Louisville's Lovin The Hills

This years Louisville's Lovin' The Hills was an amazing thing. We had tornados a week and a half before the race that littered the course with trees. The staff at Jefferson Memorial Forest did an outstanding job of getting all the trails cleared and ready for us. When we marked the trails a week before the race everything was already passable. The night after the trails we finished being marked we had a snow and ice storm that tore down many of the markings and several trees that had markers on them. Once again everybody involved worked and got everything ready for the race.

At this point I would like to give special thanks to Ed Kirk. Ed ran the race, but is also works on the trails at Jefferson Memorial and lives along the course. He helped with marking the course keeping us updated on conditions and started his own blog for all the participants.

On the morning of the race ice and snow still covered most of the trail as the runners headed out. Latter in the day the ice had all melted and was replaced by mud. I am very happy to report that there were no serious injuries. Lots of scrapes and bruises, but nothing major.

Ryan New won the 15 miler with a time of 2:10:15.38. Jared Bierbaum and Chad Waggoner were second and third. In the womens race Andrea Doogs won in 2:31:11.63. Suzan Ribenboim was second and Emilie Pradera third.

The 50K was won by Russ Goodman in 5:06:12.82. Second was Tim Barnes and third was Troy Shellhamer.

In the women's 50K Ellen Erhardt finished in 5:18:04.96. A time that made her not only the first female, but the third finisher overall. Kara Shellhamer was second with Tanya Cady third.

Obviously if we had a team competition the Team Shellhamer would have won.

Amazingly we had only 2 DNFs. That is increidible considering the difficulty of the course and the sloppy conditions.

Thanks to Cherokee Road Runners for letting us put on this event for them.

The Trail store was the main sponsor and provided the Buffs for everyone. They also provided the really cool framed topographical maps for the winners.

Hammer Nutrition supplied the Heed and Hammer Gel at all the aid stations.

Remember the sponsors make these events possible. Support them so these events will continue.

Cynthia was the brains behind this entire adventure and spent months preparing for it. She did everything right down to making all the soups with her own two little hands. She deserves a lot of credit for bringing it all together with the all the conditions of the last few weeks.