Blue Skies for the Boulder Beast
Photos courtesy Clinton County Tourism Agency
CASTANEA TOWNSHIP – It was a picture perfect day for a trail race Saturday and the PA Trail Dogs obliged. Participants in the fifth annual Boulder Beast Trail Challenge – a 25-mile race up Bald Eagle Mountain between Castanea and McElhattan organized by the local running group – started off with clear skies and temperatures in the low 40s.
Reagan McCoy, a 22-year-old from Lock Haven, finished the course in under four hours, with a time of three hours, 51 minutes. A top finisher in a number of local races this year, this was McCoy’s first time for the Boulder Beast, a race he says he’s wanted to run for some time. A recent Penn College graduate, he says the race conflicted with college cross country competitions the past couple years. Second place went to Eric Kosek of Wellsboro. The 40-year-old finished in four hours even. Greg Lackey, 31, of Pittsburgh, was the third-place finisher, with a time of four hours, two minutes.
Always a top contender in trail races around the region, Meira Minard, 47, of State College, was the first female finisher with a time of 4:41. Minard came in 18th overall. Becky Meyer, 38, of Jonestown was second, at 5:28 (39th overall), followed by Joanna Mrowka, 46, of Brooklyn, N.Y., with a time of 5:29 (she was 40th overall)
Race Director Craig Fleming for the first time added a 15.5 mile (25K) option to this year’s challenge. The shorter course followed parts of the 25-mile course, taking runners up the infamous boulder fields and to several of the scenic vistas, but shaved about nine miles off the overall distance.
First-place finisher for the 25K race was Gabriel Rodriguez of Seven Valleys, PA. The 42-year-old completed the course in two hours, 39 minutes, followed by Matthew Byers, 40, of Camp Hill, whose time was 2:51, and John Shaffer, 49, of Jersey Shore, at 2:59.
Kelly Murdock, 36, of Douglassville, PA, was the first female finisher on the shorter course and fourth overall, with a time of 3:17. Johanna Jurisson, 28, of Strasburg, was the second female finisher – 7th overall – with a time of 3:22. Next was Samantha Woolcock, 19, from Oil City, at 3:38.
Overall, 226 people completed the full, 25-mile Boulder Beast course. Another 105 finished the shorter, 15.5-mile course.
(Editor’s Note: This is an updated story on the placers from the Saturday race; therecord-online apologizes for the mix-up in the earlier posting).
