Trailrunners conquer tough course at Snowbird Resort

SNOWBIRD, Utah ( ABC4 Sports ) — The Speedgoat Mountain Race took place up at Snowbird Mountain Resort Friday for its 17th year.

Two different races were held, a 10k and a 28k race. The 28k race featured an elevation climb of 6,300 feet, with hundreds of trailrunners on hand to battle the mountain. The race features spectacular scenery along a grueling trail and has been gaining in popularity.

“Mountain running is like the greatest thing ever,” said event founder Karl Meltzer. “Because you can always find a place to sit there and just take in the scenery, and it’s been something I’ve loved to do all my life. It’s been building and growing as a global event. We’ve got people from all over the world running the race.”

28k race winner Hawk Call faced some challenges on the trail, but came out on top. “It feels great. It was a brutal course. It had some steep climbs, some gnarly descents. I slipped a couple of times in the snow. It was all around a good time!”

Renee Lewis and her brother Ronny Eicher took part in the 10k race. “Hey, we’re running speedgoat, 10k this time. My sister here, Renee, she ran it I don’t know how many years ago she ran the 50k…10 years ago. We started running together in 1978 or ’79 and we’re still running around together.”

“It’s so relieving when you start to hear the loudspeaker in the festival area,” said Call. “You’re like ‘Oh thank God I’m almost done! I get to stop and sit down.’ So it definitely feels good finishing a race that long.”

When asked about how they trained for the event, Eicher responded, “Neither one of us trained like we should have, but hey, it’s all about getting out there, having fun.”

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