With Saint Patrick’s day being a common justification to hold a race, mid March saw numerous races held in Montana and elsewhere.
For the elites of the trail running world, they had a chance to gather and fight it out in the Chuckanut 50K Trail Race over in northwest Washington State. Mike Foote the Bridger Ridge Run winner from a few years back had a top 10 finish against the best trail runners in the world. Mike Wolfe finished just few minutes back from Foote.
Mike Foote Finishing the Chuckanut 50K. Picture from iRunFar.com
Closer to home there was the Saint Patrick’s Day Race over in Anaconda and the Run for the Pub in Bozeman. I had the pleasure of competing in both. What a great way to get spring time rolling by running hard on a sunny, breezy day in Montana. It was great to see everyone out there pounding the pavement and trails and getting in some quality training.
One of the Ridge Run Bloggers finishing the Saint Patrick’s Day race in Anaconda. Picture by Ray Hunt.
Have you ever noticed that while running races we tend to gravitate to running with the same people time and time again. The Run for the Pub was no exception. A good portion of the course found me running along with Douglas Wadle of Livingston. Running along with Douglas is not new to me as many a Ridge Run we have swapped places back and forth as the race unfolds. During the Run for the Pub, Douglas looked like he was just running effortlessly on an easy training run. And when we got to the last couple miles he finally picked up the pace and pulled away. Based on how he was running this past Saturday, expect Douglas to have a fast Ridge Run in 2012.
A Green Colored Sea of Runners in the Run for the Pub
The Run for the Pub race gave out green long sleeve running shirts. The shirts have a light silky feel to them and they were very popular with the runners. The majority of the race participants wore them during the race. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race where most of the runners were wearing the same shirt. Even I ran in mine. Odds are these shirts are going to be popular training gear. We are going to see a lot of people sporting the 2012 Run for the Pub shirts around town for years.
Wearing Their Run for the Pub Shirts
The previous two pictures are from the Pub317 website. There are many more; go and check it out.
Bridger Ridge Run 