The Montrail Ultracup consists of the best of three races of six, plus Western States from the following schedule:
2008-2009 Montrail Ultra Cup Schedule
07/26/08 White River 50 mile Crystal Mountain, Washington
11/01/08 Mt. Masochist 50 mile Lynchburg, Virginia
11/22/08 JFK 50 Washington County, Maryland
03/14/09 Way Too Cool 50 km Cool, California
04/04/09 American River 50 mile Sacramento, California
05/02/09 Miwok 100 km Marin Headlands, California
06/27/09 Western States 100 mile Auburn, California
There's cashola on hand and some good prizes ($2,500 for the winners, prizes for top 5, jackets for those who complete it). They recently posted the results of everyone who qualifies, meaning each of the below has completed three of the six qualifying races, has entered those races on the Web site by the May 16th deadline, and have a slot for Western States (see guidelines).
Here are the standings; lowest score is better, scores are calculated based on your finish place:
Men:
1. Eric Grossman - 6 points
2. Victor Ballesteros - 14 points
3. Joseph D'Allesio - 34 points
4. Mark Lantz - 41 points
5. Graham Cooper - 64 points
6. Scott Dunlap - 122 points
7. David Rhodes - 16o points
8. Mark Winkelman - 230 points
9. John Catts - 242 points
10. Kevin Hume - 363 points
11. Charley Jones - 564 points
Women:
1. Jenny Capel - 182 points
2. Suzie Lister - 238 points
3. Lori Heinselman-Craig - 748 points
Check out Eric Grossman - what an animal! Single digits, baby. Plus the Western States score is divided by two, so he's looking pretty good. Rumor has it that Victor Ballesteros is supposed to be getting married the week before States, but I suspect a supportive fiancee might let him slip in one more race. ;-)
It looks like my fate is a jacket (assuming I finish States), but that's cool by me. I'm a shwag hag, jacket-lovin' fool. I thought of having my crew pull a Jeff Gilloly/Nancy Kerrigan by waiting at Cal 2 with a baseball bat, but it would only garner me a pair of flip-flops for 5th. Consider yourself lucky, Lantz!
Given the prize purse, I was surprised to see that both of these lists were so short. There's not even enough on the Women's side to claim all the prizes! I think last year, there were only a couple of men who got through the whole thing. What gives? Well, it turns out there are two tough barriers before the racing even starts. First, you have to get IN all of the races. Second, you have to START and FINISH them. That doesn't leave much room for error, particularly for those who train and race hard at each of these races and risk a DNF or injury. So it's extra impressive that the above folks can race with such consistency. And Grossman is just flat out insane.
Montrail does give away prizes, patches, and other goodies for folks who only finish one or more of the races. All you have to do is register! Some new rules/prizes are coming for next year, so if any of these races are on your calendar, be sure to register your results for some shwag!
- SD (the schwag hag)
