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Capitol Hills

370 runners tackle inaugural Endurance Challenge event

Michael Huff of Fairfax, Virginia was venturing into the great unknown. Then again, so were many runners at the first-ever The North Face Endurance Challenge in Washington, DC, on August 6, 2007. The 40-year-old Huff had never run an ultramarathon and here he was, tackling a 50-mile trail race. "Call it my midlife crisis," he said afterward. "I turned 40 back in May and this was cheaper than buying a Corvette."

In all, approximately 370 runners ran in the event, which offered distances of 10K, half marathon, 50K, and 50 miles. Athletes endured humid, 90-degree temperatures as they covered a hilly, rolling course that offered views of the Potomac River and passed through three forest parks.

The 50-Mile race featured a phalanx of top ultramarathon talent, including The North Face athletes Guillermo Medina, James Bonnett, Sam Thompson, and Dean Karnazes. Early on, Medina and Leigh Schmitt of Conway, Massachusetts, ran stride for stride. Around Mile 18, Schmitt, who owns course records at the Vermont 100- and Vermont 50-Mile Endurance Runs, began to pull away. By mile 25 he had an eight-minute lead and that gap increased as he seemed to gain strength while other runners fell back.

In the end, Schmitt clocked a very impressive winning time of 6:59:34, taking home a $1,000 prize and a trip to run in The North Face Endurance Challenge Championship in San Francisco. Thompson, who had traveled from Seattle, Washington, to race, came in second.

In the women's 50-mile ultramarathon, Kristin Halizak Eddy of Herndon, Virginia, jumped to an early lead and ran a few minutes ahead of 27-year-old Justine Morrison, a veteran of "seven or eight 50 milers." At Mile 30, Morrison, who lives in Washington, DC, was able to catch and pass her. She widened her lead, eventually winning by approximately 15 minutes with a final time of 8:32:20.

"The last 15 miles, I just tried to see how much energy I had left," she said afterward. "It was a good, fast course." Morrison is already looking forward to running the Endurance Challenge Championship. "I'll definitely make the trip out there," she said. "I've never run a race there [in San Francisco]."

And how did Huff's race go? "The furthest I'd gone was a 26 miler, so it was a mystery what would happen after that," he says. "You hear about bonking during a long race, and I did at about 28 miles, but I recovered for the last 14-mile loop." Huff completed the course in 11:25:06, good for 17th place overall. Three other first-timers completed the distance as well.

In fact, just two days after the race, Huff was already planning toward his second-ever ultramarathon, a late-September 100K in Virginia.

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