The twentieth running of the Cross Timbers Trail Run once again produced its share of drama; and not all of it on the race day. Recent floods made the trail impossible as little as two weeks prior to the race. One week before, the trail had to be rerouted in several places making for a 'long' 50 miles. Luckily, the Thursday before the race, I was able to route most of the course onto the original trial. The trail still got in its licks as mud, thorns, and never ending hills forced Ultra-veterans to retire early.

The 50 mile began at 6:30 am with Phil Sheridan of Kansas, Chisholm Duepree of Oklahoma and Mark 'Spaceman' Henderson of Houston, Texas set the early pace. Phil dropped out of the pack first as a result of a recent illness he was still fighting. Mark and Chisholm blew through the first check point in just over on hour, but Mark was just coming into his groove as he begun pulling away on the flat part of the trail out to the Paw Paw Point turn around.

In the women's race, June Gessner of California went straight to the lead with Joyce Prusaitis, the 1999 CTTR winner close behind. This battle stayed within two minutes at all of the checkpoints until 20 miles when June had widened her lead to 6 minutes. June then had a great run from Juniper Point back to Cedar Bayou increasing her lead to 24 minutes at the half.

Meanwhile, in the men's race, Mark Henderson continued to pull away from everyone. He ran to a 23 minute lead over Chisholm and a 27 minute margin over Stuart Johnson and Robert King at 25 miles. Phil was not able to repeat his sub 7:30 of last year, as he was forced to drop at 25 miles.

June Gessner continued running strong to a 10:23 and Joyce Prusaitis to an 11:18 for second. In the final miles of the men's race, Dan Whittlernore finished very strong moving up to the third and Robert King struggled on the final tough miles allowing Stuart Johnson to take second and Mark Morris fourth. Mark Henderson impressed us all as the' space' between himself and second was a commanding 52 minutes.

While all of this drama was taking place, the 25 mile race provided excitement of its own. Last years winner and course record holder Amanda Perron went through Paw Paw Creek Resort in 1:21 with Kristen Waters, Mariela Botella, Carrie DuPriest, and Barbara Hitzfeld all logging the same time. Amanda Perron, Kristen Waters, and Mariela Botella ran through the next four checkpoints and twenty miles still running together with Barbara Hitzfeld just behind running comfortably with her husband. Barbara re-joined the lead pack at 22.5 miles and all four women clocking in at 4:15. Barbara then decided that winning maybe just a little more important than running with her hubby, so she ran an incredibly strong 2.5 miles if rugged trail to win by 8.5 minutes over Amanda Perron followed closely by Kristen Waters and Mariela Botel1a. Barbara was just five minutes off of last years course record under very tough trail conditions.

The men's race was a start to finish 1,2,3 race as Mark Blenden took the early lead. Homero Gonzales and rusty Shelton followed 2nd and 3rd respectively to the finish.

Other notable highlights of the day was Mike Price's 18th CTTR finish and a memorable finish by Dan Brenden of Arizona. Dan crossed the finish line running with his three grandchildren from Austin, Texas and had strength after 50 miles to run back down the hill and carry his wife across the finish line to a thunder of applause.

Everyone seemed to have a great time ending a long day with hamburgers, hotdogs, and beverages around the campfire.

Congratulations to all of the talented runners and brave volunteers. Two volunteers in particular go beyond the call of duty year-after-year and provide an immense amount of service. Gene Brock seems to always recruit the best help for his Paw Paw Resort aid station and organize the supplies for all of the aid stations. Larry Flies is the trail guru making sure the tougher parts of the trail are runnable on race day. This required many extra hours this year as we had to mark and re-route the trail several times due to the flooding. Bill Nictakis also got a taste of the 'off trail' marking the Saturday before the race and actually showed up on the race day to post a good 50 miles. Nothing scares this guy.

I hope to see everyone back again next year for the 21st running of the Cross Timbers Trail Run on March 16, 2002.

Tony Bridwell-RD