Competition is stacked at the Sonoma Lake 50 this year

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The Lake Sonoma 50 is likely one of the quickest and best 50-mile racers in the US and is elevating the bar for competitors in its sixteenth 12 months.

Positioned within the rolling foothills close to Healdsburg, California, the hilly course is understood for its clean singletrack and greater than a dozen creek crossings. For the primary time, Lake Sonoma would be the 50-mile choice race for Crew USA, and all riders who make their method onto the rostrum will obtain an computerized invite to trip for Crew USA on this 12 months’s lengthy format race Mountain and Path Working World Championships set for June 6-10 in Innsbruck-Stubai, Austria.

Whereas Lake Sonoma has at all times been a aggressive occasion (beforehand a Golden Ticket Race), that invitation actually inspired a excessive stage of competitors.

I am tremendous excited that Lake Sonoma is a USA Choice Race, says Gina Lucrezi, race director and founding father of Sisters path, a non-profit group that helps ladies within the path house. This occasion has been one of many high 50-mile races in the US since its inception. John Medinger, Lisa Henson and Skip and Holly Model have created a wanted course and occasion and I’m proud to proceed their legacy of protecting it a barn burning occasion, bringing in the most effective expertise to check their health and expertise. Lucrezi has represented the US in a number of USATF MUT Championship occasions and is thrilled that hers occasion will prolong that chance to a brand new technology of extremely athletes. It’s each an honor and a privilege to host this chance for riders competing to signify the US, Lucrezi says.

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The occasion is Path Sisters Licensed, that means there will likely be equal podium seats, prizes, female-specific goodies, menstrual merchandise at support stations, and equal house for ladies on the beginning line. The Lake Sonoma races are held within the South Pomo native lands. The Southern Pomos are a part of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a federally acknowledged tribe. The race has additionally partnered with a neighborhood charity, Scholarship for the youngsters of winery staffwhich offers schooling funding for the youngsters of agricultural staff within the space.

When it comes to range, fairness and inclusion, when internet hosting the lottery, we cut up the sphere 50/50 male/feminine. (Non-binary individuals have been grouped into the sphere they famous as their assigned gender at beginning.) We then used gender-specific waitlists if attendees cancel or postpone, however terminated our waitlists after which allowed open registration to fill our vacancies. Within the lottery type, we requested details about race and ethnicity, Luzrezi mentioned Path Runners in an interview. This offered perception into the variety of entries and helped us be certain that the beginning line might be as numerous as potential.

Candy sixteen

In its sixteenth 12 months, Lake Sonoma has launched a technology of ultrarunners to the scene, and lots of are returning to reconnect with these fond recollections in an occasion that embodies the grassroots enchantment of path racing, with an internationally aggressive discipline.

Ultrarunner Devon Yanko is competing within the marathon following her win and incomes a Hoka Golden Ticket in Javelina Jundred, she says she feels a deep connection to the race after profitable it in early 2010. Getting ready for the Western States in June, Yanko says her foremost aim is to really feel wholesome and benefit from the race.

I have been part of Lake Sonoma nearly since its inception and was a spectator/crew for many of its prime years, says Yanko, who previously lived in San Anselmo, California. He was an extension of my area people and at all times had the most effective vibes. I look ahead to seeing mates, supporting the race, and serving to maintain the Lake Sonoma custom alive.

Many runners have an extended historical past with the buttery, grass-lined trails. Lake Sonoma was one of many first OCR ultras athletes and ultrarunners Amelia Boone ever knew over a decade in the past. However a damaged femur derailed her first makes an attempt on the 50-mile occasion and he or she has been searching for a possibility to get again to the Lake Sonomas begin line ever since. She says the excessive stage of competitors and neighborhood environment have been additionally large attracts.

Picture credit: Let’s Wander Pictures, shared by the race group with permission from the photographer

I am trying to trip exhausting in a aggressive discipline. It has been some time since I’ve ridden a race with a very deep discipline, so I am attempting to place the ego apart and have some self-confidence. My final aim would clearly be to be within the high 3 to qualify for the US world staff, however that might simply be a bonus, says Boone. Oh, and provides the best 5 potential on the paths.

Brett Hornig, a coach and athlete from Ashland, Oregon, hopes the third time is the appeal. He ran the race twice and did not get the day he needed.

The LS50 was among the best 50-mile races on the earth once I was first launched to path and ultrarunning round 2014, so the attract of competing towards the most effective has at all times been there for me, Hornig says. This initially drew me to the race, and the competitors continues to be there, but it surely’s the neighborhood that races that retains me coming again. The race administrators (previous and present), volunteers, sponsors and followers of the game arrange an unimaginable occasion that everybody ought to expertise for themselves no less than as soon as.

Ryan Miller, the 2022 Gorge Waterfalls 50k and Bandera 100k winner, of Vero Seashore, Florida, says he is enthusiastic about Sonoma’s quick and flowing trails.

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The principle enchantment of Lake Sonoma 50 needs to be the paths themselves. Have you ever seen the movies and pictures of this place?! It is completely gorgeous. I am wanting ahead to aggressive racing with excessive stakes because it tends to convey out the most effective in everybody, says Miller.

The proximity to wine nation does not harm both.

Throw in a deep aggressive discipline, money prizes, my spouse’s enthusiasm to go to California wine nation and a possibility to earn a spot on the World Championship staff, and it is a no-brainer for an athlete like me who focuses on 50K-100K distances.

Miller, like others, is aiming for a podium end that might earn an invitation to trip for Crew USA on the world championship.

The race discipline is filled with proficient riders, together with the ladies’s discipline with Abby Levene, Anne-Marie Madden, Allison Baca, Tara Fraga, Sarah Keys, Megan Drake, Sarah Biehl, Erin Clark, Natalie Sandoval, Erin Viehl, Amelia Boone, Anna Kakis, Catrin Jones, Mercedes Siegle-Gaither, Sarah Cummings, Kristina Randrup, Jackie Merrit and Hanna Osowski.

The boys’s race consists of Miller, Hornig, Drew Holmen, Seth Ruhling, David Kilgore, Drew Macomber, Preston Cates, Terence Copeland, Reed Breuer, Aubrey Myjer, Charlie Ware, Ryan Sullivan, Caleb Olsen, Chris Myers, Jason Schlarb, Erik Sorenson, Matthew Seidel, Morgan Elliot, Addison Smith and Travis Lavin.

The general Lake Sonoma race occasion is concentrated and community-centered, says Lucrezi. I am actually enthusiastic about our new begin and end location and the get together environment we’re creating. No matter tempo, expertise or the place you end, Lake Sonoma is an occasion that welcomes all runners and fosters friendships born on the occasion and on the paths.

Zo Rom is editor-in-chief of Path Runner journal and editor-in-chief of Ladies’s Working. When she’s not operating, she writes and when she’s not climbing, she cooks or eats. Southern storyteller turned mountaineer, she begins every day with a powerful cup of espresso and story. Her work has appeared in REI Co-op Journal, Uncover, Rock & Ice, Path Runner, Backpacker and Threshold Podcast. She at the moment hosts and produces the podcast DNF. She co-authored the forthcoming e-book, Changing into a Sustainable Runner, with Tina Muir.

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