Race Summary

by George Wehrle

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The fifth annual Groundhog Fall 50 k ultramarathon had both a new and a
familiar winner in the men's and women's divisions, with both winners establishing new course records. First-time competitor David Wilt of Pittsburgh came oh-so-close to cracking the elusive four-hour barrier as he ran the 31-mile distance in 4:00:15, which was nearly two minutes faster than Joel Fetterman's benchmark time from five years ago. On the women's side, Connie Gardner of Medina, Ohio, lowered the course record she set two years ago by nearly two and a half minutes as she completed the race in 4:27:28, earning her a third consecutive win.

Saturday's race produced the best field ever in terms of quality as 23 runners broke five hours, compared to the previous high of 12 runners under 5:00 in both 2001 and 2002. Cool weather with low humidity made for nearly ideal racing conditions, but according to race director John Goss, the weather wasn't the only reason for the bevy of fast times. "There were a lot of top-notch runners in the field this year, some of them coming here to run for the first time", said Goss.

Men's winner David Wilt was one of those first-time runners who had impeccable credentials, including 27 previous finishes at the 26.2 mile marathon distance. One of Wilt's recent results was a 29th place finish in 2:48 at Pittsburgh this year. Despite this being his first trail ultramarathon, Wilt gave no hint of his inexperience as he ran like a veteran over the notoriously difficult course, one that was made even more treacherous thanks to all the rain in the area over the past week.

Wilt settled in with the unusually large lead group during the early stages of the race, moving up only to catch eventual second-place finisher Mike Sandlin of Virginia, who had struck out on his own after deciding the
pace was slower than he wanted. "I had been training well, and in the back of my mind I thought I had a chance at breaking fours hours," said Sandlin. "I thought the pace was a bit too slow for me to have a chance at four hours, so I went out on my own." Wilt pulled even with Sandlin five miles into the race, and the pair ran together for the next six miles. "Mike and I ran together for a while, and eventually I was able to get a slight gap on him,"said Wilt. "I kept checking on where he was, and I knew he was always there, not far behind me."

While Sandlin was shadowing Wilt, eventual women¹s winner Connie Gardner had her hands full with another talented newcomer, Bethany Hunter of Lynchburg, Virginia. Hunter and Gardner had raced each other several times before, including a one-two finish at the prestigious JFK 50-miler last November, which Gardner won. Hunter led for several miles on Saturday until Gardner caught her and established a small lead that she would never relinquish. "Connie usually catches me in races, so I wasn¹t surprised when she did here," said Hunter. "I just tried to stay close."

Gardner, whose summer has included a seventh-place finish in the Western States 100 Mile and a win in the Buckeye Trail 50 km, had designs on lowering her course record, but first she had to stay ahead of Hunter. "I wanted to get under my old course record, and with someone young like Bethany in the race you never know for sure what they are capable of, so I was definitely pushing it," stated Gardner. "This was a hard race for me."

Hunter, 24, started running just three years ago as a way to stay in shape and has quickly become an "up-and-coming" star on the ultramarathon scene. She recently placed second in the Highlands Sky 40 Mile in Davis, West Virginia, and on this day she proved capable of staying close to a national-caliber runner like Gardner for nearly the entire race. Hunter likely would have made the margin between Gardner and herself even closer except that she lost a valuable four minutes to Gardner late in the race when she went off course. "I knew I was close to Connie based on what they were saying at the aid stations, but once I lost some time going off course I just relaxed and didn't worry about catching her." said Hunter. "I passed a lot of people toward the end of the race, I feel good about having pushed Connie for as long as I did, and I ran very relaxed and enjoyed myself and had a good experience."

Gardner had enough of a lead on Hunter that she also could have relaxed and enjoyed the last mile or so of her race, but another goal kept Gardner running hard until the end. "I really pushed hard coming down the hill from the high school because I wanted to break 4:30," said Gardner, who managed to do just that to improve her already impressive course record.

Back on the men's side, Wilt and Sandlin were unchallenged for the top two spots, with the only question being who would take first and who would earn second. Sandlin managed to stay close but could never quite bridge the gap between himself and Wilt. "It seemed like every time I tried to make a run at him, something happened to hold me back," explained Sandlin. "One time I took a little fall, another time I went off course for about a minute, things like that." Wilt also managed to keep Sandlin at bay with some fine running of his own, gathering himself for one last push to the finish with about two miles to go. "Once I got up that last big hill (from Harmony road to the top of Setree's) I worked a little harder so the race wouldn't come down to the very end," said Wilt. It didn't, as Wilt managed to increase his lead over Sandlin to nearly four minutes at the finish. Wilt didn't appear the least bit concerned over having missed the four-hour barrier by a scant 15 seconds. "I knew it was going to be close, but I came up a bit short," he said. Sandlin earned his third runner-up finish in three attempts at this race, although his time of 4:03:56 was eight minutes faster than his previous best time on this course. "I think I am in better shape than I was 10 years ago," said the 48 year-old Sandlin. "This is a fun race to come to
because the race director always does a great job." When asked if he would be back, Sandlin joked, "Of course! I have my spot (2nd place) to defend."

Local runners Joel Fetterman and Doug Craft both placed in the top five, with Fetterman taking third and Craft placing fifth. Fetterman ran about a minute faster than he did last year when he took second to Craft. "I'm really pleased to do as well as I did, because I didn't expect to run that well today," stated Fetterman. "I started slow and felt good most of the way."

Craft was limited in training the past three weeks due to a broken toe yet was still only eight minutes off his winning time from a year ago. "I'm happy with my time today, even though you always want to be competitive with the top guys," said Craft, who has now placed in the top five in every edition of the Punxs'y 50k.

Other local runners recording impressive finishes were first-time competitors Larry Creveling and Jeremy Bochert as they finished in eighth and ninth place, respectively.