Allison Toppen and Kelly Christensen were far out in front of the competition. Photos by Tim Hilt.
The St. Vrain cross country course was back in action for the first time since the flooding earlier this fall. Instead of a premier prep crowd, Colorado coaches ran the circuit for the 3rd annual Fastest Coach in the State Race.
Conditions were amicable compared to the chilly races of the previous two years. The temperature was in the mid forties with very sunny skies.
Fresh off of a 15:53.7 performance in the NXR Citizens Race, Kelly Christensen of Palmer Ridge rounded the course in 16:57.93 completing the hat trick of titles. The question remains: can any coach in the state beat coach Christensen?
Despite the good weather Christensen’s performance was down from last year’s time of 16:03. Coach Christensen attributes the slower time to his “no shave November” new set of whiskers. “I think [the beard] slowed me down a little actually. If maybe I cleaned up before the race I could have ran a little quicker.”
The highlight of this year’s race was when Christensen overtook the lead biker, none other than two-time 2A state champ Paul Roberts. “That will probably be a memory I have for the rest of my life.” reflected the Western State alumnus.
Also feeding off of good vibes from the NXR meet was TCA coach Allison Toppen. Following the suit of Lauren Hamilton and the Titan girls winning the NXR open race, Toppen led all female times with a time of 21:14. It didn't hurt that Toppen was wearing her lucky Auburn Tigers tech shirt on this day.
Toppen continues a trend of TCA victories set by Emily Hanenburg of TCA last year. “It was exciting. That was my goal, to be able to continue the legacy that TCA has created, so hopefully we’ll be able to do it again next year.” Toppen’s victory is even more impressive considering the race was her first competitive 5k in three years.
Look for Toppen later this season at the Rock Canyon Half Marathon in Pueblo next weekend. Hopefully, she has a lucky Auburn Tigers parka for that one.
Mario Garcia of Wiggins and Katie Boyle of Dawson took the over-40 titles running 19:53 and 22:58, respectively, and Jefferson Academy’s Dan Mahoney took home the new alumni crown with a second place finish overall and time of 18:23.
The number of participants was down from last year’s 24 to 15. The absenteeism did not go unnoticed. Lyons coach and meet director Mark Roberts was not afraid to drop some names of coaches he expected to see at the start line. “Let’s call out Matt Norton, and Dave Good from Holy Family said he’d be here.”
Coach Christensen, who used to be Matt Norton’s coaching counterpart at Thompson Vally, also lamented Norton’s disappearance and added another name to the list of coaches playing hooky, “Norton and Weich. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be here. They’re 15 minutes away and I know they're in shape.”
It is doubtful that Broomfield’s Greg Weich could overthrow Christensen’s dominance in this race, but I feel that next year they could duke it out in what I propose should be a new category: best beard.