PATCH SURPRISE: COURSE RECORD FALLS
2024 Patch Sprint Race Report
9:30 race start
Just about everyone present on top of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain was taken by surprise when Jeremy Gundrum broke out of the woods and across the summit tower finish line. Perhaps no one more so than Gundrum himself. “You’re kidding?”, he said when informed he had beaten Ryan Atkins course record, set in 2018, and believed by some to be untouchable. Gundrum’s finish time was one hour, 53 minutes and 14 seconds, a half-minute better than Atkins.
How did Gundrum, whose previous best time was 2:13:36, manage to put in such an incredible time? “All winter I was just telling myself run up as many hills as I could find, then as soon as the trails were good to run, run as many uphill trails as I could.”
Gundrum also had the support of a group of friends who took the top four spots, and seven of the top 15 places. “We train together but we were like, ‘if one of us feels good, you gotta jump on it’,” said race runner-up Logan Van Buren. “Jeremy was just eating it and I was like, ‘there's no way I'm hanging with this guy today.’ He’s a monster, dude!”
Men's Top-3 & Women's Champion
Two-time defending champion Michael Brockway came in third, just over the two hour mark on a day where the course was dry and the weather was near perfect (FULL RESULTS).
And, while everyone was raving about the performance of Gundrum, the new champion was doing the same about the race: “Thank you for putting this on. This is like literally like one of my favorite courses. You end with an incredible view and you just feel like you feel like you should in the Adirondacks, man; you feel like so part of nature. It's very immersive.”
The women’s racing division yielded two big surprises. The first was defending race winner and Pond Sprint overall champion Erin Rasco retiring from the race prior to the final mountain, citing an illness. In her absence, two-time champion Elizabeth Disney set a personal best time of 2:31:32 to capture the division. The second surprise was that Elizabeth did not finish alongside her twin sister Alexandra, as they had done in seven previous Patch Sprints. “Alexandra saw last year's first place finisher (Rasco) was just ahead of us on the back of Sugarloaf, but reachable and she said, ‘Elizabeth, go get it’! So she let me have it. And yeah, I kicked it just a enough to stay ahead.” This was Disney's first title since 2005.
Finishing behind the twins were Mac Guthrie, Annie Preston, and Deb Nordyke who put in an impressive time of 2:50:47 at age 62, while seeing her 18-year old women’s course record remain intact. “Yeah, but the course was so much shorter back then— you really need to stop recognizing me!”
Octogenarian - Full-sized champ - 40-time Sprinter
In other divisions, Ken Ryba claimed the Clydesdale title, again; Cameron Coleman and Olivia Drowne became two-time half-sprint champions; and 11-year old Eddie C won the Kindersprint division for the fourth straight year.
OTHER LANDMARK EVENTS
81-year old Pete Henderson tied the mark for oldest Patch Sprint finisher. “I could have used a para-glider to come down off of Pok-O, but otherwise I felt pretty good”….
Six-time race winner Jason Fiegl had a record extending 40th Patch Sprint finish (summer and winter) and did it in style: He covered the course forward and backward, finishing on Pok-O and returning to the starting line via Sugarloaf, Rattlesnake and Bare….
After 25 years, Tim Singer stepped down as race director, to be replaced by long-time racer and event supporter Andrew Gonzalez. He oversaw an event that has raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for the Adirondack Scholarship Foundation. “Too many people to thank,” said Singer, “from the donors and volunteers, to this amazing group of runners, hikers and friends. I’ve loved every minute of organizing the Patch Sprint but it’s time for ‘new blood’!”
Next year’s Patch Sprint is scheduled for May 24, 2025.
