Men’s Sportiva Mountain Cup Solidifies at Squaw Mountain Run

iRunFar covers the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase, part of the 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup.

By on August 10, 2010 | Comments

La Sportiva Mountain Cup 2010Yesterday, we covered one of the longest race in this year’s La Sportiva Mountain Cup, the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. Today, we’ll bring you the shortest, the Squaw Mountain Run. Now in its 29th year, the Squaw Mountain Run climbs 2,000′ from 6,200′ to 8,200′ in only 3.6 miles. Ultrarunning fans are familiar with the locale, as the course is roughly the opening miles of the Western States 100.

Squaw Mountain Run elevation profile

The elevation profile for the Squaw Mountain Run.

As there were FOUR Mountain Cup races this past weekend, this LSMC report will differ a bit from its standard format. We’ll begin our LSMC race coverage by giving you the scoop on how the race went. We’ll then move on to our giveaway contest (Crossover GTX) before calling for your comments and finishing up with the full La Sportiva Mountain Cup schedule. We won’t update the Mountain Cup standings in this article; rather, we’ll include them in one of the later updates once we have results from all four races.

The Race
Men’s Race
Ryan Woods held off a talented lineup of runners to win Squaw Mountain in 29:21. The win put Woods into the series lead with his fourth LSMC race of the season. Fellow series contender Jason Bryant (31:17) managed fourth overall to more or less guarantee a top three placing in the series.

Galen Burrell of the storied mountain running Burrell family, took second in 30:04. August Brautigam, 25, of Reno, Nevada was third in 30:19. Highlighting the contrast between youth at Squaw Mountain and experience at Jupiter Peak was teenager Michelino Sunseri, whose 31:51 was good enough for fifth place.

Women’s Race
Locale resident, Giovanna White (34:55) of Truckee, California crossed the line more than two minutes ahead of the second place woman, Chelsea Holmes (37:00), also of Truckee. Holmes had a much slimmer lead on Kari Rust (37:18), the third place woman and top master. Series competitor Alison Bryant came all the way from North Carolina to take fourth in 38:01. The final woman in the top 5 was Julie Young, a masters runner from Truckee in 39:22.5. Young was exactly one second ahead of Chloe Pigg, who’s a third of Young’s age.

iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest
La Sportiva logoSince Squaw Mountain is a ski resort that often has snow on its slopes into July, we’re giving away a pair of La Sportiva’s Crossover GTX. These nifty shoes had any integrated gaiter to keep out debris… and snow.

To enter the contest, simply leave your name and town (in the US or Canada) in a comment before we report on the Taos Ski Valley Up and Over 10k being run August 21. As a reminder, if you enter to win the Crossover GTX, you’ll also automatically be eligible to win the grand prize at the end of August. Read up on the iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup giveaway grand prize.

Call for Comments
If you ran the Squaw Mountain Run, please leave a comment letting everyone know how you did and what you think about the race. Past racers are invited to comment, too!

La Sportiva Mountain Cup Schedule

Bryon Powell

Bryon Powell is the Founding Editor of iRunFar. He’s been writing about trail running, ultrarunning, and running gear for more than 15 years. Aside from iRunFar, he’s authored the books Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and Where the Road Ends: A Guide to Trail Running, been a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, written for publications including Outside, Sierra, and Running Times, and coached ultrarunners of all abilities. Based in Silverton, Colorado, Bryon is an avid trail runner and ultrarunner who competes in events from the Hardrock 100 Mile just out his front door to races long and short around the world, that is, when he’s not fly fishing or tending to his garden.