Lake McMurtry Trail Run

April 15, = 2006

Dear Runners, &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; April 24, 2006

The 8^th&nb= sp; edition of the Lake McMurtry Trail Run set some new records. Not cou= rse records unfortunately, race day 2006 was the hottest it has ever been, at 93 °F. We had fourteen and a half coolers of ice and ended up using 13 of them.

We had 97 starters from 10 states and Austria. The run= ners ranged from 13 – 70 years of age.&nb= sp; Despite the terribly hot weather, we had 90 finishers, 59 in the 25 = km and 31 in the 50 km event. Times were slower but just to finish under those conditions was an achievement. Matt Bickhard (Derby, KS) has finished all e= ight 25 km Lake McMurtry Trail Runs while Jim Perry (Enid, OK) has finished seve= n of the 50 km events. We had 7 people finish for the fifth time, including winn= ers Phil Sheridan, Mike and Julie Kelly. I have > 100 pictures of runners and the race and these will slowly be posted on the race web site (www.earlblewett.net/lmtr.htm).

Phil Sheridan came down from Ellsworth, KS and won the Mens’ 50 km (Overall and Masters) yet again. Theresa Whee= ler, from Wichita, KS, won the Womens’ 50 km Open, while Nancy Shidler, Oklahoma City, OK, won the Masters’ division and preserved Oklahoma’s honour. Can’t let all the awards go out of state.

In the 25 km event, Joyce Adams of Manhattan, KS, won = the Womens’ Open Division while July Kelly, from Stillwater, OK and runni= ng her fifth LMTR, won the Womens’ Masters Division. Mike Kelly , from <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Stillwater, OK and also running his fifth LMTR, won both the Mens’ Open and Masters = Division. He was closely followed by Mike Adams, husband of Joyce.

We had the usual food, jambalaya, vegetarian barley mu= shroom soup, potato soup, hamburgers, hot dogs, salad and brownies. A large number= of runners stayed around to eat and watch the later finishers come in.

We had more than a dozen runner get lost this year (or we had that many that would admit it). That’s the worst since 1999 when half the course was flooded and most of the course wasn’t marked. We’ll put up some more flagging at points where people went astray next year. For runners, it seemed that the bi= ggest factor in getting off course was following the runner ahead of them. Next year I foresee myself standing in front of a crowd saying, “Think for yourself”, like= a scene out of “The Life of Brian”.

If you are interested in a unique, long distance runni= ng opportunity in Oklahoma, check out the Mother Road 100 website (http://www.motherroad100.com/). This= one time event will be held Novem= ber 11, 2006. It is a 100 mile race along old Route 66, beginning at the round = barn in Arcadia and ending at Frankoma Pottery = in Sapulpa. In a mom= ent of madness, I entered.

Next years race will be the Saturday, two weekends bef= ore the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.

Happy trails,

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &= nbsp; Phone Day or Night (918) 744-1562

Earl Blewett &nb= sp; LMTR Race Director = email TriSloth@earlblewett.ne= t