With ski season not far away, the slopes of Ketchum, Idaho heated up one last time this weekend for Shop to the Top – the finale of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup. The eventual of winners of both the men’s and women’s Mountain Cup graced the slopes and got the job done. Congratulations to Megan Kimmel and Matt Byrne for a good summer’s work on the trails. Read on for some info on the race, the Mountain Cup final standings, and iRunFar.com La Sportiva giveaway winner. There’s still one final pair of La Sportiva Crosslites available and the grand prize giveaway.
The Race
Megan Kimmel (1:07:22) came back for her fifth series race to take her fourth win. This one wasn’t even close as the second place woman, series regular Rachel Cieslewicz (1:12:43) was a full five minutes back. Top master runner, Susan Nuzum (1:16:39) made the podium on this hill climb. Two locals, Claudia Hattrup (1:17:33) and India Wysong (1:22:06), rounded out the top five.
Three men broke an hour on the 6 mile, 3,300′ climb and they’re names will be familiar to Mountain Running fans – Simon Gutierrez, Matt Byrne, and Bernie Boettcher. Gutierrez (53:19) put a minute on Byrne on the climb to win the race… and be the top master. Simon was also the only runner to average under 9 minutes per mile on the day. Byrne (54:29) beat out Bernie (59:57) by almost a minute a mile to put the pair in second and third. Local La Sportiva runner Brad Mitchell (1:00:54) stepped up and edged out Wray Landon (1:01:00), who came up from the Tetons. We’ve also got to give a shout out to Luke Nelson (1:01:33) for his sixth place finish.
The Elephants Perch has posted the full results. [broken link removed]
La Sportiva Mountain Cup Final Standings
Shop to the Top made it a race to the end for La Sportiva Mountain Cup. For Real. The race changed the leader in both the women and men’s overall fields. The women’s open and masters fields saw other changes, as well, so we’ll start there.
Open Women
Megan Kimmel earned plenty of points (24 pts – 20 pts for the win and 2 pts each for beating Cieslewicz and Nuzum) in her fifth series race to bring home the cup. Cieslewicz (19 pts – 17 pts for 2nd and 2 pts for beating Nuzum) jumped into third overall with her second place finish. Here’s how the open women ended up:
- Megan Kimmel – 115 pts – $5,000
- Caitlin Smith – 98 pts – $2,500
- Rachel Cielewicz – 62 pts – $1,500
Master’s Women
Susan Nuzum (15 pts for 3rd) made a good show at Shop to the Top, but it wasn’t enough to catch Lisa Goldsmith. Still it moved Nuzum into second for the series. Well done, women’s masters top three:
- Lisa Goldsmith – 43 pts – $2,000
- Susan Nuzum – 30 pts – $1,000
- Laura Haefeli – 21 pts – $500
Open Men
Shiloh Mielke and Jason Bryant could run races until they were blue in the face, but it wouldn’t be enough to beat Matt Byrne this year. Pulling in a final 21 points at S2tT with his second place was enough to move him past Mielke and into the Mountain Cup lead. Here’s how open men’s field played out over the 10 race series:
- Matt Byrne – 98 pts – $5,000
- Shiloh Mielke – 88 pts – $2,500
- Jason Bryant – 68 pts – $1,000
Masters Men
The most competitive field at Shop to the Top was the men’s masters. That said, a win wasn’t enough to move Simon Gutierrez up in the standings. Bernie Boettcher ran well to take onto the top master’s spot by just 4 points. Matt Carpenter didn’t race, but held onto third place.
- Bernie Boettcher – 64 pts – $2,000
- Simon Gutierrez – 60 pts – $1,000
- Matt Carpenter – 24 pts – $500
Official Series Standings
If you’re looking for full standings, check out official La Sportiva Mountain Cup standings.
iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest [Contest closed]
Pete Rodrigues of Yonkers, New York can go climb the Catskills in a pair of La Sportiva Wildcats. Go get ’em tiger!
We think that the final pair of La Sportiva’s we give away should be the Crosslites – a great running shoe for scrambling to the top of a mountain whether on trail… or not. Be quick if you want to win the Crosslites. To be eligible, just leave your name and town (in the US or Canada) in a comment before we pull the iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup giveaway grand prize winner on Monday.
The Shop to the Top Crosslite giveaway is your last chance to enter the drawing for iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup grand prize. As a reminder, the grand prize winner of the contest will take home the following:
- 1 pair of La Sportiva Wildcats
- 1 pair of La Sportiva Crosslites (iRF Crosslite review)
- 1 pair of La Sportiva Fireblades (iRF Fireblade review)
- A free entry into his or her choice of a 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup event
- A La Sportiva schwag pack likely to include a technical t-shirt, a visor, and whatever else the good folks at La Sportiva feel like throwing in
We’ll pull the winner on August 31. We know you’ll want to get your name in before then!
Call for Comments
If you ran the Shop to the Top, please leave a comment letting everyone know how you did and what you think about the race. Past racers are invited to comment, too!
The La Sportiva Mountain Cup
