It ain't over till it's over: The presumptive winner of Sunday's Delaware Running Festival Marathon thought he had his victory in the bag, and let his guard down as he headed toward the finish line. To his surprise--and detriment--a competitor was sprinting behind him, took the lead, and won the race by two seconds.  Betcha he'll never make that mistake again.

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BOSTON MARATHON (posted April 20th)

This year's Boston Marathon was very much like a repeat of last year's. In the men's race, last year's winner, John Korir of Kenya, pulled away at the 20-mile mark--just like he did last year--and succeeded in his goal this year of also breaking the course record (2:03:02), a record that's stood since 2011.  He won in 2:01:52, and breaking the record earned him an extra $50,000.

In the women's race, Sharon Lokedi of Kenya, who won last year's race in a women's record time of 2:17:22, pulled ahead at about the 20-mile mark and won in 2:18:51.

A half-dozen American women worked together (they even moved ahead of the pack briefly for some camera time and spread out six across), but the east African started dropping them one-by-one around the 16-18-mile mark.  Still, four of them ended up in the top ten. Jess McClain of Arizona, the fastest American, took fifth, finishing in 2:20:49.  She beat Shalane Flanagan's record for American women at Boston.  The American men didn't fare so well.  

Finisher a little further down in the results was Bobbi Snodgrass of Lake Ozark.  This was at least the eighth appearance for Bobbi at Boston. (She ran a 2027 Boston qualifying time last fall in Chicago, so she may be returning yet again.)   Bobbi finished in 4:19:20, placing 476th in the women's 60-64 age group.

When it comes to searching for results of Lake-area or Missouri finishers, Boston's results are about as useless as Athlinks. If you don't know who did the race, you're out of luck.

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THE 24 HOUR LIONS ROAR  (posted April 20th)

I don't have many details, but the severe storms that rolled through the Lake area and most of Missouri on Friday evening night also hit Columbia, where The 24 Hour Lions Roar (Facebook page) race was scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m.  (I do know that about 2-1/2 inches of rain fell, and that the course had to be changed.)  The race did go on, and the results have been posted at the race's UltraSignup.com page.

Three Lake-area runners were among the fifty who competed in the 24-hour race.  Another 22 and 15 runners competed in the 12-hour and 6-hour races, respectively.

Kim Sovcik was the only local who also competed last year.  Kim completed 40 miles this year--exactly the same as last year.

Lions Roar first-timers Maverick Sovcik (Kim's 17 year-old son) ran 20 miles, and Brandon Goring of Camdenton completed 15 miles. 

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IRONMAN TEXAS TRIATHLON (posted April 20th)

The Lake area has another Ironman finisher in its ranks.  Early last year, Camden Schmitz moved to Osage Beach from Lebanon.  Camden has run a number of marathons and other running races, in addition to finishing the Ironman Florida Triathlon in 2023.  (I don't believe he's done any of our local races.)

On Saturday at The Woodlands, Texas (just north of Houston), Camden finished Ironman Texas (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run) in an impressive 12:11:24.  (That's the second fastest finish for a Lake-area Ironman finisher.  Only Trevor Dowdney has gone faster--a 12:09:45 finish at Ironman Louisville in 2007.)

Here are Camden's splits:

Swim:               1:24:32
Transition 1:          6:23
Bike:                 6:12:34
Transition 2:          9:03
Run:                 4:18:51
Finish:            12:11:24

His finish time placed Camden 146th (of 291) in the men's 25-29 age group.

The winner of the race was a Norwegian who finished in a truly incredible 7:21:24.  Check out his splits:

Swim:                  48:33  (1:16 per 100 meters)
Transition 1:          2:39
Bike:                 3:57:46  (28.4 mph)
Transition 2:          1:40
Run:                 2:30:47  (5:35/mile)

The race was marred by tragedy.   A 38 year-old Brazilian "fitness influencer" drowned during the swim portion of the race. Drowning deaths are fairly rare during triathlons, but they do happen. Here's a Fox News story on the tragedy.

