2004 Bluemont Fair 10K - Race Report
For the second year in a row, the big story at the Bluemont Fair 10K was not the performances of the runners. It was hurricanes!
 Are Steve Beggs & Duane Williamson running hard... or just fighting the wind? |
The hard rain and gusty winds made staying home sound appealing to many, and a third of those who preregistered for the 10K race opted not to brave the weather. A total of just sixty-four runners showed up, forty-two people fewer than last year. The race even had to make due with fewer volunteers than usual. But race director Raylene Scott and her crew pulled the race together nevertheless!
Thankfully, the rain began to let up by 8:00 AM, and temperatures hovered around 60° as the 10K participants charged down the shoulder of Route 7 to start the race, wind at their backs. Despite the previous evening's severe weather, the course was in reasonable shape, with only a few fallen tree limbs and no real
 10K men's winner Craig Woshner shows off the pottery |
Clearly the weather did not have much of an impact on Winchester's Craig Woshner, 35. The James Wood High School athletic director destroyed the men's field, winning the race by over three minutes. His 33:36 finish was the fastest winning men's time at Bluemont in many years. Woshner's fellow Frederick County resident, 21-year-old Jared Prunty, took second place among the men with a 36:38 performance. Jason Sparkowski's third place 38:11 finish earned the 44-year-old from West Hartford, CT his second Bluemont Fair 10K men's Masters
 Men's Senior Masters winner Jason Page with his daughter, women's overall winner Mary Smith |
Running genes clearly run in Jason Page's family, as his daughter, 22-year-old Mary Smith, wound up being the overall women's winner! Smith, of Sterling, VA, faced a tough challenge from former Loudoun County resident Laura Sloan, 42, but managed to hang on for the win in 49:00. Sloan, now living in Berryville, followed Smith across the finish line four seconds later. Sloan's second place overall finish left the women's Masters prize open for fellow Berryvillian Bess Stuart, 46. Stuart's 51:08 finish helped her add another award to her Bluemont Fair 10K collection; she also won the Masters award in 1999 and 2000.
 Female Masters winner Bess Stuart (right) ahead of Senior Masters winner Cathy Van Brocklin |
Additional awards were presented to the race's youngest and oldest finishers. The youngest was 14-year-old Jed Caldwell, who lives just a handful of miles northeast of Bluemont and finished seventeenth overall. And the oldest was Winchester's Bob Atkins, who at 79 is forty-five years older than the Bluemont Fair itself!
The 10K race's founder, Don Corley, was the first resident of Bluemont to finish this year's race, with a time of 59:48. Anthony Morris was the only other participant from Bluemont, although three others — Kathy Klimek, Christina Maggio, and Jen Puffenberger — live within a couple miles of the 10K course.
Many thanks to Raylene Scott and to all the race's volunteers, including Nancy Bullock, Brooke Krossman, and Karsten & Kyra Brown. Thanks as well to the race's sponsors & supporters. And, of course, thank you to everyone who participated in the race!
Results & report provided by Karsten Brown.
