Despite rain all day and threatening weather reports, we managed to catch a break and have no rain during the Forge the Gorge trail race on August 10. In the 3-mile short course, Eric Sambolec ran unchallenged with a winning time of 22:30. Second place overall went to Margo Lee in 26:33, with 10-year-old Ada McKinzey of Trumansburg running an impressive 27:26 for third. In the 8-mile race, Dan Timmerman cruised to victory in 57:26, cementing his Pebblehead lead in the 2023 Trail Circuit with his third win of the year. Casey Austin of Homer was second in 1:00:36, outpacing Brian Lee in 1:00:56. For the women, Amelia Kaufman joined Dan Timmerman at the top of the Pebblehead standings with her third win of the year in 1:09.18, followed by Nancy Kleinrock in 1:17:31 and Julie Barclay in 1:22:30.
Our youngest finisher was 7-year-old Remy McKinzey, and our oldest was 74-year-old Jim Miner , both in the 3-mile race. But the 8-mile distance didn’t scare off 11-year-old Mckenzie Leonard or 71-year-old Carl Franck ! Full results for the 100 finishers and race photos are now available.
Big thanks to all the volunteers, including the timing crew headed by Adam Engst and supported by Bob Talda , Heather Cobb , and Jesse Koennecke . They operate like a well-oiled machine. Zsofia Franck marched up the north rim to direct runners to the Gorge Trail. Nancy Kleinrock and Steve Shaum expertly handled registration. Nate Lockett was on the course and helped with setup and breakdown. Emily Jones and her tribe of four youngsters managed the water station and entertained runners simultaneously. Sheila Squier assisted in all things setup and breakdown. Lastly, Mo Ramas came out of nowhere (actually Colorado) and was all over the course, first directing runners at Bridge 8 before sweeping the course a couple of times, picking up flags along the way. She came back from the trail in the dark with a headlamp on and still looking for things to help with!
Thanks to all the runners and volunteers for helping make this an enjoyable and successful event!