2012 Grandeur Fun Run Results and Report

The Grandeur Fun Run was created by Erik back in 2008 and every year since then he has carefully coordinated the course marking, timing and most importantly the breakfast. So this year when he told us he was going to be out of town on the day of the run we knew we had some big shoes to fill.

Finish Line Fun - Photo Credit: Greg Norrander

Erik still provided all the breakfast necessities and lined up Jay and Peter as co-RD's. Jay also led the course marking along with Ken Jensen and Greg Norrander. Thanks to Tony DeArcos and George Odell for the water at Church Fork. The breakfast specialists this year were the fabulous duo of Marge Norrander and Betsy Johnson who cooked enough pancakes, bacon and sausage to feed 100 hungry runners. Thanks, you two were awesome!

Tom Diegel climbing Bambi hill on his way to victory. Photo Credit: Greg Norrander

Thanks to Suzanne Lewis, David Hayes, Roch Horton, Matt Hart and Chad Brackelsberg for pulling flags, much appreciated.
It seems the only thing we missed this year was summit times, sorry about that.

SPECIAL THANKS to all you fun runners who donated over $700 to the Granite Education Foundation. That's going to buy a lot of books, art supplies, hats, gloves and fleece blankets for children in need.

RESULTS
Report:
The run went off without a hitch (that I could see anyway) with a fast group up front. Tom Diegel came in first in a time of 1:44! and took down the course record by a handful of seconds held by Jared Campbell. He was closely followed by Derek Gustafson in 1:45, with Chris Gawley and myself battling for 3rd (Chris got it) in 1:49.
For the women, Meghan Woolley continues to impress with a winning time of 1:52 and new course record taking down Emily Sullivan's 2:06 performance from 2010. Bethany Lewis came in 2nd in 1:59 followed by Liz Gleason in 2:05.

I know many of you ran two loops but we only have times for a few of you. If you did a 2nd loop send your time over along with any name or time corrections to: mrcultra@gmail.com

More great photos from Greg Norrander: (stay posted for more photos on his site)

Until next year, happy trails...

Jared Campbell and Breathe Utah

If you haven't heard about Jared's latest adventure, you should check it out here. It's happening right now. ........And now it's over. Jared finished last night at 3:31 am!!

"The Grandeur Peak fund raiser was born out of my passion for the Wasatch Mountains and my unusual escapades up Grandeur Peak. I want this fund-raiser to bring awareness to the unique air-pollution challenges we face living in the Salt Lake Basin, raise money for an exceptional non-profit group, and encourage folks to come enjoy a summit or two (or three or four…) on Grandeur Peak. Join me on March 3rd, 2012 at the Grandeur Peak west side trail-head, I’ll be going at it from about 6AM until midnight trying to reach the summit ten times. Make whatever donation you can or make a pledge of $1, 5, 10 or more for each time I reach the summit as I shoot for my goal, which equates to over 33,000′ of gain, more than doing Mount Everest from sea level. I will be wearing a SPOT tracker so you can monitor my progress online here."

Ready for a 6 AM start.

Ben, Greg, Christian, Jared, and Mike on Summit #1.

Ben and Jared head out for #2.

Fun Run Results-2011

The 2011 Grandeur Fun Run was, as always, fun. Due to a last minute scheduling conflict with the county, it was postponed a week, and I aplogize if that caused any inconvenience, or caused anyone to have to miss it this year. Maybe that accounts for the lower number of runners. Still, there were 56 runners that showed up and everyone finished!

After the front pack made a quick ascent to the summit, through more than the usual amount of snow, Matt Hart took the lead on the descent into Millcreek Canyon and never looked back. He crossed the finish 1st in a time of 1:49:56. Mick Jurynec was 2nd in 1:54:55 and Christian Johnson, on his second loop! was 3rd in 1:58:17.
For the women, Emily Sullivan smoked it for 1st in 2:11, Karen Craig was 2nd in 2:17 and Anny Merrill was 3rd in 2:20. Full results are here.

As usual, the weather was perfect and everyone had a great time. Thank you to everyone who showed up, and everyone who brought stuff to add to the pancakes. The 1/4 lb bacon steaks were awesome!!! Thanks to jay for marking the course, and to Steve Takahashi for taking times at the top. And most important , thanks to everyone who helped raise $450 for the Granite Education Foundations Christmas program.

John Schofield put together a little video of the run, check it out below and we'll see you next year!!

7 Days and Counting

The much anticipated Grandeur Fun Fun is just a week away, Sat May 14 at 7:00 am, and looks to be as fun as ever. For snow conditions, check out the picture at the top of the blog, and the two below. They were taken this morning. Just after the top photo was taken a shoe was lost and the trail was marked with shin blood thanks to some great post holing. Fun!!!

The run is pretty much the same as always. Check out the link to the right or click here for all the details. The only change this year is the opportunity to use the run for a little fundraising. Nothing too drastic or demanding. Just a great opportunity to help brighten a young child's Christmas.

Come on out for a great group run and a little breakfast to replenish those depleted glycogen stores.

Black Ice

This morning, Rich (aka Snuffy-as in the elusive Snuffleupagus. Much talked about but seldom seen) and I set off on another beloved Grandeur loop. The temp at the start was a refreshing 20 degrees. Add the lovely Parleys Canyon early morning gale force wind and the tears in the corner of my eyes were frozen in about 3.7 seconds. We took it easy to the top by the light of an almost full moon. Descending into Church Fork we prudently donned Yaktrax to help with the footing. Last weeks loop proved to be treacherous with long stretches of ice and I figured we'd need a little traction. The ice was so hard and so slick that we still shuffled our slow way down slipping and sliding through some sections. A couple falls, a bruised and bloody hip and a broken Yaktrax later, and I've decided my renewed weekly forays up Grandeur Peak will stop at week two until there is fresh snow or the temperature hits 65 degrees. I'd strongly advise anyone else to do the same.

