in 43:03 and followed by second place by Luke Crespin in 44:53. Third and fourth place went to Mauro and Omar Martinez, with only a second separating them. As I watched both the Martinez brothers approach the finish I could not help but think this was an early morning speed work session as they chatted before crossing the finish line.

The youngest competitor on the day was twelve year old Antonio Houck with a time of 1:15:32,. whilst the fastest male in the high school category was eighteen year old Juan Navarro with a time of 50:12.

Thank you to our sponsors. The Boulder Running Company, Runners Roost, Road Runner Sports and Great Harvest Bread provided prizes for our overall winners and raffle.

As always we thank our volunteers, but most importantly I would like to thank David Christie, without whose support we would have no restaurant patio for our post race awards and most importantly no bathrooms (that would dampen our spirits!). David finished the race in 1:16:37 and says he should train for this race by running more than twice a year.