McDowell, Heaslett Win USA 50 Mile Trail Championship

July 28, 2002

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, Wash—Running with spectacular Mt. Rainier as a backdrop, Nate McDowell ran away from a deep field at the White River 50-Mile Trail Run on July 27 to capture the 2002 USA Track & Field 50-Mile Trail Championship. McDowell, 30, of Corvallis, Ore., ran in the strong lead pack for the first half of the race and then took the lead at about the 30-mile mark and cruised to a course-record time of 6:50:39.

    Anne Heaslett, 38, of Madison, Wis., overcame a four-minute deficit> midway through the race to capture the women’s title. Heaslett caught Petra Pirc, 30, of Salt Lake City, Utah, with less than two miles to go and
finished in 8:13:17 in 21st overall.

    Dennis Poolheco, 41, of Glendale, Ariz., ran a strong second half of the race to claim the men’s Masters title with a sixth-place overall finish in 7:21:49. Luanne Park, 41, of Redding, California, easily won the women’s Masters title in 9:03:11. She was the fifth woman and 36th overall finisher.

    The White River 50-miler is run on the rugged terrain of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest 75 miles east of Seattle. The up-and-down course varied in elevation from 2,000 feet to nearly 6,000 feet.

    "Nate ran a great race against a very strong field," said race director Scott McCoubrey. "He was smart to hold back and wait until the second half to make a move. He knows how tough the course is. And the women’s race was phenomenal with the way Ann chased down Petra. She ran strong the whole race."

    McDowell, a former track and cross country runner at the University of Michigan, earned his first U.S. title by outrunning one of the strongest ultrarunning fields of the season. He beat a cast of champions in Hal Koerner, 26, of Parker, Colo. (2nd, 7:01:11), William Emerson, 38, of Redmond, Wash. (3rd, 7:07:27), Karl Meltzer, 34, of Savoy, Utah (4th, 7:12:47), and Scott Jurek, 28, of Seattle, Wash. (5th, 7:16:20). Emerson was the 2001 USATF 50-mile winner on the same course, while Jurek is the four-time defending champion at the Western States 100 in Auburn, Calif.

    "It was like a peloton of runners for the first half of the race," McDowell said. "When we started to move in the second half, I just felt good. I felt strong. I said to myself ‘I feel like running hard l so let’s see what happens.' After that I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing."

    Heaslett was coming off a strong showing in the World Challenge 100k in Belgium, where she finished as the third U.S. woman. She was among the top three women throughout the White River 50 but was well behind Petra Pirc at the midway point. Pirc held a five-minute lead through 35 miles, but Heaslett made up enormous ground on the steep climb up and steep descent down Sun Top Mountain.

    Heaslett caught Pirc with about seven miles from the finish line. The two traded off the lead three times before Heaslett took over for good with about a mile and a half to go on the winding Skookum Flats section adjacent to the White River. Pirc finished in (8:15:11). Krissy Moehl of Seattle, Wash. (8:22:44), Georgia Daniels of Tacoma, Wash. (8:51:35) and Luanne Park of Redding Calif. (9:03:11) rounded out the top five women's finishers. Heaslett finished third in the race last year (31st overall) in 8:37:56.

    "I got pretty dehydrated last year in this race, so my biggest goal was to make sure I drank a lot of fluid and saved a bit of energy," Heaslett said. "The last part of the race through Skookum Flats is pretty technical, so you need to save some energy. I felt tired, but I knew we were near the end so I pushed with whatever I had left. I thanked Petra for a great race because I ran about 30 minutes faster than I did last year."

    More than $10,000 in prize money was given to the top five men and women and top five Masters runners in each gender. McDowell and Heaslett each won $1,400 for their victories, while Masters champs Poolheco and Park each took home $750.

    Sponsors of the event included Foot Zone Capitol Hill/Seattle Running Company, Montrail, Patagonia and Clif Bar. The 2002 USATF 50k Trail Championships will be held Aug. 24 at the Golden Gate Headlands 50k Race near Saulsalito, Calif.