Rickert, Mahoney take 50k Sage Burner trail race titles

“That’s the reason we do these, for the camaraderie”

The Memorial Day weekend Hartman Rocks race festival came to a close with the annual Sage Burner trail race as 119 trail runners headed out early Monday morning. Some took a 25-kilometer tour of the trails at Hartman’s, while others decided that wasn’t quite enough and decided to keep on going for an entire 50 kilometers. And just like in the Growler bike races, the locals threw down taking eight of the 12 podium spots up for grabs.
Western State Colorado University all-American steepler Adam Sinda edged out a 45 second win over Gunnison Valley runner Timmy Parr in the men’s 25-kilometer race. Tyler Ramussen completed the local podium sweep coming in third while Emma Lohr had the top finish among local women placing fourth.
The 50-kilometer races were almost entirely dominated by the locals. Mary Mahoney won the women’s title in a time of 5:20:43, sixth place overall, with Lara Moscatelli taking second place leaving just one spot on the podium for Ruth Kajdan.
Mahoney opened her season with a 25-mile race a couple weeks ago and admits that it was “kind of slow and painful.”
But with one race out of the way, Mahoney decided she would use the Sage Burner to push herself.
“I was more ready to go out there and push it a little bit,” says Mahoney. “Just go out and go for a run.”
Gunnison Valley runners cleaned house in the men’s 50-kilometer race as Jesse Rickert covered the course in a time of 4:31:30 for the title. Last year’s winner Chris Dickey was eight minutes back in second place and Pat O’Neill stepped up to complete the podium shot in third place.
It was Rickert’s second time racing the Sage Burner 50 kilometer and he showed up this year with no particular time goal.
“Nothing specifically, just a good time,” says Rickert.  “There’s a lot of good people out there, and a lot of good stories. That’s the reason we do these, for the camaraderie.”
And an additional Sports Barrel shout out goes to Tim Long out of Central City, Colorado. Long is the first individual to finish races on all three days. Long placed 100th in the Half Growler, 170th in the Full Growler and fifth place in the Sage Burner 50-kilometer race for a grand total of 17 hours of racing, 23,000 vertical feet of climbing and 127 miles traveled over the three days.

Complete results on sageburnertrailrun.com