The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Mason Rechenau didn’t have big plans for his first Steamboat Springs Running Series event of the summer. Staying at his family’s home near Stagecoach Reservoir, the Fort Collins-area high school student decided to run Saturday’s Howelsen Hill race with a group of cross-country friends.

His expectations for a high finish sank early in the race. Kyle Kusmik, one of Rechenau’s high school teammates, severely rolled his ankle after the daunting race’s initial climb. Rechenau helped his friend back to the starting line, where organizers reset his time.

Despite already having surmounted one of the most difficult pieces of the trail, Rechenau took the second chance and soared to a third-place finish in the four-mile event.

“It’s a hard trail with a lot of uphill and a lot of off-roading,” Rechenau said. “I liked it, though. It was an interesting run. I run cross country and track and play soccer, so I was in shape enough to do the first part again.”

Things worked out well for Rechenau as well as Kusmik, who was on his feet again later in the morning. Everything went smoothly for race organizers, as the series returned downtown for the third annual Howelsen Hill 8-miler, an event that consisted of eight- and four-mile trail races.

Runners welcomed a cool morning and one — Craig’s Todd Trapp — rode the weather to a course-record time.

The race swelled to its largest field to date, with 84 runners. So many showed up to take part, organizers were left without enough T-shirts.

“It was a great morning,” said race director Walter Magill, who took to the course himself. “We had a record number, which was terrific.”

Trapp won his second consecutive running series event, following last week’s victory in the Mountain Madness half marathon with a dominating performance on the Howelsen trails.

Runners from the four-mile event were of course the first to finish, but Trapp beat plenty of them, roaring down a dirt path toward the base of the hill a stunning five minutes ahead of his nearest competition.

Trapp, the cross-country and girls track coach at Moffat County High School, finished in 54 minutes in the eight-mile race, ahead of Andres Lopez at 59:03 and Andy Picking at 59:22.

“It was perfect weather, and Todd is just a real fast guy,” Magill said.

Rechenau and his friends weren’t the only ones to travel into Steamboat for a memorable experience. Sarah Pizzo came to town to visit her sister and opted to run the race in between hitting all the regular tourist stops.

It proved to be a wise decision for the former University of Michigan runner. She won the women’s race with a comfortable two-minute cushion, finishing in 1:02:47, ahead of Hadley Hentschel’s 1:04:32 and Jenna Gruben’s 1:06:33.

“It was kind of hard on the uphill. It was challenging because the first five miles were pretty much all uphill,” Pizzo said. “It was beautiful, though. When you got to the top, you could see all the (hot air) balloons taking off. It was great.”

Tabor Scholl won the women’s four-mile race in 36:09, and Mark Dewine, second in last week’s half marathon, won the men’s four-miler in 28:16.

— To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 871-4253 or e-mail jreichenberger@steamboatpilot.com