News & Stories

2015 Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet Recap

Photo: f/go Photography

When the 2015 Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet started with a 30-second flash downpour runners laughed at the adventure of it all. They wondered what the rest of the race held in store for them. Would it be slippery? Would the trails be muddy? Would the menacing clouds threaten the race? To everyone’s delight the storms not only held off but the sun came out making it a beautiful morning for a run and post-race celebration.

Race Director Mike Erickson said that “we lucked out on the weather,” which he had been tracking for the past week. (Mother Nature must be making it up to Mike for her lackluster performance this winter…) Mike said he received “lots of positive comments from the runners” and that people seemed to have a lot of fun. And the medical tent was quiet, which is a good thing from a race director’s perspective. Medical Director Mark Bixby reported that aside from one turned ankle, which required the runner to be transported to the medical tent, the event was without incident beyond a few scrapes.

Race Results: 10 Mile, 10K and Age Gap Relay

10 Mile

Matt Flaherty, 29, of Bloomington won the 10 mile race with time of 59:36. Erik Fagerstrom, 24, of Eden Prairie finished second in 1:00:04 while Orono resident Matt Liebsch, a frequent flier on the Loppet event podium, finished in third with a time of 1:00:30.

Erik noted that this was his first Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet; he was not back from college yet last year. Although Erik was kind of injured, he decided to go out and see how it went. Clearly it went well! He enjoyed running “with a great group of four guys, including some of the Salomon representatives.” What excited him most about the race was learning about new trails, particularly the ones near Cedar Lake. He thought the “trails held up well” and that “it wasn’t too slippery” out there.

For the women, Angie Voight, 38, of St. Paul finished in first place in 1:11:47, while Sara Graves, 32, also of St. Paul finished in second place in a time of 1:12:10. Josie Nelson, 36, another frequent flier on the Loppet event podium, finished in third with a time of 1:12:14.

For a full listing of the 10 Mile Results, click here.

10K

In the 10K race, Loppet Run Club coach Kevin Johnson, 35, of St. Paul took the top spot with a time of 45:55. Eric Wagner, 21, of St. Peter won second place with a time of 46:06 and Nicholas Minderman, 35, of Minneapolis finished the race with a time of 46:07 for a third-place result. For the women, Christina Roberts, 29, of St. Louis Park finished in first place with a time of 47:53 while Audree Goodew, 29, of Minneapolis completed the race in 48:19 for a second-place finish. Rebekah Ormsby, 40, of Minneapolis came in third place with a time of 53:23.

For a full list of the 10K results, click here.

Age Gap Relay

The Loppet Foundation also continued the relatively new tradition of having an Age Gap Relay at the event. The Age Gap Relay is a relay race that pairs parents and their children or Loppet community adults with youth from our middle school program in an adventure run-type race. Quintrell Whiting from the Nellie Stone Johnson team and a mystery adult mentor won the Age Gap Relay with a total time of 7:19 while Sheila Eldred and her daughter Zoe Sumner came in second place just one second behind. Brian Benke and Lucien Benke came in third place with a time of 7:33. For a complete list of the Age Gap Relay results, go here.

Post-race reflections capture the vision behind the race

This was the second running of the Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet, a race that starts in Downtown Robbinsdale and winds through wooded trails and paved paths, over railroad tracks and up wooden stairs and then finishes at the famed cherry and spoon at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Wayne Komarek and Linda Evert ran the race last year and remarked that they had so much fun that they decided to run it again. For Wayne, he loved the single-track paths through the woods. He kept thinking to himself, “We’re in the city?!?” While Linda loves the point-to-point aspect of the race because you can see glimpses of downtown at various points in the race.

The couple hits on the very point of the Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet, which is part of an international race series that Salomon runs to showcase the trail systems that exist in major urban areas. Last year the Loppet race launched the U.S. series.

Keith Jones, Loppet volunteer and frequent race participant, thought it was a “fantastic event” with an “inventive course.” He saw some areas that he had never seen before, nothing that it “was a trail run where you’d least expect it.”

Great beer, great food and great company at the post-race party

By the time the post-race party got going it was downright beautiful out. All race participants received coupons for free hotdogs and a Surly beer (provided they were over 21 and had their id). Participants, their families, volunteers and Loppet staff enjoyed the friendly atmosphere as they shared stories about the race. There was a rousing game of whose-birthday-is-closest-to-the-spinning-wheel-number, which led to a few lucky participants receiving gift certificates for new Salomon shoes, a Suunto GPS watch and other cool prizes.

Middle schoolers from Loppet Programs tackle the 10K

Last year the athletes from the Loppet Foundation’s three North Minneapolis middle school teams at Anwatin, Northeast and Nellie Stone Johnson impressed the organization’s staff by completing the 10K; they were not sure how many would be able to complete that distance. But they did! And this year the athletes were out in force this year as well.

According to Mary Bolla, the assistant coach of the Anwatin team, they had 16 athletes participate. For some of them it was their first 10K. They all finished under their goal to beat their coaches’ times in the 10 mile. Head Coach Allie Rykken promised to buy them ice cream if they did. Several of them even finished in under an hour. Zeltzin Montero Castillo, 14, and Emily Kral, 12, both from the Anwatin team finished in first and second place, respectively, in the under 19 division. Emily remarked after the race that she had a lot of fun and enjoyed the race.

Anwatin Middle School Team Athletes Tackle the Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet 10K