Today, along with the 45th running of the Chickamauga Chase road race, Rock/Creek hosted the inaugural Chickamauga Chase Trail Race! Despite a chilly morning, we had sun and blue skies all race long.

Heavy rains in the area Wednesday night and Friday afternoon made for a sloppy course in several places — especially a gooshy, shoe-sucking mud bog along the banks of Chickamauga Creek — and turned a minor creek crossing into a significant one. So it goes in the Southeast in springtime, of course, and race participants didn’t seem to mind!

Cullom Boyd basically led wire-to-wire, with Kevin Boucher hot on his heels most of the way; somewhere in the last segment of the race, fellow Rock/Creek Race Team member Brian Costilow overtook Boucher for 2nd place, and that’s how they would cross the line.

In a hotly-contested women’s race — three top finishers separated by less than 30 seconds — Kiersten Vradenbaugh narrowly edged Rachel Mason & Jan Gautier for her first Salomon Rock/Creek Trail Series win.

Here are the top finishers and times:

Men’s overall

1. Cullom Boyd, 28, 56:31
2. Brian Costilow, 39, 56:34
3. Kevin Boucher, 34, 57:25

Women’s overall

1. Kiersten Vradenburgh, 22, 1:06:02
2. Rachel Mason, 27, 1:06:12
3. Jan Gautier, 47, 1:06:34

Despite 275+ registrations, this race only had 218 finishers. We’ve received word that some runners may have actually run the wrong race — presumably the long-standing 15k road run — so please send feedback if you think this could be addressed in a better way next year. After all, we’re excited to add a trail element to this local classic, but it only counts as a trail race if you make it to the trail!

Click here for complete race results.

Several Rock/Creek staffers and Wild Trails volunteers fanned out along the course to take photos and GoPro video; you probably noticed us along the muddiest (or most picturesque) parts of the course…

Here are the available photo albums from the race:

• Photos by R/C’s Rina Handwerker
• Photos by R/C’s Jeff Bartlett
• Photos by R/C’s Mark McKnight

Have photos, stories or thoughts to share from the race? Come join the discussion at our Chickamauga Chase Trail Race facebook page.

The next race in the Salomon Rock/Creek Trail Series is one of our favorites: the Scenic City Trail Marathon & 1/2 Marathon, taking place on the fast singletrack atop Raccoon Mountain on May 18. The half marathon is completely full, and the marathon distance is down to about 70 spots, so act fast if you want to run one of the largest trail marathons around!

The full Salomon Rock/Creek Trail Series schedule is available here:
https://www.rockcreek.com/race.rco