Coal Creek Cross Country Challenge 2011

by Rich Fitzpatrick

The twelfth anniversary Coal Creek X-C Challenge on October 9 attracted 90 participants. We had beautiful weather for the cross country race and a good time was had by all!

Justin Herd (from team HorseCow) took first place in 31:00, Jonathan Huie finished second in 31:25. Nick Cady took third place for the third year in a row(!) in 33:12.

In the women's field, Sara Tarkington, last year's second place finisher, was the first woman finisher in 38:26. Marguerite Meloine finished second in 39:19. Lauren Gregory was the third woman overall in 39:29.

I'd like to extend a special thank you to former race director, Bruce Kirschner. Back in 1999 Randy Lualin and Bruce directed the inaugural Coal Creek Cross Country Challenge. In my opinion, the course is still the most unique and toughest public Cross Country race on the Front Range! Under Bruce's stewardship the race has also grown from 25 participants in 1999 to over a hundred racers in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 races. Bruce took care of all of the permits this year and was a huge help in handing the race off to me. Thanks again Bruce! It was pretty cool that we got Randy to race again this year after an extend hiatus, eh?

A special thank you also goes out to Kimberly Turner for volunteering to kick off the race by singing the National Anthem, it was very inspirational! Kim also writes for the Hometown Weekly newspaper; She did a nice write-up on her experience running the race. Hope you come out again next year Kim.

A hearty thanks to all the volunteers who really made this event possible. Rosalia Dexter, Amy Lease, and Bob Dexter did a fine job with registration. Glenn Cratty served in fine form as the pace biker. Dan Glynn, Taylor Jones, Earl and Mr. Weiss handily managed the 2-chute finish line. Joe Baird and Chris Vanoni did a great job serving as finish line timers. Tom Chambers took good care of scoring duties. Prashanta provided timing splits at the 1 mile point and marshaled the ditch at the top of the steep hill. Suzie Collyer served as hill swath marshal. Mike Collyer was Empire Road crossing flagger and coordinator of all volunteers, a special thanks to Mike (future CMRA race director??). Alfie Pena was Coal Creek crossing monitor, and Brett Fulton the barbed wire fence crossing guard. Terry Abbott, Mike Brennan and Mike's daughter managed the water stop at the turnaround point. Vici DeHaan rounded up a wide assortment of prizes which allowed almost everyone to walk away with something special. Chris Vanoni handled all the post-race refreshments.

Also a hearty thanks to our commercial race sponsors and prize drawing donors: Doug Christie at Boulder Beer for donating a case of beer for the top male and female finishers; Lily Johnson of Boulder's Fleet Feet Sports for raffle prizes, the Arvada Great Harvest Bakery for all the baked goods and Boulder Running Company donated a couple of gift certificates. Assorted Goods Candy Store owner James, sponsored six race entries and FroYo Frozen Yogurt for donating gift certificates.