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World half marathon record broken ... by a robot: You may vaguely recall the half marathon held in Beijing around this time last year, where robots performed very poorly against their human competitors. (The fastest one took 2:40:xx to finish the course.)  That was definitely not the case at this past weekend's race. The robots, or "humanoids", performed remarkably better, and the fastest fully-autonomous robot finished in 50:26--a pace of 3:51 per mile--easily beating the human world record of 57:20 set in March.  You can read about it here or here.

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BRIDGE AND DAM HALF MARATHON AND 5K/10K (updated April 18th)

The complete race results can be found here.

There were 420 finishers across the three race-distance options at this year's Bridge & Dam.  The total was exactly the same as last year's, although a noticeable drop this year for the 10K was mostly offset by an increase in the 5K.  Here are year-by-year totals, by distance, since the race's inception in 2015.

Half Marathon

(Course records: Men - Tucker Seise 1:17:22 (2026); Women - Olivia Durant 1:23:01 (2024))

Tucker Seise of Osage Beach was not going to rest on his laurels after winning the Rend Lake Marathon two weeks ago in a blistering, Boston Marathon-qualifying time of 2:41:18.  Tucker, who won the Bridge & Dam half marathon the last two years (in 1:19:35 and 1:22:23, respectively), made it an unprecedented three-in-a-row this year, winning in a time of 1:17:22.  That represents a new course record, breaking the previous record of 1:18:19 set in 2023 by another very elite runner, Kenneth Bowling of Bolivar. 

Tucker had a nearly four-minute margin of victory over Aaron Anderson of Fort Leonard Wood, who finished in 1:21:03.  

The women's half marathon had some drama in the last two miles.  According to time stamps on photos taken near the 11-mile mark, Mariah Conner of Rolla held about a 35-second lead over Megan Brown of Kansas City.  Somewhere along those last two miles, Megan pulled ahead of Mariah, and won with a 27-second margin of victory.  Megan finished in 1:45:54.  She had shaved about 1-1/2 minutes off of her third-place finish last year of 1:47:34.  That improvement proved crucial to her victory this year.

The top finisher among Lake-area women was Camdenton High School's junior cross country runner Averie Hotle.  Averie finished in 1:50:00, and took first in the women's 19-and-under age group. (Her coaches, Lauren Moriearty and Gary Thompson, ran the 10K and 5K, respectively. Lauren was the overall women's winner in her race; Gary took second in his age group.)

Two-time Bridge & Dam half marathon winner Gerald Holtmeyer of Bonnots Mill returned this year.  Now 66 years of age, this phenomenal runner finished in 1:46:30 and won his 60-69 age group.  Another phenomenal senior, 72 year-old Jim McDermott of Camdenton, won the men's 70+ age group by default.  What's remarkable is that, in ten years, Jim's Bridge & Dam half marathon finish time has only slowed about 8 minutes.  He finished the 2016 half in 2:04:03; he finished this year in 2:12:33. 

10K

(Course records: Men - Tony Hicks 36:06 (2022); Women - Colleen Madden 40:54 (2022))

Joseph Hopkins of Jefferson City won the men's 10K in 40:06, about 3-1/2 minutes ahead of the Lake area's Nigher Alfaro.  Nigher

The women's race was won by Camdenton High School cross country coach, Lauren Moriearty, in 51:03.   Finishing three minutes behind Lauren was Kimberly Townsend of Truro, Iowa.

5K

(Course records: Men - Seamus McCarthy 18:04 (2024); Women - Alicia Engelbrecht 19:03 (2024))

The closest finish in Bridge & Dam history took place in this year's men's 5K, and it involved the three top finishers.  Logan Woods, a 12 year-old from Jefferson City, was the winner, in 21:16.  One second behind Logan was 25 year-old Shawn Roberts of Appleton, Wisconsin.  And finishing one second behind Shawn was 13 year-old Carson Lehman.

The women's race was won by 56 year-old Danica Tormohlen of Mission, Kansas.  Danica finished in 24:34, 40 seconds ahead of 15 year-old Brooklyn Weingart.

