Small Town News

Roundup native tackles TransRockies Run

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Roundup native Rhiannon Wood and her teammate Christina Bauer finished 4th among all women's teams, and 28lh overall among the 199 two-person teams competing in this year's TransRockies Run, a grueling six day "ultra" race in the mountains of Colorado.

The race began in Buena Vista on Sunday, August 23, and ended 113 miles later, on Friday, August 38, at the Beaver Creek Resort near Vail. The up and down route follows back country trails, logging roads and a few regular roads, climbing as high as 12,500 feet.

The team was called A Nice Set of Kahtoolas--a direct reference to the company that sponsored them, Kahtoola, which manufactures winter travel systems such as snowshoes and micro-spikes. Most teams are sponsored by companies such as Nike or Gore-Tex (which is the main sponsor of the event).

The two-person teams fit into five categories: Open Women (13 finishers), Open Men (20), Open Mixed (47), 80+ Men (24), and 80+Women (15). The 80+means that the ages of the two runners must add up to 80 or more years.

Teammates run together and both must cross the finish line to have their time count.

Wood, who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Bauer, from Salt Lake City, Utah, covered the distance in 21 hours 46 minutes and 54 seconds, finishing 4th every day in the Open Women's category, behind three teams of seasoned runners.

The women wore matching tee-shirts which read, on the front: "Kahtoola, Flagstaff, AZ, 7000 feet," and on the back, "We're higher than you think." This altitude explains why a winter sports company can test its equipment in its own backyard: Flagstaff is in the highest part of Arizona, and snow does fall there and on the adjacent San Francisco peaks. Rhiannon Wood works for Kahtoola and runs with the Northern Arizona Trail Runners Association.

The overall winner of the event was an Open Men's team from Flagstaff, Arizona--Run Flagstaff--which covered the distance in 14 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

Rhiannon Wood is a 1997 graduate of Roundup High School, where she competed in track and field, and a 2001 graduate of Scripps College, where she competed in track and cross country for the combined Scripps,



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© 2009 Roundup Record-Tribune & Winnett Times Roundup, Montana. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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