The North Face - Endurance Challenge

THE ENDURANCE EXPERIENCE

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE TRAIL - BEAR MOUNTAIN, NY - 2009

THE OPENING RACE OF THE NORTH FACE® ENDURANCE CHALLENGE SERIES - 2009

It brought out runners of all ability levels and backgrounds, from a rookie simply looking to outrun his boss, to an amputee hoping to qualify for one of the toughest ultramarathons in the world.

Bear Mountain State Park, NY (May 9, 2009) - On May 9th, 846 runners descended on the trails of New York’s Bear Mountain for the season-opening race of the 2009 The North Face® Endurance Challenge. A test for trail runners of any level, The North Face® Endurance Challenge at Bear Mountain – roughly 60 miles north of New York City – took place on the western shores of the Hudson River, in the craggy foothills of the Catskill Mountains. With some competitors calling last year’s event at Bear Mountain the toughest trail race in the east -- and maybe the toughest in the country -- racers expected to be pushed to their limits on Bear Mountain’s 10K, Half-Marathon, 50K and GORE-TEX® 50 Mile routes.

Tackling a newly-designed course for 2009, runners encountered technical terrain and rocky footing almost from the gun, with some trails heading steeply uphill rather than switch-backing at a gentler grade. Descents ended in foggy, wooded hollows before climbing several hundred feet above the floor of the Hudson River Valley. After a week of monsoon-like conditions, racers awoke to mist and rain on the day of the event, ensuring the already technical course would also be slippery. The rain tapered off and eventually stopped, giving way to fog and humidity as the day wore on.

"The fog made it completely surreal," said The North Face® team member Nikki Kimball, who finished first in the women’s GORE-TEX® 50 Mile race. "It was like being a kid, playing make-believe and jumping over mossy logs and mud puddles. I think, depending on the weather, this is a course you could run several years in a row and never get bored."

"It couldn’t have been harder, in my opinion," said 50K competitor and West Chester resident Tim Ivey, who pounded out the miles while recovering from a bout of Lyme disease – a common ailment among Northeastern outdoors-people. Ivey said one of his race highlights was being passed by Kimball – the eventual winner of the significantly longer GORE-TEX® 50 Mile race -- on the trail. "That was a little discouraging, but pretty cool, too."

"There was a fun, great energy at the event. It was well run, the aid stations were well thought out, and there were a lot of people out there really giving their all. I’m definitely planning to come back next year."

50 Miles of Fog
Women’s GORE-TEX® 50 Mile third-place finisher, Elizabeth Carrion, traded positions with the eventual fourth-place finisher nearly the entire distance before squeaking away in the last few miles to claim her spot on the podium.

"The last climb up Timp Pass – which is essentially a river bed that just keeps getting steeper and steeper – that was probably the hardest part," she said. "It was rocky and rooty, and the dense fog made it slippery, too."

Brian Rusiecki, of Massachusetts, finished second overall in the GORE-TEX® 50 Mile event, despite one of his running shoes literally falling apart within a few miles of the start.

"I looked down and saw my toes were popping out," said Rusiecki. "Every time I stepped in a hole or something it’d happen, and I had to stop and kick them back in." Winner of the Men’s GORE-TEX® 50 Mile race, Leigh Schmitt, arrived at the event less than 24 hours after leading a group of high school students on a whale watching field trip to Cape Cod. The biology teacher and high school lacrosse coach – and last year’s winner of the event -- didn’t make it to the Bear Mountain area until 11pm the night before the race.

"I didn’t have much time to process or prepare," said Schmitt. "I was literally still tying my shoes a minute before the race started."

Schmitt said that for the first few miles he was with a pack of about six racers who were really pushing the pace. The war of attrition eventually left Schmitt alone in the lead, and the dense fog combined with the thick woods contributed to a feeling of isolation at the front of the field.

"I finally had a chance to relax," he said. "I didn’t know if someone was five minutes behind me or five seconds behind me, so I just decided I was going to run my own race." The strategy paid off, and Schmitt crossed the line in first place for the second year in a row.

Friendly Rivalry in the Half-Marathon
New York City resident Salah Tanlay ran the 10K Bear Mountain event last year, but after he mentioned to his boss he was planning on taking part in the 2009 race, the stakes were raised.

"He told me he’d run with me in the Half-Marathon, and we’d see who was faster" said Tanlay. "I beat him in the end, so that was the most satisfying part of the race for me."

The rematch is set for the Washington D.C. Endurance Challenge event in September, assuming his boss doesn’t fire him out of spite beforehand.

Tanlay prepared for the Half-Marathon by signing up for the New York chapter of The North Face® Endurance Challenge Running Club, which he credits with preparing him for the race.

"The running club was the best thing I’ve ever done," he said. "I’m a new runner; I’ve only been running for a year and a half. The club showed me how much I can improve. Renee Gerardo and the other coaches were great, and the feedback and training tips from pros like Nikki Kimball was very useful on race day. If not for the club, I couldn’t have done what I did."

Defying the Cynics
Lining up for the GORE-TEX® 50 Mile event, Amy Palmiero-Winters’ goal was more ambitious than any other competitor.

"I want to be the first amputee to qualify for Western States," she said.

In 1994, Palmiero-Winters lost her left leg from just below the knee after being struck by a car while riding her motorcycle. Since then, she’s become an elite runner, finishing marathons and ultramarathons in times that most runners with two legs would find impossible to match.

Now, she’s set her sights on becoming the first amputee to run in one of the most prestigious races on the ultramarathon circuit, the Western States 100, a hundred mile race along the spine of California’s Sierra Nevada. She intended to qualify for Western States at the Bear Mountain Endurance Challenge.

"I was told, 'There’s no way an amputee can do this race,'" she said. "So I said, 'I'm doing it.'"

Palmiero-Winters said her prosthetic leg caused her some trouble on the slippery, terrain, forcing her to move much more slowly and carefully than she had hoped. But when the trails opened up and allowed her to run, she was turning in six-minute miles.

"It was a challenge for everyone out there," she said. "It was the kind of race where you have a choice: You either lay down and let it beat you, or you suck it up and finish."

Palmiero-Winters finished 30 seconds before the time cut, proving wrong her detractors, though missing the qualifying time for Western States. But it wasn’t a lack of fitness that held her up.

"I was really pleased fitness-wise," she said. "It was the technical aspect of the course that slowed me down."

But her determination to qualify for the hardest of ultramarathons is unwavering. Palmiero-Winters has already registered for the next stop on The North Face Endurance Challenge: June 6 in Bellingham, WA.

The North Face® Endurance Challenge series totals four regional races and one Championship event. From May through December 2009, five endurance events will span the country, starting in Bear Mountain, NY, passing through the Seattle area in Bellingham, WA, then traveling to Washington, D.C., and Madison, WI, before culminating with the championship in San Francisco, Calif. The four race distances at each event are 10K, Half-Marathon, 50K and 50 Miles. Each men’s and women’s regional GORE-TEX® 50 Mile champion will take home $1,000 and a complimentary entry to the Endurance Challenge Championship in San Francisco in December, where $10,000 – the largest prize purse in ultrarunning -- will go to the top male and female GORE-TEX® 50 Mile finisher. Winners of The North Face® Endurance Challenge Championship (U.S.), and winners of The North Face® Canadian Death Race (Canada), The North Face® 100 (China), The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® (Europe), and The North Face® Ultra Maratón de los Andes (South America) will all receive an expenses-paid trip to race at their choice one of the other four races.

For more information, to register for the event or join your local The North Face® Endurance Challenge running club, visit www.thenorthface.com/endurancechallenge.

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