Quick hits for a Friday:
— Northland Prep Academy traveled to Chandler for Friday morning’s Ojo Rojo Invitational, and the Spartan boys placed seventh as a team. NPA’s girls chose to run in the “open” race, rather than the varsity, and put three runners in the top 10.
In the boys varsity race, Delani Hanson once again was NPA’s top runner, finishing 21st in 16:32.9 on the 5K course won by Page’s Symond Martin in 15:20.6. Aaron Nicol was the next Spartan across the line in 50th place (17:09.5), followed by teammates Harrison Kessenich in 64th (17:24.6) and David Hayes in 77th (17:41.1). Emilio Haubert rounded out NPA’s scoring in 84th place (17:53.2).
Boulder Creek was the boys’ team winner, followed by ALA Queen Creek and Page in third.
In the girls open race, Jaelyn Weiss was the overall winner in 21:26.6, beating runner-up Queen Creek runner Mia Graham by a half a minute. Spartan teammates Eva Madsen (22:09) and Sarah Drexler (22:18) finished third and fourth, respectively. Other NPA scorers: Laura Drexler (15th in 24:17) and Savana Reyher (31st in 25:33). There was no team scoring for the open races.
NPA’s next meet will be the Desert Twilight Invitational on Sept. 27.
— Anyone who followed Flagstaff ultra (way, way, way ultra) runner Pete Mortimer’s progress in the brutally tough Tor des Geants in Italy (330K, with 78,740 feet in elevation gain) had to be a little concerned if they read his dire Instagram posts throughout the week.
But, happy to report, Mortimer did, indeed, finish the sufferfest, placing 65th overall (ninth American) in 106 hours 51 minutes 1 second.
Go to Mortimer’s Instagram account for his blow-by-blow recap, but here’s a taste of what he went through:
“Day 4: Soul crushing. After a quad strain set me back, it was now the battle against staying awake. As the day wore on, I I started to enter a zombie state. After a fall in some nice plush grass (thankfully), I woke out of the trance only to enter a deeper one.”
And one more excerpt: “Day 2: After a hellish first night with rain and snow at 10,000 feet, I was determined to reset my mantra. The night had culled 20% of the 1200 runners. Day 2 for me was just about focusing on moving forward and enjoying myself. Which was great, because I started the morning with some upset stomach issues which I just hiked through. Little by little the running came…until it didn’t. Going into the night, the running was over.”
— Great news: The quarter-mile stencils on Lake Mary Road are back after the road was resurfaced earlier in the summer. On Thursday, a volunteer team led by NAZ Elite executive director Ben Rosario did the onerous work. This time, the markings go all the way to Mormon Lake.
Does that mean we all have to run that far now?
Leave a Reply