West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners

Perhaps only a bit on the warm side, September 14th was once again, a perfectly gorgeous day in Helvetia, WV. Seven kids lined up for the kids race, which, for the first time in recent memory did not include Lara Lehmann who dominated the race until she graduated from kid’s race status last year. The title spot was left open and one of these cute kids won it, but we don’t keep track because we don’t want them getting overly competitive about this running stuff until they’re at least a year or two older.

The short race complete, and prize balloons handed out (and several promptly popped), 60+ runners prepared for the main event of the day: the 10K Mountain Run. At the gun, a couple of young newcomers burst to the front. 14 year-old Andrew Shaffer (no relation to Charlie) and 13 year-old Jordan Work found themselves leading the race through the first mile in 5:30. Right on their heels were Randy Young, Mike Dolin & Lew McGrath. 30 seconds back new mother Heather Parks led the women’s field, followed at a distance by Katie Wolpert.

We lost track of the rest of the field at that point, because we couldn’t see them any longer, but Michael Bee eventually passed the youths in the lead and Joel Wolpert eventually passed Mr. Bee. Wolpert maintained his lead through the finish to retain his title, albeit in a decidedly slower time than the last 2 years (38:52). A win is a win though, and Joel along with an unnamed special someone will be enjoying a complementary Hutte feast sometime soon. Mike Bee’s runner-up finish helped solidify his place at the top of the chart for the MSTR Series.

Parks also ran unchallenged to the finish line (46:02). She crossed below the new finish line triumphantly before taking her victory lap” an extra circuit of the course to complete her training run for the Philly Marathon.

Other stories of note from the finisher’s table include Kadra Casseday who had never completed a full 10K before, in race or in practice. She chose a hum-dinger of a first 10K and passed with flying colors. Adam cared for her as only a dedicated husband (who has had his sweaty, bleeding, swelling feet swaddled and nurtured multiple times by her) might.

Rebecca Schoonover continued her unbroken string of appearances — she is the only runner to have completed every single of the 11 editions of the Helvetia 10K Mountain Run. Jody Lehmann and the good folks of the Helvetia area outdid themselves with the cookies, muffins and trail mix this year.

And who knew that Charlie Shaffer was back on his feet and running again!? At 73 years young, and one day before celebrating his 74th birthday, Robert Cole was the oldest inisher (in 1:25:02), and TJ Hooks, star of the North Fork Mountain run, was the youngest finisher at 11 years-old (52:16). Four states were represented (WV, VA, TN & DE).

See all photos here — results here — next race in the ‘08 MSTR Series: Mountwood 10M on Sept 20th

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