The Lookout Mountain Stage of the Rock/Creek Chattanooga Mountains Stage Race is now complete. 145 racers finished the 22-mile course, which weaves its way up and down the mountain between the Lula Lake core property and Covenant College. Men’s Stage 1 winner Daniel Mueller, and women’s winner Annette Bednosky, showed no mercy whatsoever, each winning their respective divisions again for Stage 2. It will take a dramatic comeback on Sunday to shake up those top spots on the leaderboard.
With a finishing time of 2:18:34, Daniel was the only racer to break the 7-minutes-per-mile mark on a tough course with plenty of elevation gain. Annette was the only female runner to finish in under 3 hours. Best of all, the thunderstorms in the forecast didn’t bother showing up at all.
Part of the Rock/Creek Trail Series, the Chattanooga Mountains Stage Race features three days of trail running on three of the mountains surrounding Chattanooga: Raccoon Mountain, Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain.
Below are the top finishers for stage 2. Complete results are available here.
Men’s overall:
- Daniel Mueller, age 25, 2:18:34
- David Workman, age 40, 2:29:00
- Daniel Hamilton, age 23, 2:36:50
Women’s overall:
- Annette Bednosky, age 44, 2:56:44
- Natalie Sims, age 37, 3:10:46
- Malinda Honkus, age 41, 3:22:32
Malinda Honkus from Knoxville didn’t run Stage 1, but found herself on the podium today. You may recall that she also finished 2nd in the women’s division at the Scenic City Trail Marathon last month. Rock/Creek racers Kevin Boucher, Josh Hite, John Brower, Chad Wamack and Sheridan Ames all turned in top-25 finishes.
CLICK HERE for today’s Stage Race results!
Race photos from today are available on the Rock/Creek flickr page, so be sure to check if we caught you doing something goofy on camera.
Special thanks to all of our sponsors, whose support allows us to make the Trail Series a reality: SmartWool, Salomon, Marmot, Toyota, Patagonia, Montrail, Hammer Nutrition, Greenlife Grocery, LifeKraze and Archer Physical Therapy. Don’t forget our volunteers, either! It takes a lot of dedicated people to make the Stage Race happen, and they’re all going to be rolling out of bed at an unmentionable hour again tomorrow.
Our post-race event at The Crash Pad starts at 6PM this evening, so even if you’re not staying there you should come hang out, drink tasty beverages, watch the slideshow and talk trail running! The Chattanooga Mountains Stage Race concludes tomorrow morning with a 20-mile finale on Signal Mountain.