Legacy Half Finishers

Going into this year's race, there were just three runners who had completed every Bridge & Dam half marathon since the race debuted in 2015.  (The 2020 race was excluded in the tally since that race was virtual-only.)

Two of those runners, Ryan and Lindsay Garlock of Lincoln, Nebraska, didn't return this year.  The third,   Heather St. Louis Skouby of Eldon did return, and finished in 2:30:47, giving Heather the distinction of being the only one of 197 finishers in 2015 to have gone on to finish every other Bridge & Dam half since then.

Photos

Photos of the half marathon and 10K participants can be viewed here.

The photos are completely free to download and use as you wish, with no need for attribution. If, for any reason, you would like any of your photos deleted from the gallery, please let me know which one(s), and I'll gladly delete them.

Weather

For the entire week before the race, the weather forecast called for chances of showers on race morning.  Showers did arrive, but thankfully held off until 11:30 a.m.--30 minutes after the final finisher crossed the line.  Temperatures were ideal for running, and winds were not an issue.  The skies were mostly partly cloudy.  All in all,the weather could hardly have been been better.

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GREATER ST. LOUIS MARATHON, HALF MARATHON, 10K & 5K  (updated April 13th)

The Lake area had at least one runner participate in the Greater St. Louis Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K & 5K.  Former Camdenton High School cross country runner (and marching band member) Blake Roettgen, ran the half marathon and finished in 1:32:50.  That placed Blake 13th (of 281) in the men's 20-24 age group.  He ran the first four miles at a fast pace of 6:10 per mile, but then slowed to about 7:45 per mile for the final 9.1 miles. His detailed result can be found here.

The event, known as the GO! St. Louis Marathon from 2008 to 2023, registered its fifth consecutive increase in participation, and had its biggest turnout since 2015.  There were 7,384 finishers at Saturday's race, up a surprising 20% from last year's total of 6,166.  (It's still only about half of the peak of 14,981 finishers in 2011, when the boom in running was just starting to fade.)

The complete race results can be found here.

This year's race included a one-hour early start for marathon participants who needed more time to finish the course.  I'm not sure what last year's marathon cut-off time was, but there were 34 finishers after the 6-hour mark.  This year, there were 78 finishers after that mark.  The final official finisher crossed the line in 7:55:57, a pace of 18:10 per mile. 

The results are posted on the dreaded Athlinks/Chronotrack websites (they're both owned by Life Time Fitness), where results are searchable only by name. If you ran the race and wish your results to be posted, pass them along to me, and II'll post them.

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ROCK THE PARKWAY HALF MARATHON & 5K (posted April 12th)

Like the Greater St. Louis races mentioned above, the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon & 5K also scored its fifth consecutive year-over-year increase in participation since COVID, with a 7% rise over last year.  Here are the number of finishers, by distance, over the last ten races.

The Lake area had one participant in the race.  Mary Groos of Lake Ozark ran the 5K, finishing in 1:23:15 and placing 60th (of 62) in the women's 55-59 age group.

Complete race results can be found here.

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LAKE OF THE OZARKS ENDURANCE RUNS  (posted April 4th)

The Trail of Four Winds 25K trail race, LOZ Traverse 35-mile trail run/paddling race, and Wandering Bobcat 5-mile trail race will take place at the Lake of the Ozarks State Park on Saturday, May 2nd.

For all the race details and registration information, please visit the event's UltraSignup page, Ha Ha Racing Event's website, or the Lake of the Ozarks Endurance Runs' Facebook page.  Slots are currently available for all three races.

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RUN WITH THE COPS, NOT FROM THE COPS 5K/10K (posted April 13th)

The Miller County Sheriff's Association's Run with the Cops, Not from the Cops 5K/10K will be held on Saturday, May 30th, at the Air Park (adjacent to the aquatic center) in Eldon. The race starts at 8:00 a.m.  

Entry fees are $35 for the 10K and $25 for the 5K.

Race t-shirts can only be guaranteed for those who register by May 17th.

Click on this QR Code to register:

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