After years and years of saying, “I should that,” and twice telling my friends I’d be there…only to bail on them, I finally did the Presque Isle Endurance Classic, and I really loved it.

To be honest, I always thought…meh, how boring…running 1-mile loops all day, but, let me tell you, it becomes addicting. Every loop after 10, I thought, OK, I’m done after this one, then I’d pass the mat and think, well, maybe just one more.  I had planned to do 10 or 12, at most, and ended up doing 16 (17 if you count the first one which wasn’t counted because I forgot to cross the start mat).  I had it in my head to maybe do 20, but my lower back said….um, no, we’re good with 17. I’ve learned to listen to my back.

I really enjoyed this race and definitely plan to do it again next year.

Top three (most laps) runners were:

* Patrick Reed with 62 laps (!)

* Kurt Osadchuk  with 57

* Janice O’Grady with 53

There were a total of 77 runners. Complete results here.

And, here are a few photos I took (are you starting to see that I tend to be a “shy” photographer, particularly at runs when people might not love me taking photos of them sweating & gasping & such):

Seems there was nothing normal about racing this weekend.

While some runners were getting down and dirty over in nearby Bemus Point, New York, and others were going long (very, very long) in Titusville, still more runners were dodging “zombies” in Frontier Park.

Photo by Mike Conway for GoErie.com

Zombie Run 5K

Looks like the Erie Playhouse had another hit on it’s hands with Saturday morning’s Zombie Run 5K in Frontier Park. There were 159 5K finishers, but I don’t think that includes the Zombies who were making it hard for the runners to get to the finish line with all their brains (flags) intact.

There are results here, but Jim Lang from Big White Trailer warns:

“More than a few folks went off course, so take results as information, please. This does NOT affect brains collected or saved.”

You’ll definitely want to check out Mike Conway’s GoErie Street View albums from this race: The Making of Zombies and the Zombie 5K run.

Judging by all the flags in the hands of those zombies, it looks like some of the “undead” can haul ass, eh?

Muddy Viking

The Muddy Viking, a 4-mile adventure run, in nearby Bemus Point, N.Y., gave whole new meaning to the phrase down-and-dirty as the very last obstacle had runners (including yours truly) belly crawling through 1-foot thick cold mud. We also ran through Lake Chautuaqua (twice), flew down two homemade slip-n’slides, crawled over smashed pumpkin goo, climbed several walls and barriers, and slogged through the “cess pool” — a thigh-high, super-smelly pass through a rotting marsh.

I’ll give a full report in a separate post, but for now, suffice to say there were a total of 21 obstacles — some easy, some tough, some fun, some not so fun, some very dirty, some very cold. Suffice to say, it was a freaking blast.  I would do it again in a heart beat — yes, even on a 32 degree day again!

There are results for those who chose to get a chip (it was optional).  Most participants were there to have fun and, really, I can’t imagine how accurate the results could be since there’s no way of knowing who did all the obstacles and who went around them, you know? But…for what it’s worth…here are the Individual & Team results.

OC100 Trail Runs

While the rest of us were out there having “fun,” there were a couple hundred very serious runners taking on the trails and hills in Titusville at the OC 100 Trail Runs.  There were three divisions — the 100 mile run, the  100K run and the 50K run.

I know that several Erie runners went the distance in OC this weekend, including: Dan Young, Linda Young, Suze Carstarter, Karen Manganaro, Julia Roussos, Patrick Krott, Chris Coulston, and  Christine Kalie.

I’m in awe of them all.

Results are here.

The 7th Annual Her Times women’s race this morning was 719 finisher strong! Woot, Woot!

More to come on today’s events (I’m tired, my friends), but…for now, see race results here.

See my photos from the race here.

Congrats to all the ladies who went the distance and THANK YOU to my legion of volunteers (men and women) who made it all possible.

P.S. If you have an award coming to you…and you didn’t pick it up, you can do so at the Plymouth on Monday night. I’ll be at the ERC meetings (race year 2013, followed by the membership meeting) from 6:30 till 8ish.  We’ll be in the front meeting room.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather for marathon weekend in Erie. We definitely showed visitors our best side this weekend with gorgeous blue skies, cool temps, and one really well-organized race.

I worked registration Saturday afternoon and know that it went off without a hitch (ok…a few hitches, but nothing we couldn’t handle) and the pasta dinner was well attended, with lines out the door and people enjoying Linda Huegel’s creations on the picnic tables inside and out of the Rotary Pavilion.  People raved, as always, about the food and how organized the whole dinner was.  Linda and her loyal kitchen crew have it down to a science.  If you’ve never stayed for the pasta dinner — you don’t know what you’re missing!

