Mud Mountain Dam Half Marathon and 5k

10/06/2024

The Silver Strider online presents

Race Review

The Mud Mountain Dam Half and 5k

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By Jerry Dietrich
with photos by Bruce Fisher

September 21, 2024 – Orting
The half marathon turnout among the Silver Striders was quite good. Some needed the half to qualify for Super Athlete status and some just like the distance. Kent Sizer, Steve Husko, Keith Lerew and Judy Fisher seem to be doing almost every half on the schedule. The Mud Dam course seems to be one of the better half marathon courses on our 2024 schedule.

I think both courses are beautiful. The 5k course is one of my two favorite courses on our schedule. Also, the Los Pinos Mexican Restaurant in Orting is a long-time favorite of the Silver Striders. The have hosted our post-race brunches for the over 17 years.

The weather was ideal and the timing results were available quickly and accurately. It was great to see so many smiling faces as runners crossed the finish line. The finisher medals were good quality and design. The top 3 in each 5 year age division up to 90-94 received a blue, red or white customized ribbon.

As I mentioned in a previous Race Report, things sometimes go unavoidably wrong. That’s part of racing. In this case, the busses failed to materialize and runners had to pitch in and help with transport. It was great to see runners help out during this disaster. The parking was two miles from the start/finish and the Half Marathon was a point to point course starting 13 miles away. Many thanks to the runners who shuttled others during this emergency. The Race Director, Sherry Clarke has offered runners a discount on an upcoming race to compensate for the inconvenience. Thanks Sherry.

All the runners I talked to took the glitch in stride and said they wanted the race on the Silver Strider Schedule in 2025. I felt the same way.

The first Silver Striders to cross the 5k finish line were Roger Lileks, age 59, for the male runners, and Andrea Nye, age 51 leading the females. Roger’s time was 21:26 and Andrea’s was 23:22.
First Silver Striders to finish the half marathon were Keith Lerew, age 66, and Amanda Hoskins, age 50. Keith’s time was 1:28:50 and Amanda ran a 1:39:19.

Keith is currently ranked #1 at all 5 TOP IO distances. It looks like he has a chance to earn a Super Athlete’s gold ring again this year. His rise to dominance of the Super Athlete program since the Covid pandemic has been spectacular.