La Sportiva Mountain Runners Set Course Records

La Sportiva N.A., makers of technical climbing, mountaineering, Mountain Running® and hiking footwear, “gives a shout out” to La Sportiva running athletes for record breaking performances this past weekend. Team runners Leor Pantilat and Caitlin Smith set course records at the Ohlone 50k, while Megan Kimmel left her mark at the first 2009 La Sportiva Mountain Cup event, the Rock2Rock 10k.

At the Ohlone Wilderness 50k Trail Run in the San Francisco Bay area, Leor Pantilat finished in 4:29.47 shaving nearly 10 minutes off the previous course record and Smith became the first woman to finish in 5:04.50. Their first place finish at Ohlone makes this the third 50k in 2009 that both La Sportiva athletes finished 1F and 1M respectively. At the Rock2Rock 10k in Asheville, NC, La Sportiva’s Megan Kimmel dominated the woman’s race and took 4 minutes off of Meadow Tavres’s course record, finishing in 52:17. Keri Nelson took third place rounding out the women’s podium with a strong La Sportiva presence. Fellow team member Jason Bryant placed third in the men’s division.

“For sake of efficiency, and to allow for more time trail running and less time blogging, I have written the following template for use in writing recaps of upcoming races that Pantilat and Smith are both running. Think of this as a Mad-Libs for trail ultra reports. Feel free to update, pass on, and use as needed,” states TrailRunTimes.com blogger, Brett Rivers. A piece from Brett’s template for success follows:

(INSERT DATE), Leor Pantilat and Caitlin Smith absolutely tore up the RACE NAME this past weekend finishing first male and first female overall. Their ADJECTIVE performances at RACE NAME are yet another instance where both runners were dominant from start to finish. *INSERT SENTENCE ON COURSE RECORDS BEING BROKEN IF CR’s OCCURED. The wins are the NUMBER this year for these two SF Bay Area locals.

Pantilat, just back from summiting INSERT MOUNTAINS earlier in the week, took off from the start and was barely seen again until the finish. Smith, busy this past week with INSERT COMBINATION OF CHILDBIRTH, YOGA, PHOTOGRAPHY, BIKE ACCIDENTS, set a very ADJECTIVE early pace and was hardly challenged after the ADJECTIVE climb up INSERT PEAK.



In addition to the records set by Pantilat, Smith and Kimmel, a special congrats also goes to La Sportiva’s Karl Meltzer who recently won the Massannutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run in Virginia. With this victory, Meltzer has one at least one 100 mile race in each of the past ten years. For more information on the La Sportiva Mountain Running® team, go to mountainrunning.com.