WHOBILATION 5K RUN/WALK (posted March 9th)

As of Monday afternoon, the race photos are still being edited. I'm hoping to have them done and posted by Tuesday night or Wednesday.

A record crowd of about 75 runners and walkers turned out for Saturday's eighth annual Whobilation 5K at the Tri-County YMCA.  That was more than twice as many as in any of the first seven editions of the race. This was despite the chilly (mid 40s), windy and cloudy weather.

Continuing the tradition, we spelled out "YMCA" at the starting line.

To no one's surprise, Tucker Seise was the overall winner.  Tucker has won the race nearly every year since inception.  I don't have the race results, so I don't have his finish time. I also don't have the women's race results, but pictured below are the two top women at mile 2, separated by less than 10 seconds.

   

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Other weekend race news (March 7 - 8):

The world half marathon record was broken at the Lisbon Half Marathon in Portugal on Sunday. Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda finished in 57:20--a pace of 4:22 per mile. (He ran even faster last year, finishing in 56:42, but the international organization that governs world records declined to recognize it due to "race conditions".

The Los Angeles Marathon had a stunning finish on Sunday.  Michael Kimani Kamau of Kenya led virtually the entire race, but in a sprint to the finish line, an American, Nathan Martin, beat him in the smallest margin possible--0.01 seconds.  See it for yourself in this local NBC station report. Kimau's collapse right after finishing looked scary, but he was OK.

The Quivering Quads Half Marathon & 8-Mile Trail Race scheduled for this past Sunday was cancelled by the state park officials due to all of the rain we had last week. 

In old news, Lazarus Lake pulled yet another surprise and started the Barkley Marathons on Valentine's Day. Winter weather (rain, fog and temperatures in the 40s), on top of an already impossibly-difficult course, resulted in no finishers.  Of the forty starters, 19 finished loop one within the alloted 12 hours.  Four finished the second loop. Only one finished the third (of five) loops, although not within the 12-hour time limit.  He did finish those three loops in under 40 hours, so he was credited with finishing a "fun run".

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QUEENY BACKYARD ULTRA (posted March 9th)

It took an incredible 61 hours (254 miles), but they finally crowned a finisher at the Queeny Backyard Ultra in St. Louis.  The race started at 10:00 a.m. Friday, and ended early Monday morning.  Jeff Walker of Noblesville, Indiana was the winner, and earned a spot on the U.S. team at the Big Dog's Backyard Ultra World Team Championship in Tennessee in October.   The chance of earning a team championship spot was no doubt the reason why this year's race was double the size of last year's.  There were 126 starters this year, versus 62 last year.

Two past winners of the Lake area's now-cancelled 4 Fore 30 Infinity Backyard Ultra, Cody Eubanks of Jefferson City and Andy Emerson of Columbia, lasted 39 and 8 hours (162 and 33 miles) this past weekend. 

Complete results can be found here.  Check out the race's Facebook page for some photos and commentary.  The UltraSignup.com page, where more details about the results should be posted soon, can be found here.

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TAME THE DRAGON (posted March 3rd)

None of the 31 solo or 14 team competitors managed to clear the entire course at last Saturday's Tame the Dragon orienteering race at the Lake of the Ozarks State Park.  That was despite the most favorable weather and course conditions in the race's seven-year history--almost the exact opposite of last year, when eight inches of snow fell days before the race, and race-day temperatures hovered in the 20s and 30s.

In seven years, the course has only been cleared twice--in 2023 and 2024.  The same two-man team accounted for both of those achievements.

The complete 2026 race results can be found here.

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NAPA VALLEY MARATHON AND HALF MARATHON (posted March 2nd)

Six of our locals were in wine country in Napa, California this past weekend for the Napa Valley Marathon and Half Marathon. Here are their results:

Complete race results can be found here. 

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POLAR BEAR STRUT 5K RUN/WALK (posted March 2nd)

The race results haven't yet been reported by Special Olympics.  I'll post a link to them once it's made available.

The official number hasn't yet been reported, but about 70 runners and walkers turned out Saturday for the 25th annual Polar Bear Strut 5K benefiting Special Olympics Missouri.  If correct, that was about the same number as last year.   The weather for this year's race was nearly perfect for running, with a temperature of 52° at the 10:00 a.m. start.  Last year's Strut, by contrast, was one of the coldest, with the starting temperature close to 30°.

Luke Webb, a senior cross country runner for Camdenton High School, was the overall winner for a second year in a row, crossing the line in 16:22.  (Luke's typical 5K finish time last season was between 17:00 and 18:00). 

The Polar Bear Strut rarely has a repeat winner in the women's race, and this year was no exception. The official race results haven't been posted, but I believe Maddie Rademan, a sophomore cross country runner at California High School, was the winner. Based on time stamps on the race photos, she was about 4 minutes behind Luke Webb at the 2-mile mark, so she probably finished around 20:00-21:00. (Maddie ran a 20:03, 11th-place finish at the Class 3 state championships last November.)

While I don't know his name, this year's final finisher deserves some recognition for completing the course in a big, awkward, and stuffy costume. (I don't know if he was imitating Casper the Friendly Ghost, the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters II, or some other character, but it was certainly a costume you wouldn't wear after a big meal at Taco Bell, if you get my drift.)

Finally, a finisher of 23 of the first 24 Struts was notably absent from this year's race.  Zim Schwartze, affectionately known as the Chief Empress, had to skip this year's race to attend Saturday's funerals of the two Christian County deputies who were killed in the line of duty last week.

Hundreds more photos from the race can be viewed here.

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FLAT BRANCH ULTRA (posted February 23rd)

The fourth annual Flat Branch Ultra (Facebook), held on Saturday in Columbia, had a huge increase in turnout over last year, and an even bigger gain than in its first two years.  There were 107 finishers this year, more than triple last year's total of 34.  That happened despite chilly temperatures ranging from 26° at the 8:00 a.m. start to 35° at noon, and wind chills below 30° for the entire race. 

Five runners from the Lake area competed this year, including three-time finisher Matt Patterson, two-time finisher Tucker Seise, and newcomers Aaron Koeppen, Bobbi Snodgrass and Marlisa Nolan.

Our locals' results can be found below.  Complete results can be found here.

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Weekend race results (February 21 - 22):

Besides our Flat Branch finishers, we had two other locals compete this weekend.

At the Running from Yeti 5K/10K/half in Springfield, Megan Morley of Roach ran the 10K, finishing in 1:04:53 and placing 19th (of 37) in the women's 20-29 age group.

A name that I haven't seen in any race results since the 2021 4 Fore 30, Blake Roettgen of Linn Creek, won the 10K (over 18 others) at the Time Travel 5K/10K/Half at Creve Coeur Lake Park in St. Louis on Saturday. He finished in 44:56.  (The results show him placing second overall, but to believe that, you have to believe a 49 year-old woman can run a 10K in 30:05--a pace of 4:51 per mile. A look at her finish line photo makes that even harder to believe.) Blake had a rather interesting introduction to running. He was in the band at Camdenton High School when Covid caused cancellation of the 2021 band season.  In its place, he took up running with the cross country team, and after the season ended he ran an impressive 54.2 miles in 13 hours (or "yards", in backyard ultra lingo) at 4 Fore 30. While Blake may have had a long hiatus from running, he hasn't lost much, if any, fitness.   

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March 7th: I'll soon try to post listings for our races coming up these next few months.