By Blake P. Wood, bwood@lanl.gov
The Pueblo Nuevo 100 was a very interesting experience. I won it in about 19:39, there were 15 finishers out of about 35 starters. It turned out to be a harder course than I had expected. The bulk was on dirt roads, but there was a significant component on trails and along sandy or boulder filled washes. It was a beautiful course. Losing the route took a lot of people out, although I didn't have much trouble following it. It was not a well marked course (generally not the RD's fault - see below), but a lot of people weren't paying close enough attention to what markings there were, or didn't listen well enough to the briefing. Bruce Fay (sp?) whom I raced against from 25 to 60 miles, got lost every time he pulled ahead of me, and dropped out after the third time. But then, he hadn't bothered to check out the course (and he was a local!), and didn't attend the briefing. This was definitely a case where preparation won out over raw talent. Racing against Bruce took me through 50 faster than was wise - 9 hours over the half that had most of the climb - and I pretty much ran out of gas with 20 miles to go, but held on out of fear that Wayne Miles would catch me from behind, since the aide station people wouldn't tell me when he had cleared the previous station. He ended up nearly two hours behind me, but I spent a few anxious hours stumbling across the desert in the dark, imagining I saw flashlights behind me.
At the awards ceremony, the RDs expressed serious doubts that there would be a second PN100. I hope that's not the case - I'd run it a second time - but the problems with hostile locals and hunters removing the course markings may be not worth the RD's efforts. I ran into the course director putting out glow sticks at about 70 miles, and she was nearly in tears over what was happening.
There were concurrent 100 and 50 mile horse races, and a shorter ride-and-tie on the same course. It was interesting to run with the horses, and to see where I was faster (steep downhill and bad footing), and where they were faster (everywhere else). Also, for some reason, the riders had a harder time finding the course markings than I did. Over the final 10 mile stretch, winding across the desert, following surveyors ribbons tied to bushes, my dad (my pacer) and I got a group of four riders back on the course twice, after which they said "We'll just follow you from here on." I finished faster than at least 7 of the 18 riders.
The aid stations were better stocked than most hundreds with the things I like to eat (potatos and fruit), although some weren't set up in time, and the last one had a generator failure that left them with nothing hot to eat or drink.
All in all, a beautiful, interesting course and a well planned operation, unfortunately marred by circumstances beyond the RD's control.
Here are the results of the Pueblo Nuevo runs, courtesy of RD Rick Kelley:
100 miles 1 Blake Wood 19:39 2 Wayne Miles 21:23 3 Pam Reed 21:30 4 Dave Capron 22:45 5 Joanne Urioste 22:51 6 Jay Grobeson 22:57 7 Tom James 26:45 8 Richard Gillespie 27:06 9 Wayne Kocher 28:06 Duncan Orr 28:06 11 Glen Zirbel 28:49 12 Lisa Allen 28:54 13 Bill Gebbie 28:55 14 Joe Hildebrand 29:17 15 Ultra Al Miller 29:27 35 starters 15 finishers 50 Miles 1 Tim Twietmeyer 7:52 2 Travis Estes 8:08 3 Dan Barger 8:31 4 Brandon Sybrowsky 8:31 5 Mo Bartley 8:49 6 Elaina McMahon 9:05 7 Glenn Vencill 9:09 8 Jeffrey Smith 9:21 9 Richard Fulton 9:38 10 Leslie Mattingly-Vitale 9:41 11 Kurt Fox 9:46 12 Ron Barrett 9:48 13 Dan Bowers 10:04 14 Matt Moore 10:16 15 Bennie Linkhart 10:26 16 Marie Gonzales 10:33 17 John Eugster 10:39 18 Clark Bunton 10:45 19 Mac Magrann 10:45 20 Julie Arter 10:48 21 Chris Avery 10:48 22 Tony Englehart 10:48 23 Stephen Utley 10:48 24 Anne Bamrick 11:03 25 Clarence Martinez 11:03 26 Fred Abramowitz 11:05 27 John Greer 11:06 28 Kurt Coonrod 11:07 29 Dan Dempster 11:14 30 Dan Curley 11:50 31 Geri Kilgariff 11:51 32 Kathie Utley 11:51 33 David Saine 11:52 34 Bob Givens 12:13 35 Ginny Blaylock 12:23 36 Henry Canales 12:27 37 Ross Waltzer 12:48 38 Jay Onisch 13:07 39 Lydia D'Alessandro 13:11 40 Renne Gardner 13:11 41 Charles Wolfe 13:26 42 Bruce Burnham 13:46 43 Charles Sabitine 13:57 63 starters 43 finishers 50k 1 Eric Dunbar 4:53 2 Tom Martin 5:00 3 Jim Matison 5:02 4 Wally Bleyl 6:36 5 Allen Miller 6:44 6 Tony Brickel 7:09 Debbie Roth Seth Roberts 10 starters 8 finishers
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