Report

Photos by: Stephanie Wilson | Doug Sullivan

For those who had the pleasure of being there for the 2010 "running" of the Elizabeths Furnace 50km, it was truly an epic event that will not be forgotten. The winter of 2010 dropped a highly unusual amount of snow in the mid-Atlantic region, and the Massanutten Mountains/Fort Valley area of NW Virginia was no exception. A week before the Elizabeths Furnace race, portion of the course had still been in under as much as a foot or more of snow, but a warm and then rainy week cleared the course of all but trace amounts of snow pack. This big melt, combined with some steady rains, led to rather wet conditions for the runners on race day.

In some places, "wet" didn’t even begin to describe what the runners were encountering. The runners knew they were in for a bigger challenge than they had envisioned within minutes of the start. While making their initial climb up the notoriously dry and rocky Signal Knob trail, a normally innocuous section surprised the runners with a knee deep stream crossing, at a point along the trail where no one had previously been aware that there was a stream. One runner, Mike Bailey, was reported to have graciously planted himself in the middle of the crossing to assist all the runners behind him safely across. This type of concern for the other runners was to be demonstrated numerous times over as the day went on.

A series of five stream crossings about 10 miles or so into the run, at the end of the Mudhole Gap trail section, were so challenging that the first female finisher, Stephanie Wilson, was moved to describe this section (and the race as a whole) as "Primal Quest 2010." Every runner had his or her own exciting story to tell about surviving the torrents of water in Mudhole Gap. Fortunately, everyone emerged in one piece – of nearly equal good fortune, some runners were carrying cameras. So we have pictures of some of the conditions, and of how the runners banded together to get across the stream sections and on to the rest of the course.

The eventual overall winner was David Frazier of nearby Harrisonburg, Virginia. David broke away from eventual 2nd and 3rd place finishers Greg Zaruba and Brad Hinton during the infamous Sherman Gap loop over the last 9 miles of the Elizabeth Furnace course. David was also the only runner observed to stay on the course at all times – he exited the last 100 foot section of the Shawl Gap section of the trail at mile 30 after moving through chest-to-neck-deep high water, water that had risen from the Passage Creek that on this day was literally roaring through the Fort Valley. Of the 56 runners for this year’s event, 32 finished the full 50km distance. The other 31 finishers aside from David chose to bushwhack around the flooded section of trail near the end.

Results

Name	Sex	Age	State	Elizabeths	Finish	Distance	Time 50	Time Other
David Frazier	Male	24	VA	11:11	12:50	50 km	5:50
Greg Zaruba	Male	43	MD	11:11	12:57	50 km	5:57
Brad Hinton	Male	33	VA	11:11	0:00	50 km	5:58
Michael Huff	Male	42	VA	11:38	1:47	50 km	6:47
Jack Kurisky	Male	42	VA		2:30	50 km	7:30
Marlin Yoder	Male	56	VA	12:11	2:34	50 km	7:34
Jim Daniels	Male	36	VA	12:12	2:35	50 km	7:35
Stephanie Wilson	Female	45	VA	12:11	2:35	50 km	7:35
Michele Harmon	Female	44	MD	12:25	2:43	50 km	7:43
Joe Clapper	Male	51	MD	12:25	2:43	50 km	7:43
Ted Bielawa	Male	39	VA	12:12	2:44	50 km	7:44
Zsuzsanna Carlson	Female	37	NJ	12:25	2:50	50 km	7:50
Victor Lin	Male	30	VA	12:24	2:53	50 km	7:53
Bill Breidenstine	Male	44	PA	12:29	2:54	50 km	7:54
Gary Lukacs	Male	52	PA	12:24	2:56	50 km	7:56
Mike Bailey	Male	28	VA	12:25	2:58	50 km	7:58
Tom Simonds	Male	55	VA	12:32	3:07	50 km	8:07
David Quivey	Male	47	VA	12:36	3:15	50 km	8:15
Alisa Springman	Female	35	PA	12:36	3:15	50 km	8:15
Vicki Kendall	Female	57	VA	12:54	3:25	50 km	8:25
Janice Heltibridle	Female	52	VA	12:41	3:29	50 km	8:29
David Gaudette	Male	52	VA	12:55	3:35	50 km	8:35
Rhonda Stricklett	Female	35	MD	1:13	4:10	50 km	9:10
Alan Gowen	Male	60	MD	1:13	4:10	50 km	9:10
Jeff Best	Male	48	VA	1:55	4:41	50 km	9:41
Scott Millar	Male	41	MD	1:55	4:41	50 km	9:41
Farouk Elkassed	Male	60	VA	1:22	4:44	50 km	9:44
John Godinet	Male	53	MD	1:55	4:44	50 km	9:44
Doug Sullivan	Male	48	MD	1:00	5:01	50 km	10:01
Rob Dolan	Male	43	VA	1:48	5:14	50 km	10:14
Bill Wandel	Male	66	MD	2:07	5:30	50 km	10:30
Nelson Stritehoff	Male	58	MD	2:01	5:49	50 km	10:49
Kerry Owens	Female	28	DC	X	2:31	27 miles	6:45 *
Jaret Seiberg	Male	40	MD	X	2:31	27 miles	6:45 *
Laura Bur	Female	30	MD	12:18	12:30	23 miles		5:30
Marc Griffin	Male	34	VA	12:36	12:50	23 miles		5:50
Bruce Tweedie	Male	48	VA	1:13	1:30	23 miles		6:30
Andrew Anderson	Male	29	VA	X	12:27	22 miles		5:27
John Nelson	Male	59	VA	X	1:06	22 miles		6:06
Matt Baker	Male	28	VA	X	1:08	22 miles		6:08
David Snipes	Male	42	VA	X	1:08	22 miles		6:08
Adam Matheson	Male	30	VA	X	1:08	22 miles		6:08
Linda Gaudette	Female	46	VA	X	1:28	22 miles		6:28
Lisa Johnston	Female	45	MD	X	2:19	22 miles		7:19
Kathryn Butler	Female	37	MD	X	2:19	22 miles		7:19
Challen Edwards	Female	43	VA	X	2:19	22 miles		7:19
Caroline Williams	Female	48	VA	X	4:18	22 miles +		9:18
John Guendelsberger	Male	58	VA	10:45	1:44	21 miles		6:44
Carter Wiecking	Female	40	VA	10:45	1:44	21 miles		6:44
Jill Quivey	Female	44	VA	10:20	1:18	20.5 miles		6:18
Gaynor Bourgeois	Female	41	DC			12 miles		Unknown
Marti Kovener	Female	45	MD			12 miles		Unknown
Sunny Fitzgerald	Female	54	MD			12 miles		Unknown
Eva Pastalkova	Female	34	VA		12:07			Unknown
Thomas Green	Male	59	MD					Unknown
C J Blagg	Male	43	VA			8 miles		Unknown