Results and notes from White River

Here are some quick results from the White River 50-Miler. Nikki Kimball won in a new course record of 7:40, eclipsing her previous mark of 7:45; Kami Semick was 2nd (and 1st master, male or female!) in a new masters course record of 7:46, replacing Ann Trason’s 7:57; Meghan Arbogast (8:41) was 3rd; Carol O’Hear (9:01) was 4th. Julie Udchachon ran with Nikki and Kami for the first 27+ miles but eventually dropped out. Among the men, Mike Wolfe won in 7:00 despite wearing a button-down collared shirt for the entire race. The next five places went to Phil Kochik (7:07), Dustin Gilbert (7:09), Kyle Skaggs (7:13), Josh Brimhall (7:17), and Guillermo Medina (7:33), the only other men to beat Nikki and Kami. Full results are posted to www.whiteriver50.com.

I spent most of the race stationed at the point where the runners crossed Highway 410 (mile 2 and mile 27), making sure that they stopped for traffic. This could have been a boring job, but the guy doing this with me turned out to be one of the most amazing, insane, hilarious athletes I’ve ever met. This is someone whose “accomplishments” (suicide attempts?) include completing the Iditarod Great Sled Race by himself (i.e., without any dogs) and hiking/skiing/swimming from Alaska to Russia via the Bering Strait. Needless to say, Dimitri had no trouble filling the three hours that we were together with stories of his adventures, like the one about how, when he arrived at the Russian side of the Strait, the authorities thought he was a spy and threw him in jail. (After all, they reasoned, nobody hikes across the Bering Strait just for fun, right?)

In retrospect, it’s funny that the White River runners were forced to put their trust in a crossing guard with a totally whacked-out sense of acceptable risks during endurance exercise. However, in fairness to Dimitri, I should note that he did an excellent job keeping the runners safe. I wish him well in his next expedition, which I think will consist of bicycling from Siberia to France.