Saturday, March 24, 2001 -- Susquehanna State Park, MD
Hinte-Anderson Trail 50K (HAT Run) (iPO Event Id#: 2559)
Story by Brad Yurish with photos by Karen Diehl

[Details] [Coverage] [Overall Results] [Pic Set 1] [Pic Set 2]

Searching for the fast line in the Sesquehanna State Park

For a whole lot more on the Hinte-Anderson Trail 50K, visit their official web site at: www.HATrun.com

Despite chilly temperatures, wind and the occasional sprinkles, the 299 runners for this year's 13th annual Hinte-Anderson 50K Trail Run could not have been happier. With people coming from as far away as Vermont and Germany, this is a mainstay event for many of the ultra runners in the region. And for good reason - Phil Anderson and Jeff Hinte really know how to put on a wonderful race.

The course for this event winds throughout the beautiful Susquehanna State Park. The start/finish line was at the Steppingstone Museum and proceeded from there on a 1 mile out and back prologue. Almost immediately the course dove straight into the woods on some sweet singletrack trail.

The course is setup as a 15 mile figure-8 pattern, so runners pass an aid station approximately every 5 miles, and then this loop is done twice. Most of the course is on singletrack trail along with a few field crossings, a little dirt road running, and some great stream crossings thrown in just for fun.

Open fields are just part of the varied terrain

The best part of the course comes at the end of each loop with what many runners describe as the hardest 6 miles of the entire race. Long uphill climbs and technical singletrack downhills really make a runner dig deep during this section as they prepare for the halfway point and then the finish line.

The aid stations had almost everything imaginable that an ultra-runner could want - tons of Gatorade and Mountain Dew, fruit, cookies, homemade cup cakes, PB&J's, Oreo's, M&M's, potato chips, and a thousand other types of sweet and salty foods. And, of course there was the ever popular Ibuprofen available, just in case someone might be a little sore.

In addition to all the food at the aid stations and killer hotdogs after the race, entrants received a rather snazzy denim shirt embroidered with the race name. Finishers also received a HAT 50K Trail Run hat for their accomplishment.

Happy trails at the HAT

As for results of this year's race, we have the following information reprinted from the official results and web site located at www.HATrun.com:

Cecily Tynan, also from Philadelphia, won the womens race. It was her first ultra and only her second trail run, the first being the Conostoga 10 miler last year. The first three women ran close for the first half of the race. Cecily was comfortably running the second half and kept a 5-6 minute gap over the next runner. Colleen Dulin passed Fransca Conte in the last 5 miles to move into second place.

"The last five miles were pretty tough (quads were sore), but aerobically I was fine. I just tried to not trip over anything and ran up most of the hills at this point. I was happy just to finish my first ultra in one piece, the victory was icing on the cake." said Tynan. It was her fourth PR and fourth win in four weeks having won the open women's division for a 10k, a 10 miler and 1/2 marathon before HAT.