Well, competitive entries are up.
Couple of quick observations …
Mackey is listed as in the Ascent – not the marathon.
While there are a lot of interesting stories with the first timers in the Ascent, and it is not unprecedented in recent years for rookies to do well in that race, it is Siemers who gets my eye – mostly because of his MW win (although that was 3 years ago).
Tina Lewis won Leadville last year and now has a bib for PPM. She is coming back from injury however.
Alisha Shay, widow of the Olympic NY marathon trials runner Ryan Shay who died during the race (heart defect) is also in the marathon.
Anton has a bib number for Pikes, but also got into UTMB. Probably a choice to be made there I guess.
bI need to eye ball this stuff over the next couple of days … but that is a start.
Siemers was listed on the Mt. Wash start list this year, and every year since he won that race, too. He was on the PPA entry list two (?) years ago too. No promise that he makes it to the start line I mean then.
ReplyDeleteSome story I read after the Cranmore race mentioned that Ryan Hafer was also planning to do PPM. If true (as a past PPA winner, he still has two weeks to register), and if Krupicka is actually running PPM (not listed on his blog, but he did take the Telluride Mountain Run off the list), then there could be a very fun and interesting race at the front between Hafer, Krupicka, Nichols, and Burrell. I think all those guys can break 4 hrs on a good or even just average day, some by a fairly large margin.
ReplyDeleteI agree Justin. For a variety of reasons, I am guessing 25% of these comp'd entries are not there on race day.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, if all those guys do show for the marathon it could be a good one. I'd probably give the nod to Hafer though out of that group but that might be because he looked to me like he was running an 800 meter race when he came down the other way at the BTMR a few years ago.
I'd imagine j. Marshall Thomson has the ability to place top 3 if healthy. Ran 3:38 at leadville this year after being injured. Guy is crazy fast in the mountains.
ReplyDeleteHe ran about the same last year ... and that netted him a 3:57 at Pikes (although such comparisons are a bit of a stretch). But to your point, he ran the last 3 in 42 which is haulin up there.
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