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Medinger pulls off stunning victory in 100K, Meltzer has too much fun to run as fast as he could have.
John Medinger invoked executive privilege to capture all the Bonus Minutes (BM's) discarded by other DNF'ers, and re-entered the C2M 100K competition where he initially dropped out (barely halfway along the most difficult 100K course known to local Ojaiians), to squeak out a victory over tough rivals Nielsen, Moore and Goggins. Yes, folks, Tropical John is back, and he's loaded to bare!
Karl Meltzer found himself constantly perplexed by the prop wash above his head, but still floated to a relatively easy victory in the 100M, further enhanced by BM's gained for his bowling skills and generally sucking up to the RD.
In the women's 100M competition, Betsy Nye's lack of bowling skills garnered even more BM's - 4 consecutive gutter balls earned her 5 BM's in entertainment value alone!! - and helped nudge her three places higher in the overall standings. Amy Sproston's clean win in the 100K was marred only by Medinger's last minute explosion onto the scene, dropping her one place lower from her previous 4th place overall.
Correct - C2M wasn't just about the running. Those who came to do just that found their preliminary times relatively unadjusted for the official record. Bonus Minutes had a dark side, too, with more than a handful of runners loading up on Boner Minutes for such gaffs as whinging, fear mongering, complaining and proving that being at C2M was "all about me"...
C2M tried to bring the best from other venues, and throw them together into marginally chaotic organized fun - for runners and aid stations alike - on some fairly challenging terrain. Think Dipsea's handicap start on steroids (7 miles expands to 100), with the field anticipated to bunch together in the final miles. The first and slowest runners weren't quite sure what to make of so many goodies at the aid stations, while the last and faster runners flew into stations already well into party mode. Add the simplicity of a course that has runners drop down off the ridge only to regain the ridge on the trail just descended, and solitude becomes nearly an impossibility. Unless, of course, one shifts one's gaze to the Cyclops moon hovering above and laughing at the craziness of it all.
The formula seemed to work well enough, at least this year. As the venerable Stan Jensen noted, since we didn't have to call Search and Rescue, we did all right. And consistent with most other established 100M/100K events, it couldn't happen without a stellar (yet party-minded) batch of ultra-roughened volunteers and credible volunteer radio folks. The frosting on the cake was the enthusiastic support of ZombieRunner, Patagonia and other sponsors excited to see us succeed, their contributions adding terrific schwag for the runners. We had so much fun under that big moon, we may just do this again...
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