Grandeur Fun Run Site

Sorry for the delay, here's a link to a dedicated site for Granduer Fun Run.

Grandeur Update

Who's excited for the Grandeur Peak fun run on May 16!!??
I went up the west face for the first time since November, and I'm here to say it wasn't any easier after being away for 4 months. But it was beautiful! I can't wait for weekly runs as soon as the Buffalo Run is over next week.
I was supposed to meet Ken Jensen, and I got there a few minutes late (what's new?). He was there on time and thought he saw me heading up already, so he took off to catch me. By the time he realized it wasn't me he was chasing, he had a 15 minute head start. I tried in vain to catch Ken, but like I said, it was in vain. After not running for 3 months, he was still smoking!About 3/4 of the way up I met Ken on his way down. That was a perfect spot to stop and turn around as well.
I didn't run into any snow at all, although apparently there was some on the final ridge, but not bad at all. The trail is in great shape, and I can't wait to get up again to get in some good quad pounding. They are definitely feeling it today!

Watch out for black ice.

This morning Rich, Christian and I headed out for an early run up Grandeur. There is no better way to start the day then to watch the sunrise from the top of the mountains. Especially a day like today where the Utes are going to clean up on the Cougars. At least I hope that's how it ends up. Go UTES!!

On the way back down, I realized that I was going to be late(had to be home by 7:30) so I picked it up a bit and got a little careless on couple icy sections of trail. Before I knew it, I was on my stomach looking back up the trail and my knee was throbbing. I had smacked it on a rock on the way to the ground. I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself, so I yelled to Rich and Christian to watch out and started running again. It wasn't until I got to the car that I looked down and saw the damage. A golfball hematoma sticking out of my knee with a little blood trickling down to to add to the effect. Like I said earlier, there is no better way to start the day! And again, Go UTES!

Grandeur Peak Fun Run

The First Annual (Second Annual if you count last years showing of 3 people) Grandeur Peak Fun Run was a great success. After snow and miserable weather earlier in the week, the day turned out to be a beautiful one to watch the sun rise over the Wasatch Mountains. 28 runners started up the relentless west face of Grandeur Peak. Christian Johnson and Rich McDonald blazed the way to the top in 52 and 53 minutes respectively. For the women, Senta Byer was hot on their heels in 56 minutes. Christian and Rich ran neck and neck for the rest of the run, and finished holding hands in a smoking time of
1 hour 58 minutes. Dave Hunt was 3rd in a strong 2:07, with his trademark whooping and hollering and antics as he came across the finish. Emily Sullivan made good time after the initial climb to finish first for the women in 2:13.
Due to poor communication on my part, the aid station at Church Fork was a little late in getting set up and only the second half of the runners were able to refill their water. My apologies to those who were running dry!! Along with the aid station blunder, I managed to mark the course in what I thought was an obvious fashion, but to those not familiar with these particular trails, it wasn’t so obvious. Needless to say, there were a few interesting variations of the run discovered, with one runner managing to make it to the Millcreek canyon road and hitch hike back to the start ( Tom, you get time subtracted for ingenuity). Special recognition goes to Jill Bohney, Bob Adler, Brian Kamm, Aric Manning and Scott Jaime who didn’t think once was enough and set off on a second loop after we were all done!
Thanks to everyone who showed up to run and then stuck around afterwards for pancakes and good times. Thanks also to Rich Mcdonald for helping me mark the course, Rich Baxter for recording names and times at the top of Grandeur, Steve and Emy Storheim for hauling water up to Church Fork, and to Jill Bohney, Bob Adler and Brian Kamm for clearing the course on their second loop! For next year’s event, the only entry requirement will be that you bring a friend that didn’t run it this year. See you there!

Top of Grandeur Finish
1. Christian Johnson :52 1:58
Rich McDonald :53 1:58
3. Dave Hunt :56 2:07
4. Emily Sullivan 1:00 2:13
5. David McKnight 1:01 2:17
6. Sarah Evans 1:00 2:21
7. Brian Hamos 1:00 2:24
8. Brian Kamm 1:07 2:24
9. Brent Mitchell 1:02 2:25
10. Jason Berry 1:15 2:25 (early start)
11. Peter Lindgren 1:15 2:25 (early start)
12. Brian Harward 1:04 2:27 (accompanied by Alta and Steiner)
13. Senta Beyer :56 2:28
14. Bri Badger 1:00 2:35
15. Thomas Nelson 1:08 2:37
16. Bob Adler 1:07 2:40
17. Jill Bohney 1:11 2:45
18. Dan Barnett 1:11 2:51
19. Adam Welch 1:09 2:58
20. Olaf Questereit 1:25 3:03
21. Tony deArcos 1:11 3:05
22. Eddee Johansen 1:16 3:07
23. Scott Jaime 1:21 3:14
24. Aric Manning 1:21 3:14
25. Tom Peterson 1:10 3:17 (Does Hitchhiking to the finish count?)
26. Brad Lewis 1:22 3:23
27. JohnParley Lewis 1:22 3:23
28. Josh Bilanzich 1:20 3:50