Race day dawned clear & cool and all the races started on time. That was unfortunate for me because…I really needed to use the porta-potty before the 1/2 started, but the line was barely moving, so….guess who had to, for the third time in 15 years of racing, make a pit stop during the race? Always discouraging as you lose valuable time, but…alas, I still had a 1:49, which I can’t complain about.

I’m especially proud of the husband — Dan finished the marathon in 3:27:27 — a full 10 minutes (TEN MINUTES) off his previous Marathon P.R., and my little brother, Patrick Bruce, who finished his first-ever marathon in 4:22, after having just done his first 1/2 marathon in July!

Congratulations to everyone who went the distance on Sunday — be that 3.1 miles, 13.1 miles or 26.2 miles.

MARATHON

There were 669 finishers in the marathon with top honors going to:

            CLASS
  ID#  PLACE PLACE           FINISHER                             TIME      PACE

Open Men
    1     1    1  Mike Aldrink, 35, Powell, OH                    2:30:26    5:44
  366     2    2  Aj Kelly, 30, Altoona, PA                       2:34:59    5:55
  249     3    3  Jake Gillette, 26, Goshen, IN                   2:39:34    6:05

Open Women
  223    20    1  Angie Fiese, 35, Mableton, GA                   3:04:10    7:02
  215    32    2  Traci Falbo, 40, Charlestown, IN                3:10:43    7:17
  403    45    3  Katie Kuttenkuler, 28, Erie, PA                 3:13:11    7:22

Masters Men
   50     9    1  Douglas Basinski, 41, Pittsburgh, PA            2:52:49    6:36

Masters Women
  351    70    1  Wendy Johnson, 44, Dublin, OH                   3:17:56    7:33

Marathon age group results can be found here.

HALF MARATHON

There were 1051 finishers in the half-marathon with top honors going to:

 
         CLASS
  ID#  PLACE PLACE           FINISHER                             TIME      PACE

Open Men
  931     1    1  Timothy Black, 29, Greensburg, PA             1:18:38    6:00
 1519     2    2  Christopher Patterson, 27, Webster, NY        1:18:48    6:01
 1620     3    3  Scott Saito, 48, Louisville, KY               1:19:32    6:04

Open Women
  903    10    1  Laina Bay-Cheng, 38, Buffalo, NY               1:25:54    6:33
  855    15    2  Mary Acker, 33, New Wilmington, PA             1:27:15    6:40
 1551    30    3  Jennifer Preteroti, 38, St. Clairsville, OH    1:30:28    6:54

Age group results for the 1/2 can be found here.

There was also a half-marathon walk. Results here.

AND….there was a 5K fun run, too, but results are not posted for that yet. Check here.

PHOTOS…PHOTOS…PHOTOS….

Professional Race Photos will be available shortly at www.runphotos.com

See 300+ photos from the GoErie Street View photographer Mike Conway  here.

See another dozen photos from Erie Times-News photographer Janet Kummerer here.

And…here is a slideshow of a few pix I snapped this weekend, heavily focused, of course, on my family and friends. 

Highmark Quad Games – 5 mile run

Cold temps, driving rain and wind didn’t dampen spirits at the 3rd leg of the Highmark Quad games on Saturday. OK, sure, maybe there was a little more whining than normal, but…deep down, you know we all loved it because it makes us feel even more badass when we persevere in crappy conditions.

Overall men’s winner was Aaron Garrity with a 29:13. Overall women’s winner was Pamela McCormick with a 34:30.

Read the Erie Times-News’ coverage of the event here.

Complete race results here.

Time Trial Results

Yeah, I know the Presque Isle Time Trial is not a run event, but…many runners also bike or know bikers. So…here you go — results for Sunday’s Presque Isle Time Trial. I hear participants JUST dodged the rain drops at that event. Unfortunately…the Beat the Beethoven runners weren’t as lucky.

Beat Beethoven 5K

Nearly 200 participated in a soggy chase after “Beethoven” in the Erie Philharmonic’s Beat Beethoven 5K on Sunday.

Results here.

And, there are nearly 100 photos of the Beat Beethoven race on the Erie Phil’s Facebook page.

Shannon Teeter Run Walk

Close to 100 participated in the Shannon Teeter Light the Night Walk/run on Saturday night.

Results here.

