Greasy-Gooney 10K

Browntown, VA, October 22, 2005

Race Report

The start; 10K winners

With a cold mist hanging in the air over southern Warren County, Virginia on the morning of Saturday 22 October, this year's Greasy-Gooney 10K thoroughly failed to live up to its billing as "the Shenandoah Valley's most scenic road race". Pockets of fog roamed the Blue Ridge foothills and visibility was reduced to under a thousand feet, obscuring all of the beautiful mountain views along the 6.2 mile course. A foggy Greasy-Gooney is like filming Elvis Presley from the waist up-- there's something else going on there but you just can't see it, and you know you're missing out on something cool.

Yet despite the drizzle and the 50° temperatures, the race itself was far from a failure, as a record 47 runners turned up in the village of Browntown to tackle the challenging half-uphill, half-downhill course. And although this year's fall foliage has not exactly been spectacular, at least runners were treated to a bit of color-- mostly yellows-- as they followed the Gooney Manor Loop alongside the two streams for which the race is named.

Some of the six previous editions of the 10K got underway with a ceremonial yodel from race founder Patrick Farris. This year, new race directors Terry Leckie and Karsten Brown brought along a big plastic horn for use as the official starting instrument. As neither were very good at producing a sufficient honk from the horn, runner Mark Vann stepped in and offered his services. Vann, winner of the 2002 race, proved to possess a set of prodigious lungs, loosing a powerful blast to start the race and not letting up until the final runner had crossed the starting line.

This race has seen some rather talented runners during its seven year history, and this year was no exception. Quickly darting off into the lead was Aaron Schwartzbard, 28, an ultrarunner and triathlete from Reston, VA. Nobody even attempted to stay near him as he took off and soon disappeared into the mist. Schwartzbard dashed up the 480 foot ascent and zoomed back down into Browntown with a final time of 35:14, the third fastest men's performance in the race's history. Just think of how fast he might've run if his shoelace hadn't come untied a mile into the race!

Way back behind him were Greasy-Gooney veterans Patrick Gladden and Karsten Brown, who had finished first and second at the Festival of Leaves 5K in Front Royal two weeks earlier. Gladden, 25, again had the edge, opening up a significant gap on Brown within the first mile and maintaining it throughout the race. The Stephens City resident finished in 38:54 to take second overall. Brown, 31, hung on for third in 39:35, finishing as the top runner from Warren County. Placing fourth in 41:10 was the race's top Masters runner, 2004 overall winner Raymond Bollock, 40. Bollock, on the comeback trail from a summer injury, may have run two and a half minutes slower this year, but his time was still good enough to break the event record for men aged 40 to 44.

As with the men's race, the women's competition was dominated by a triathlete newcomer-- Annie Kirkland, 37, of Arlington, VA. Kirkland handily defeated her opponents with a time of 44:31, the race's fourth fastest women's performance ever. It was more than two minutes later before the runner-up, 24-year-old Michelle VanHorn, crossed the finish line. But VanHorn, last year's third female finisher, improved upon her 2004 time by almost three minutes to run a strong 46:39. This year's third finisher, 2000 Greasy-Gooney 10K champion Ruth Riemenschneider, also had an impressive run, finishing in 48:55 and setting a new event record for her age group. You know Riemenschneider's a talented runner when she can still win overall awards at the age of 48! Another Masters runner, 49-year-old Colleen Snyder, was the top female finisher from Warren County.

Other notes about this year's race: Twenty-four of the forty-seven finishers were running the Greasy-Gooney 10K for the first time.... Paul Grosz, Denny Myers, Bob Gurtler, and Brown remain as the only people who have run all seven editions of the race.... A gang of women from South Riding, VA dominated the thirtysomething age groups, with Alison Gittelman (51:43) and Joy Granetz (57:14) earning trophies in the 30-34 division and Katherine Hoenig (49:57) winning the 35-39 division.... Chevy Chase, MD's Jane Smith broke her own event record for women 50 to 54 with her 58:57 finish.... Four-time finisher Chris Northrup ran into some misfortune this year, arriving late and then missing the course's only turn a quarter of a mile past the starting line.... The participant who travelled the farthest this year was Jack Giese of San Antonio, TX. Giese has run at least a couple other DC-area races this year, though, so we suspect he didn't come all the way from Texas just for our little race!

Race directors Leckie and Brown would like to offer their profuse thanks to this year's volunteer crew, which included Nancy Bullock, Glenn Luttrell, Alexander Snyder, Kyra Brown, Doug Morris, Raylene Scott, Leesa Anderson, and Brittany Anderson. Also deserving of much thanks is Tom Lacombe, owner of O.J. Rudacille's General Merchandise, who provided access to the Browntown Community Center. And special thanks to the people of Browntown for putting up with this annual invasion of runners! Next year's invasion will likely take place on Saturday 28 October 2006, so we hope we'll see more runners (and better weather) next year!

(Visit http://user.shentel.net/karsten/gg10k/ for more information about the Greasy-Gooney 10K!)