Runners climb a Marin Headlands trail, December 5
Trail Heads, the trail running blog over at Runner’s World, has a post today about the North Face Endurance Challenge Championships, held this past Saturday in the Headlands.
This past weekend saw over 1,000 trail runners pushing their limits in championship races, and a small handful of those runners winning large paychecks for their efforts.
The North Face Endurance Challenge Championships took place on the trails of Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco, with a 10K, a half-marathon, a 50K and a 50-miler. All four races sold out, with almost 900 runners hitting the starting line on Saturday morning.
The 50-miler was the premier event, with a whopping $10,000 prize on the line for the winning male and female, with a total of $30,000 cash purse. This is big money in trail running, and a competitive field assembled to chase it down.
After reading I had to let out a big <sigh>. Last year in December, I ran the Endurance Challenge Half-Marathon, finishing my first trail running 13.1-miler in a middle-of-the-pack 2 hours and 18 minutes. While I would likely not have been anywhere near contending for the five-figure prize money this past weekend (perhaps someday though!), from the beginning of this year it was my goal to run the 50K (31-mile) race at the 2009 NFEC.
So I assert, with enthusiasm (yes, with enthusiasm), that one of my goals for 2010 will be to run the 50K race at next year’s Endurance Challenge. I’m adding it to the list of goals that will be going up on this site soon. And with that, I’ll head off to do my stretching and icing for my knee, taking one more step on the road to recovery that leads back to Rodeo Beach in the Headlands the first weekend in December, 2010.
Photo by The North Face.
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