Team Hope Run/WAlk

There were 107 finishers in Saturday’s Team Hope Run/Walk for Huntington’s Disease.

Results here.

More than 350 people completed the Presque Isle triathlon on Saturday morning (Aug. 25).

Top honors went to…

Men:

1st – Dan Pierce (1:00:20)

2nd – Nick Glavac (1:02:44)

3rd – Jim Samuels (1:07:43)

Women:

1st – Desiree Thomas (1:10:28)

2nd – Pam McCormick (1:10:32)

3rd – Sandy Ruhlman (1:13:11)

See complete results here.

See photos here and here.

We couldn’t have asked for more perfect race conditions for Sunday’s UPMC Hamot/Mayor’s Cup races.  More than 600 participated in the races with 333 finishing the 10K and 301 finishing the 3-mile run/walk.

Top Honors in the 10K

MEN: 1st – Tom Lee with a 34:05; 2nd – Andrew Holland 35:24; and 3rd – Scott Saito with a 36:30 MASTER: Jeff Jones with a 38:07

WOMEN: 1st – Katie Kuttenkuler with a 41:30; 2nd – Shannon Morton with a 43:52; and 3rd – Heide Harrison with a 45:01. MASTER: Nancy Herbst with a 46:15.

Top Honors in the 5K (I don’t think there were awards in the 5K, but…here’s who they would go to if there were):

MEN: 1st  – Austin Pondel with a 15:57; 2nd – Bobby Danielson with a 16:40; 3rd – Alexander Zarger with a 16:42.  MASTER: Jeff McVay with a 18:03

WOMEN: 1st – Lauren Zarger with a 19:37; 2nd – Jenny Jones with a 20:29; and 3rd – Danielle Munsee with a 20:44. MASTER: Lisa Celeski with a 24:01

Complete race results here.

Here are 113 race photos from GoErie Street View photographer Sally Pondel.

And, of course, the best part of the UPMC Hamot races (in my opinion) are the kids’ races that follow.

Here are some photos I snapped of the kids’ races (click on them twice to see them large/high-res):

Photo by Matt Kleck for GoErie.com

The Chase 5K

The chase was on Friday night in Harborcreek when the St. James Cross Country team hosted a Friday night trail run that drew 122 runners.

Top 3 men:

Marc Parnell, 16, with a 17:31;

Joe Campbell, 55, with an 18:03

Dalton Zebrak, 18, with an 18:14

Top 3 women:

Lauren Zarger, 22, with a 20:17

Bernadette Prichard, 14, with a 20:27

Gina Majczyk, 15, with a 22:13

Complete results from The Chase 5K here.  Browse 61 photos by Matt Kleck for the GoErie Street View here.

Me and my big brother (cyclist) Joe. Photo by Dan Smith for GoErie Street View.

Times-News Duathlon

Sunday morning was the Times-News Duathlon. The annual run/bike/run event went off without a hitch thanks to the hard work of race director, Tom Toale, and his volunteers.  There were 211 finishers — of those a portion were two-member teams, including yours truly.

I pair up with my big brother — Joe Kisiel — to do this event every year. We took 5th in the Mixed Relay (male/female) Team Category. I couldn’t even imagine doing the whole race myself. Hats off to those of you who do/did the du yourselves!

Here’s the short report from the Erie Times-News:

Aaron Garrity won the men’s open title for the third straight year and Melinda Lawson Crabtree took women’s honors this morning at the Discover Presque Isle Erie Times-News Duathlon.

Garrity, 34, of Fairview, covered the 30k course on Presque Isle State Park in one hour 8 minutes 51.75 seconds. The course consists of a 5k run, a 20k lap and a second 5k run, all starting and finishing at Beach 11.

Dan Pierce, 34, of Erie, was second in 1:09:49.25.

Lawson Crabtree, 38, of Frewsburg, N.Y., finished 36th overall in 1:24:41.20.

Complete Race results here.

Browse photos from the Erie Times-News here and from Dan Smith for the GoErie Street View crew here.

Waterford 5K photos by Sally Pondel for GoErie.com

Recent race results:

* Waterford 5K (July 19) — overall here, age group here. See 74 photos here.

* Cambridge Springs 5K (July 21) – overall here, age group here.

* Pass the Pancakes 5K (July 22) — overall here.

ERC board members and professional photographer, Dan Smith, took some great photos at the Presque Isle Half Marathon on Sunday. Check out the whole album (316 photos) here.

And Highmark Quad photographer Mark Bowen captured hundreds of great Quad bike race photos. Check them out here.