HADES CLIMB (posted July 13th)

The Hades Climb is one of those unique, offbeat events that you'd expect to be dreamed up by certain Lake-area runners. Instead, this race is organized by Heartland Racing Co. and held at the Ozark Mountain Sports Complex baseball stadium in Ozark, Missouri. The event's tagline is "Come Get Your Death Certificate".

Competitors run continuous loops up and down the stadium's stairs for one, two or four hours, and the winner is the one who completes the most loops within the alloted time.  Each loop is about 0.37 miles in length.  At Saturday's second-annual event, the one-, two- and four-hour winners completed 3.3, 7.3 and 12.8 miles, respectively.

Two of the total of 77 competitors were from the Lake area.  Kim Sovcik and her 10 year-old son Sam both entered the four-hour race.  Kim, who completed 14 laps last year, went 10 laps this year.  Sam finished five.

Complete race results can be found here.

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THE GREAT AMERICAN 5K RUN/WALK (posted July 6th)

With a sold-out field of 200 registrants and 195 actual finishers, The Great American 5K held in Linn Creek on Saturday set what I believe is a new record for the Lake area--the largest turnout for an inaugural 5K-only race.  Another record is the number of states represented (13), plus runners from Puerto Rico and Iceland.  (The two runners from Iceland, where daily highs this time of year are in the 50s, must have thought they were running in hell, what with a temperature of 75° and relative humidity of 96% at the start of the race.)

As an aside, the race will always be remembered for two other things: (1) it was held on the momentous 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and founding of the United States; and (2) was followed seven hours later by the worst summer storm to hit the Lake of the Ozarks in modern times, on the very day that tourism reaches its annual peak.

Local legend Tucker Seise easily won the men's race in 17:35, a 5:40 per-mile pace.  Sixteen year-old Boston Bennett from Littleton, Colorado took second, finishing about 2-1/2 minutes back.  Former Camdenton Laker cross country runner Blake Roettgen hung with Boston for much of the race, and finished 30 seconds later to take third place.

The women's race was won by Katherine Zinkan of Lenexa, Kansas in 23:09.  A fellow Kansan, Jenna Foiles, finished second, in 23:22, followed two seconds later by Morgan Phelps of Edwardsville, Illinois.  Katherine ran a smart race, letting Jenna and Morgan hold on to small leads through the first half of the race before eventually reeling them in.

Complete race results can be found here.

I have about 1,300 race photos to go through, and probably won't be able to edit and post the "keepers" until sometime next week. I'll post a note at the top of this column once they're done.

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CHRISTMAS IN JULY 5K RUN/WALK (posted June 12th)

The Tri-County YMCA's ninth annual Christmas in July 5K Run/Walk will be held at the YMCA in Osage Beach on Saturday, July 25th. To beat the heat, the race will start at 7:00 a.m., with race-day registration opening at 5:30 a.m.

The entry fee is $30 through June 30th, and $35 thereafter. T-shirts can only be guaranteed to those who register by June 30th.

Online registration and more information is available here. A mail-in registration form can be downloaded here.

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