GILROY—Bihama Vedaste and Tiffany Pereira have several running accomplishments between them and now they can add one more: the title of state champion.
Vedaste and Pereira were the first male and female, respectively, to cross the finish line of the 12K race at the 39th Annual Bill Flodberg Mt. Madonna Challenge hosted by the South Valley Running Club on Aug. 23 at the Sprig Lake entrance of Mt. Madonna Park. This year’s 12K course was part of the Road Runner’s Club of America’s Championship Event Series which awards the top male and female finishers in the open, masters (40-plus), grand masters (50-plus) and senior grand masters (60-plus).
Vedaste ran the 30K course the past three years, but opted for the 12K this year to have the chance to compete for the state championship. He trailed the runner-up, Rickey Russell from Novato, for much of the course, but said he picked up the pace the last two miles to finish in a time of 53:25.
“I think it’s good in terms of career,” Vedaste said after completing the 7.4-mile course which includes 1,100-foot elevation climb. “It helps in building my resume—I won this race, I won that race. It helps in telling people so they know it’s not by chance; he’s done it before.”
Pereira, who lives in Morgan Hill, said the Mt. Madonna Challenge is one of the more difficult courses she’s run and that she even had to walk parts of it. She ran the course four times prior to race day, but the mom of three said she still wasn’t prepared for how difficult it would be.
“The first hill is just killer, so you get through that and take the downhills as fast as you can,” Pereira said.
John Burton and Stella Carey won the masters state championship and Andrei Pchenitchnika and Kathy Lebleu of Morgan Hill won the grand masters. There were no runners participating that qualified for the senior grand masters division.
The cool, foggy morning provided perfect running conditions for the 155 participants that turned out for the race—up from 110 in 2013. Several members of the Morgan Hill-based running group Wolfpack came out to tackle the course and two of its members took first in the 6K.
Sobrato alum and Wolfpack member Ryan Corvese completed the 6K course in 26:18, getting one last local race in before he headed back to Cal Poly for his sophomore year. Corvese is no stranger to success on the local level, having previously won the Morgan Hill’s Freedom Fest 5K and Mushroom Mardi Gras 5K as well as a Central Coast Section championship in 2012 for the Bulldogs. But the Mt. Madonna Challenge, he said, holds a special place in his heart.
“It’s a beautiful place to run. I ran here four years ago right before I got serious into running, so this place holds some special memories,” Corvese said. “It’s nice to run with the Wolfpack; I trained with them all throughout high school. They’re like family.”
Julie Wolfsmith, the wife of Wolfpack founder Dave Wolfsmith, was the first female to cross the 6K course’s finish line in a time of 33:34. Julie said the crosstraining—including swimming and biking in her workout routine—the Wolfpack does helps strengthen her running. Having not run the course in four years, however, she said she was pleasantly surprised with her result.
“It’s pretty exciting because I’ve done it before in years past, but I’m getting older so I didn’t think I’d do as well,” Julie said. “It’s always hard; there’s no easy way up this hill. Even if you walked it, it would be hard.”
Julie was in familiar company as her Wolfpack teammates Jovita Ruffner, Christi Becerra, Martine Buntman and Debra Vasquez finished second, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. It was Gilroy runner Vasquez’s, first time tackling the course—including a 700-foot elevation climb—but said she powered through with words of wisdom from Finding Nemo’s Dori.
“I try not to think about what’s to come and just focus on keeping my breathing mellow because that’s the hard,” Vasquez said. “I have bigger legs so I tend to just power through it. It’s like Finding Nemo: just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
Though it had been just minutes since she finished the race, the mother of four boys said she was already excited to do it again next year.
“It’s all about challenging yourself to do better than the time before,” Vasquez said.
Michael Caplan took the top spot in the 18K course in a time of 1:40:10, while Mary Toman of Colorado Springs was the first female finisher in 2:11:36 . It was Caplan’s first time running the race having just moved from Washington D.C. to Monterey, but is a regular to the trail racing scene. He said he and his fiancé have run a trail race almost every other weekend since moving. Even being the veteran he is, Caplan said the 12K uphill was the steepest he’d ever encountered, but the difficulty of the course made his win that much sweeter.
“I’m always racing against myself; you can’t really predict who your competition is going to be,” he said. “You just run your race and do the best you can. If it ends up in a win, it ends up in a win.”
It was also Gilroy-native Abel Bedolla’s first time competing in the Mt. Madonna Challenge and he took third overall in the 6K. Bedolla said he started running two years ago after feeling unhealthy and now averages 30 to 40 miles a week and two to three races a month. The course was tough, he said, but that won’t stop him from doing it again next year.
“You just get out there and try to do your best,” Bedolla said. “You might have to walk—especially uphill—but it’s fun.”
Cheyne Inman of Hayward (2:29:24) and Kellie Dibble from Bakersfield (3:30:39) were the first male and female finishers in the 30K, respectively.
Full results from the race can be found here.
