AAAA- Camera Died During Mat Peak Challenge!!

Prezwoodz

Oh No!! My camera is officially Dead....I think im gonna cry now! Well yesterday i ran the Matanuska Peak Challenge. A 14 Mile, 9000' vertical gain, mountain race. And in soaking wet soggy weather. The camera was pronounced dead at 3:22pm Sunday Morning. I hope this thread is OK without actually having any pictures in it....they passed away with the camera. cry:cry

Heres the local newspaper article:

Race strategy in rain, fog is a slippery slope

STEEP: Robinson and James stay on their feet long enough to win the 9,000-vertical-foot ordeal.

By RON WILMOT
Anchorage Daily News

Published: July 31st, 2005
Last Modified: July 31st, 2005 at 04:26 AM

PALMER -- Heavy rain turned the slopes of Lazy Mountain into a muddy slalom course and runners groped their way through thick fog during Saturday's 17th-annual Matanuska Peak Challenge, a 14-mile mountain run featuring 9,000 vertical feet in three arduous ascents.

Harlow Robinson of Anchorage won his second straight Mat Peak Challenge in 3 hours, 19 minutes, 37 seconds -- more than 13 minutes slower than his winning time last year.

Rachel James, 24, of Girdwood was the women's winner in 4:05:52. James finished 14th overall out of 53 hardy competitors, and she too was nearly 13 minutes slower than she was a year ago.

Robinson had hoped to run faster, but conditions were not safe to push the pace, he said. A steady and incessant rain turned the lower trail of Lazy Mountain into a virtual luge run of mud.

Because the trail is straight with no switchbacks, competitors skied, surfed, glissaded or slid on their rears down the oozing slopes, sometimes grabbing onto overhanging willows to slow their plunge.

Runners who staggered across the finish line at the Lazy Mountain trail head were so covered in grime, it looked like they had just played a game of mud football.

Some, like 20-year-old Dane Katner of Anchorage, were head to toe in muck. Katner slipped and careened down the slope on his stomach.

Others, like Palmer's Darin Markwardt, were only half covered. That's because Markwardt, who trains for Mount Marathon by scaling 3,720-foot Lazy Mountain, slid down on his rear.

"I realized that that was by far the faster method," said the 25-year-old Markwardt, whose mud-caked Lycra tights were ripped from a snag. "And the safest."

Other racers who'd slid down on their rears complained of dirt up the shorts in strange places. That thought, plus the prospect of shredded shorts, kept Eagle River's Hugh Gren on his feet.

"I worried about gravel up the shorts," he said. "I don't have a girlfriend to pick them out for me."

Lazy Mountain's mudslide was just one obstacle. Thick fog shrouded the summits of both mountains, and Robinson got lost in the fog during the descent of Lazy Mountain. He stopped and called out to fellow competitor Barney Griffith, a former race winner who was right on his tail.

"I knew that Barney knew where to go," Robinson said. "So I just stopped and called out for him."

Griffith heard Robinson's disembodied voice out of the fog, and the two met up and found the right trail. Griffith, a past Mat-Peak Challenge winner, finished second in 3:22:50.

Griffith said he did not wish to push himself too hard on the treacherous muddy slopes.

"It was like being on ice," said Griffith, 47 and from Anchorage. "It's just not worth it to go all out and get injured."

While no competitor mentioned any benefit from the mud or rain, more than one noted the fog helped lift weary spirits.

Sam Griffiths of Anchorage said the fog so shrouded the course that during the race, he had no idea how far he had to go. So he just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. On a clear day from atop Lazy Mountain, runners get long glimpses of 6,119-foot Matanuska Peak, which they also summit. The trail down the backside of Lazy Mountain and through McRoberts Creek Valley is visible too.

"I'm glad I couldn't see," said Griffiths as he sat on the wet pavement and tore off muddy tape that supported his ankles during the race. "Or I think I would've quit."

Daily News sports reporter Ron Wilmot can be reached at rwilmot@adn.com or 1-907-352-6712.

Matanuska Peak Challenge

At Lazy Mountain, Palmer

Saturday's Results

Men

1) Harlow Robinson 3 hours, 19 minutes, 37 seconds; 2) Barney Griffith 3:22:50; 3) Darin Markwarch 3:24:58; 4) Troy Larson 3:35:06; 5) Clayton Moses 3:36:07; 6) Lance Kopsack 3:39:58; 7) Braun Kopsack 3:41:10; John Collins 3:51:43; 9) Hugh Gren 3:54:59; 10) Sam Griffiths 3:57:35; 11) Brian Stoecker 3:57:45; 12) Rony Stark 4:04:58; 13) Keith Weinhold 4:04:58; 14) Paul Pletnikoff 4:19:20; 15) Michael Kelly 4:19:20; 16) Charli Ess 4:27:04; 17) Fred Thomas 4:38:11; 1 Thomas Bailly 4:40:23; 19) John Pekar 4:47:05; 20) Josh Niva 4:55:15; 21) Dane Ketner 4:58:59; 22) Fred Hveding 4:59:06; 23) Olan Dregelid 5:00:47; 24) Evan Steinhauser 5:03:48; 25) John Williams 5:07:30;

26) tie, Duke Ruzicka and Joe Mortiboy 5:25:03; 2 Rod Anderson 5:32:50; 29) David Rebischke 5:35:26; 30) Kerry Klawder 5:40:17; 31) Bill English 5:41:08; 32) Pete Mitchell 5:44:33; 33) Dane Crowley 5:50:52; 34) Kelsey Gray 5:50:52; 35) Ernest Stolen 5:55:31; 36) Mark Jacobsen 5:59:16; 37) Ryan VanGorden 6:35:53; 3 tie, Chris Heiserman and Adam Berg 6:56:11; 40) Corkey Corthell 7:27:09; 41) Ron Nicholl 7:49:16.

Women

1) Rachel James 4:05:52; 2) Gyongyven Schilling 4:16:50; 3) Christine Cannard 4:36:08; 4) Ellyn Brown 4:55:14; 5) Karen Williams 5:03:45; 6) Cheryl Ess 5:18:55; 7) Jessy Coltrane 5:46:56; Kari Sharp 8:37:42; 9) Amber Burke 8:46:35.

Alaska Mountain Running Grand Prix

Standings as of Saturday

Men

1) Barney Griffith 335 points; 2) Brad Precosky 305; 3) Harlow Robinson 265; 4) Zach Violett 240; 5) Trond Flagstad 205; 6) Darin Markwerdt 200; 7) Brian Bethard 195; Four tied at 175.

Women

1) Christine Cannard 340; 2) Cedar Bourgeois 330; 3) Karen Williams 300; 4) Rachel James 275; 5) Ellyn Brown 230; 6) Cheryl Ess 225; 7) Noelle Brassard 200; Nicole DeYong 180; 9) Monica Tibbets 175; 10) Kyle Gauthier 165.

gus

Thats just plain horrible mate. What camera was it ?

Gus

ScottMcLeod

Congrats on your achievement!

My condolences for your camera... :cry

Perhaps time to cook up a good excuse and send it back to the manufacturer eh?

coldclimb

Geeze, we've got bad luck man. And yours didn't even take it easy on you and die while in Thailand. Well I guess we BOTH now have very good reasons to go for expensive and buy something real. Although mine still snaps the pics, which is nice, even if I can't see them...

Prezwoodz

It was a Fuji F700. Nothing really fancy but i liked it and it was all i could afford. :cry