Runners master the third race of the Summit Trail Running series

Although summer began last week, Race Breck’s five-race Summit Trail Running Series is already more than halfway through.

A week after rain pelted cyclists riding the trails around French Gulch Road, participants in the third Summit Trail Running Series galloped along some of the same trails on Wednesday, June 26.

The race began at the B&B Trailhead on French Gulch Road in Breckenridge and trail runners enjoyed mild temperatures and cloudy skies while completing either the short-distance run (3.4 miles) or the long-distance run (8.4 miles).

The endurance race athletes were the first to hit the trails, running from the B&B Trailhead parking lot directly onto the B&B Trail. Once on the trails, competitors climbed steadily uphill until halfway through the race before trudging back downhill and running back to the B&B Trailhead.

After a 1,200-foot climb and a 1,200-foot descent, it was Jared Burris of Breckenridge who crossed the finish line first. Burris crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 4 minutes and one second, winning the race by nearly nine minutes. Paul Timm finished second with a time of 1:12:47, and the first woman to finish, Natalie Kalin, finished third with a time of 1:15:12.

Following the top three finishers in the distance race, a large group of Summit County runners crossed the finish line. Ryan Schrader of Breckenridge finished fourth (1:16:55), Matt Desrosiers of Silverthorne finished fifth (1:18:09), Mark Hurlbert of Breckenridge finished sixth (1:18:42) and Michael Emery of Breckenridge finished seventh (1:19:45).

Among the top 10, William Milber of Breckenridge finished eighth (01:20:50), Brooke Steinkopf of Breckenridge finished ninth (01:23:13) and Emmett Bailey of Dillon finished tenth (01:27:03).

Following Kalin and Steinkopf in the women’s category were Jenny Shostrand from Frisco, Katelin Sirjord from Arvada and Becky Peltier from Frisco. Shostrand finished 16th overall (1:36:00), Sirjord 17th (1:36:31) and Peltier 20th (1:48:29).

The competition was much tougher in the short course race than the long course race. As the race crossed French Gulch Road and headed up the X10U8 trail, it quickly became apparent that Crosby Hume of Frisco and Cooper Levi of Silverthorne would be challenging each other for the right to break the finish tape at the end of the race.

The duo worked their way through the hilly part of the course together before rolling downhill towards the finish line. In the end, it was Levi, the incoming freshman from Summit High School, who crossed the finish line as the race winner, clocking a time of 25:12, beating Hume by 13 seconds.

Hume, 14, finished second with an official time of 25:25, while 24-year-old Tate Martinez of Dillon was third with 27:17 and 15-year-old Danny Butler was fourth with 27:44. Scott Siriano finished fifth (28:02) and Mike Conroy of Breckenridge was sixth (28:17).

Edison Calle of Breckenridge finished eighth (31:19), Mike Anderson of Silverthorne finished ninth (32:34) and 14-year-old Lucia Templeton of Keystone was the first woman to cross the finish line and finished tenth overall (32:35).

Jenny Wong of Dillon quickly followed Templeton in 11th place (32:36) and was the second woman to cross the finish line in the short course race before Gloria Greenstein of Breckenridge finished 12th overall (33:19), Anna Kerr of Breckenridge finished 18th overall (35:11) and Elise Pagel of Dillon finished 19th overall (36:08).

Like the Summit Mountain Challenge mountain bike racing series, the Summit Trail Running Series will take a short break to make way for the mountain bike and trail running races taking place on July 4th.

Race Breck will host the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race, the Independence Day 10K trail run and the Sparkler 50 Yarder Strider bike race next Thursday, Independence Day.

Both race series will resume after the summer break. The Basin Burnout mountain bike race is scheduled for July 17 and the Arapahoe Ascent for July 24. Both races will take place at the Arapahoe Basin ski resort.

To register for any of the upcoming races, visit RaceBreck.com.