Race Information: Lost Soles Marathon

The Lost Soles Marathon which starts and finishes at Talent, Oregon, is always a great training adventure. Some years it’s warm there. Last year two inches of snow covered the starting line. On Sunday, February 10, 2002, the conditions were fine with air temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s, some clouds in the sky, and winds at times that were strong on the hilly terrain on the way to the turn-around. This out-and-back course runs through Ashland to the Emigrant Lake Recreation Area in the countryside where there is sparse housing.

This year the field was the smallest that I can remember. There were only eight in the marathon and six in the concurrent half marathon. There is a need for early season availability of marathons and ultra marathons to assist in training for the spring marathons. Gone are some of the classics…..the Winter Run 50K in Seattle, the Mudderfell 6-Hour Run in Portland, and the Trails End Marathon at Seaside and then Warrenton, Oregon. It would be a shame to lose the Lost Soles Marathon, too. Come out next year and accept the challenge of a marathon adventure by running it in 2003.

As Mel Preedy and I were running up a hill into a 30 mph wind in the 11th mile, a middle aged male runner who was propelled by the wind and gravity flew down the course going in the opposite direction. Within a minute a young woman went by at the same place with blond hair flying in the wind. I assumed that I was looking at the male and female leaders. I was wrong! The fellow, apparently, was an early starter. At the finish line, Lenore introduced me to the winner of the race. It was the young woman, Elizabeth Tedsen, a 17 year old high school senior from Mt. Shasta, California. She had been the leader for the entire race as she ran her FIRST MARATHON. She finished in a time of 3:37:22, the only sub-four time in the small field. Her cross-country track coach, Dusty Miller, was on hand to run with her for the first 6+ miles. It was at the half marathon turn-around where he left her to turn around and run back to the finish line to become the winner of that race in a time of 1:49:02. The cheering section for Elizabeth included her proud father, Doug Tedsen. The Tedsen family had lived in Redmond, Washington, until a few years ago when they moved to Mt. Shasta. Elizabeth’s win is a remarkable accomplishment for a first time marathoner! It seldom happens that a woman runner is the overall winner in a marathon. Of the 286 marathons that I’ve completed, Elizabeth is only the second woman to be the overall winner. In second place with a 4:11:47 finish was Red Fisher, a Marathon Achiever and long time race director for the Winterhawk Races. These ultras are run on the Wildwood Trail in Portland’s Washington Park.

Half of the marathon field was composed of 100 Marathon Club North America members. Mel Preedy, Marathon Achiever, had run the 6K Cross Country Masters Race at Vancouver, Washington, the day before. This race was organized by the U.S.A. Track and Field Association. After completing it, he and his wife Sonia drove south through almost the entire state of Oregon to get to Talent the night before the marathon.

Lenore and I met Randy Hansen of Estherville, Iowa, at the YAKIMA RIVER CANYON MARATHON and at the Oklahoma Marathon in Tulsa last year. Randy, a 50 States & DC Group member, added OREGON to his states total. It was #46. He plans to run a marathon in Hawaii as his 50th state. This will complete his first circuit, and he’ll become a “finisher.”

It was good to see Frank Searfus again. He is a Marathon Achiever whom we see at the Lost Soles Marathon every year, at the Crater Lake Marathon, the Pacific Rim One Day Run in Longview and at other challenging races.

My run went fairly well. It was the hardest and fastest marathon that I have run since my September 30 leg injury at the Portland Marathon. My time was three minutes faster than at the flat and gently rolling Christmas Marathon. Only in the last three miles did I have trouble with minor leg cramps necessitating some massage stretching and brief walking. I concentrated on running a sub 4:40 and just made it with a 4:38:29. I finished in mid-pack, fourth of eight starters. There was no age class competition, but I was the only 70+ male in the race.

Thanks go to Jerome Ellison for directing another outstanding marathon and for providing great spaghetti and delicious pies for everyone after the race.

Written by Bob Dolphin

RACE RESULTS
  Marathon

1.  3:37:22  Elizabeth Tedsen, 17, Mt. Shasta, CA
2.  4:11:47  Red Fisher, 49, Portland, OR
3.  4:35:17  Mel Preedy, 68, Ravensdale, WA
4.  4:38:29  Bob Dolphin, 72, Renton, WA
5.  5:22:20  Ben Benjamin, 54, Ashland, OR
6.  5:46:28  Frank Searfus, Coos Bay, OR
7.  5:11:50  Randall Hansen, 55, Estherville, IA

Half Marathon

1.  1:49:02  Dusty Miller, 54, Mt. Shasta, CA
2.  1:51:52  Ann Heady, 47, Weaverville, CA
3.  2:09:09  Beth Lori, 41, Ashland, OR
4.  2:11:00  Tish Harlow, 30+
5.  2:11:55  Ray Wold, 64, Lebanon, OR
6.  2:23:49  Michael McColloch, 42, Klamath Falls, OR