Grand Junction‘s Kevin Koch and Greenwood Village‘s Sonja Wieck took home the top honors in the Moab’s Red Hot 55K on Saturday, February 18th. The challenging ultra race took 200 finishers from the Gemini Bridges trail head to Poison Spider trail head over Moab’s famous red rock formations. With outstanding vistas of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dead Horse Point State Park and the La Sal Mountain Range, it is one of the most beautiful courses in all of Utah.
Behind Koch’s winning time of 4:12:27 was Eric Bohn of Flagstaff, AZ (4:17:08) and previous winner Karl Meltzer of Sandy, UT (4:19:43). Helen Cospolitch of Breckenridge stayed close to Wieck, but was unable to bridge the gap, finishing less than three minutes behind the winner (4:59:10 to 4:56:14). Sarah Hansen of Fort Collins finished third in 5:07:21.
In the 33K, Robert Krar of Flagstaff held off Jared Scott of Grand Canyon Village, AZ. Krar was clocked in 2:17:44 with Scott crossing just over a minute later in 2:18:51. Ryan Woods of Boone, NC was third in 2:22:06. Local runner Heidi Rentz of Moab took top honors for the women, running a solid 2:46:17 and finishing eighth overall. Christina Bauer of Flagstaff (2:48:47) and Shari Marshall of Crested Butte (2:51:57) were second and third, respectfully. in all, 138 runners finished the 33K.