Grover Takes Seeley Lake 50K

SEELEY LAKE - It was nearly a photo finish for the women's top two competitors in the inaugural Seeley Lake 50K Friday, July 15. Seeley Lake's Kim Grover held her lead over Carolina Davies of Helena finishing just 12 seconds ahead of Davies with a time of 5:12:46.98. Jonah Weaver of Portland, Ore. won the title for the men with a time of 4:24:27.09.

Eleven runners participated out of the 20 that pre-registered. Eight of the runners were from Helena while others came from Hamilton, Mont., Seeley Lake and Portland. Race Director Chris Stout said the runners were really flexible. Instead of finishing at the Seeley Lake Nordic Trails, they changed the start line and finished at the Bob Marshall Festival Grounds. This kept the course to 31 miles.

"Kim Grover took first place for women. I thought that was great because [it was the] first annual Seeley Lake 50K and a Seeley person [won] it," said Stout. "I was so happy."

Grover has run two 50Ks in the past. Both were above 10,000 feet. She said she vowed to never run another one because of how difficult her last one was. When she found out no one from Seeley Lake had signed up, she decided she had to do it.

Grover has skied a majority of the route in the Over Seeley's Creeks and Ridges (OSCR) 50K race. She thought the route seemed a lot steeper on skis. She said the most technical part of the run was Trail 30 which was at the end of the run and not a part of the OSCR route.

"That was super challenging because I was tired," said Grover. "The hardest part was going slow for the first 15 miles [the farthest she has run all year]."

Grove said the race was well marked and she was grateful for all the volunteers at the aid stations and those that came to cheer for her. Someone even spray-painted 'Good Job Kim' which, she said, really made her day.

Weaver finished 21 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor Andrew Rivers of Helena. He said he had never finished first in anything so this was a major milestone for him. He ran this 50K in 29 minutes faster than his first 50K that he ran in Oregon last month.

Weaver said he thought the trail was clearly marked and nicely laid out with a mix of logging roads and single track through wildflowers and trees. He said he was pleasantly surprised how much shade there was on the route.

"The Mission Mountains were beautiful," said Weaver who just decided to do the run because he was in the area visiting friends in Bigfork, Mont. "I didn't find a hill that was insurmountable."

While there was 4,000 feet of gain and loss over the 31-mile course, second place female finisher Carolina Davies appreciated the more gradual inclines. "It's nice to do something that you can kind of go fast and it's not a ton of vertical," she said, "It was all runnable and it's a good confidence boost to do something like this."

Winners for the men and women each received a $50 gift certificate to SLE Outside.

Stout was grateful for the help of the Seeley-Swan Search & Rescue, Hammer's sponsorship, the support of people along the route and others that came out to cheer the runners on.

"A big comparison is Leadville [Colorado] which is huge. It started with 14 runners and now they have 20,000 runners," said Stout. "My point is I think we can have a successful event."