Brett defends home turf at Copper half-marathon

Silverthorne runner victorious at U.S. Race Series' Summit debut

Click to Enlarge Browse and Buy Summit Daily Photos A field of about 350 runners starts the inaugural U.S. Race Series half-marathon Sunday at Copper Mountain in the Burning Stones Plaza. Summit Daily/Eric Drummond Get Sports Feeds

BY ADAM BOFFEY
Summit Daily News
July 15, 2007

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COPPER MOUNTAIN - "Thank God," Paul Brett said moments after winning Copper's inaugural U.S. Race Series half-marathon on Sunday.

The Silverthorne runner had good reason to feel relieved.

"I always finish second at Run the Rockies," he said. "So it's kind of nice to win this."

Brett was the runner-up at the last three Run the Rockies half-marathons (a race from Copper to Frisco via Farmer's Korner), with the most recent installment taking place June 9.

Sunday's winner looked for familiar faces at the start line in Copper's Burning Stones Plaza.

"There was a lot more people than I thought, but nobody I knew," said Brett, who finished in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 17 seconds. "I thought there would be more guys that do the Summit Trail Running Series (STRS)."

There was at least one STRS regular in the crowd who recognized Brett right off the bat - Derek Griffiths, the half-marathon's third-place finisher (1:33:19).

"I thought I had a chance to win as long as I could stay ahead of Tanya (Poel, the women's half marathon winner) - she's really fast," said Griffiths, who resides on the Front Range. "But then I saw Paul at the finish line and I said, 'No way.' He's got the elevation on me."

Vail's Greg Decent (1:32:16) finished second.

Most of Sunday's race course wove through Copper, a design Brett considered his advantage as he led the pack.

"It was nice," he said. "There were so many turnarounds that you got to see how far ahead you were"

When long-course competitors (there were also 12K and 5K races) finally did leave the confines of Copper, they headed west for about three miles up the Vail Pass bike path before reaching a turnaround point.

"It was hard," Brett confessed. "But once you get to mile nine, you know it's downhill. Mentally, it's more like a 9-mile race, then you just let gravity carry you in the last four."

The women's half-marathon belonged to Boulder's Tanya Poel (1:33:57), who finished more than 15 minutes ahead of runner-up Danielle Malberg (1:49:20). Jessica Keiter took third in 1:50:25.

Poel dismissed all would-be rivals early, so she used Griffiths as something of a carrot, at least for a while.

"I was with (Griffiths) a little bit and he pulled in front of me," Poel said. "I was trying to keep him in sight, but I was just running by effort the whole time. I didn't have anybody to race, so I was running my own race."

Malberg, who resides in Denver, appeared not to be discouraged by Poel's hefty margin of victory.

"I've never really placed in my age group before or this high up overall," Malberg said. "I'm still in shock, I guess."

Philadelphia visitor wins 12K

Jimmy Tarsnane, a 16-year-old cross country runner from outside Philadelphia, recently came to Colorado for the purposes of a whitewater rafting vacation with his family.

"My dad found out about this race and said I should try it for training," said Tarsnane, who won Sunday's 10K race with a time of 51:23. "I wasn't really taking it seriously at first, but when I saw I was winning I started taking it more seriously."

Tarsnane passed runner-up Mark Husted (57:23) near the three-mile mark, then held on, thanks in part to a costly error by Husted.

"He made a wrong turn and so did I, but I quickly recovered," Tarsnane recalled. "I just lost him at the end."

Chris Sullivan (1:00) was third.

Laurie Ann Gibbons was the women's 12K winner with a time of 47:15. She was followed by identical twins Emily (56:29) and Alison Steele (56:32).

Moments after the 27-year-olds crossed the finished line a mere 3 seconds apart, they were asked if a sibling rivalry existed between them.

"No," Emily Steele said. "It used to be, but we've grown out of it."

Sunday's 5K winners were Damon Kershner (23:00) in the men's division and Tamara Cardenas on the women's side (26:01).

Nearly 350 people competed on Sunday, 200 of whom were half-marathoners, according to U.S. Race Series founder Ryan Dawkins. Team Summit was the official charity of the event.



Adam Boffey can be contacted at (970) 668-4634, or at aboffey@summitdaily.com.