2018 Skunk Cabbage Recap and Thank You

Most of the 1000+ Skunk Cabbage runners who registered during the winter months naively believed winter would be long gone come race day. When April 8 finally rolled around, runners could only contemplate “What was I thinking?” as they raced their way through a snow squall and heavy winds over East Ithaca’s backroads. Half marathoners had the pleasure of a strong tailwind for much of the first half, only to get smacked in the face with an equally aggressive headwind as they turned onto Ellis Hollow Creek Road just past the halfway point. When it was all said and done 625 runners competed the half marathon, with another 348 10K finishers. Because of the adverse weather conditions finishing times were generally slower all-around, although some runners did achieve personal records.

Kim Vona of Buffalo was our women’s 10K winner in 38:50. Defending champion William Hoyne took the men’s title in 34:01, over 30 seconds off his winning time from 2017 when the course conditions were much better. (Hoyne also took second place in the 2016 10K.) Caty Menard and Joe Woodworth won the 10K Masters awards. Ann Sick won the women’s Grandmasters (50+) title, while on the men’s side it was Mookie Kent (who also was the overall winner at the last year’s 5 & 10.) At age 53, Kent was third overall in the Skunk 10K and our first over-40 finisher.

Over 13.1 miles, Ithaca’s Jennifer Boerner won the women’s race for the second straight year with a blazing fast 1:24:14. Perennial Skunk Cabbage speedster Richard Powell, the 2016 winner, again topped the field in 1:13:23. (No stranger to the Ellis Hollow hills, Powell also took second place in 2017 and 2015.) Cassandra Crane and Yvette DeBoer were our women’s Masters and Grandmasters winners, respectively. In the men’s race, Scott Dawson edged out Kenny Makosch by five seconds for the Masters win, while Boris Dzikovski failed to get lost and won the men’s Grandmasters division. (You can read Scott’s blog post about the race here.) Each of these age group winners — from both race distances — was also awarded an RRCA New York State Championship medal for his or her effort.

RRCA NY State Award Winners

Results and Race Photos

Have a blog post or any media links you’d like us to share? Let us know and we’ll link to it on our web page. And let’s see your photos! Tag #SkunkCabbageClassic and @FLRCithaca on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and consider joining our Strava group.

Link to results

10k Results with Age Group awards (text)

Half marathon results with Age Group awards (text)

Race photos from photographer Steve Gallow: Coming soon.

Facebook photo album from Matthew Gawors:

Notes

Did you forget to pre-order a shirt and still want something to remember the day? We have a limited quantity of shirts available for purchase for $15 apiece. (Click for image.) E-mail Race Director Alex at ak235@cornell.edu to grab one before they’re gone!

If you finished the Half Marathon and did not receive a medal but would still like one, you can stop at Finger Lakes Running Company in the Ithaca Commons to pick one up. The same goes for any Age Group award winners who did not pick up their gift card awards after the race.

Thank You

The race organizers would like to recognize everyone who pitched in his or her time to help make the race possible. Major kudos for those whose spent volunteer hours outside enduring the crazy weather as they encouraged and supported all of our participants. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

• Setting up, managing and breaking down course, including the start/finish line — Gary McCheyne, Charles Fay, Bob Talda, Evan Kurtz, Joe Reynolds, Carl Franck, Jullien Flynn, Bob Walters, Joel Cisne, and Ian Golden.
• Saturday packet pickup, day of registration and shirt sales — Shelly Marino, Amelia Habicht, Gretchen Gilbert, Emily Funk, Jon Shaff, Maria Costanzo, Sue Aigen, David Keifer, Mike Allinger, Caroline Rasmussen, Ashley Schmidt, Laurie Cuomo, Marlaina Gehret, and Siham Safi.
• RRCA table — The Jauquet family.
• Food setup and management — Sarah Drumheller, Alissa Short, Amy Panek, Isabelle Schweitzer, Kerra Quinn, and Jess Boulia.
• Motorcycle Lead — Neil Klohmann.
• Cyclists — Adam Engst, Tom Hartshorne, Emily Funk, Lauren Brzozowski, and David Mountin and his friend Tom.
• Water Stops — Katahdin Sandy, Myriah Marnell, Donal Fitterer, Marian Fowler, Albert Fowler, Elizabeth, Fowler, Shealena Hartwell, Carl Hartwell, Neil Schwartzbach, and Sally Schwartzbach.
  • The Cornell Running Club — Kimberly Chen, Moriah Adeghe, Julia Tantillo, Polen Guzelocak, and Jeremy Yong.
  • The Ithaca Hash House Harriers — Pete Dady and crew.
  • Pickle Ball Rocks! — Karen Hom, Lou Hom, Molly Hom, Jack Hom, and Dave Lawrence.
  • Alpha Phi Omega — Nathaniel Garry, Dorothy Leung, Angela Zhang, Meera Bhide, Molly Zhang, Caitlin Garbo, Reba and Michael Klingensmith, Matthew Vani, and Karuna Katariwala.
• Course Marshals — Nathaniel Garry, Dorothy Leung, Michael and Sarah Sullivan, Nick Bennett, Jake Read, Beverly Chin, Dara Panter, Alan Lockett, Shelia Squier, Bruce Roebal, Gerrit Van Loon, Liz Vance, Steven Folsom, Mary Ann and Tom Rishel, Ruth Sproul, Nora McIver-Sheridan, Karlene Smith, Brigid Shipman, Jason Hamm, Ching Pang, Kieran Loehr, Pooja Reddy, Craig and Maureen Trowbridge, Jenna Oliver, Ariana Gracia-Cassani, Cara Smith, Ruby Jin, Jia Yi Wang, Bill Addo and Jennifer Christianson.
• Finish Line Awards — Brenda Michaud, Claire Colvin and her friend Talia, and Reba and Michael Klingensmith.

Additional thank you to this year’s Skunk Cabbage sponsors for helping to make the race possible. Please support our local businesses and organizations just as they supported us in putting on this event. Gimme Coffee, Buffalo Wild Wings (Ithaca), Wegmans, CNY Racing, Tompkins County Amateur Radio Association, Finger Lakes Running Company, Ithaca Milk, Ithaca Bakery,  and Gatorade. We also wish to thank Cornell University, the Cornell Running Club, the Road Runners Club of America, and the Ithaca running community for their continued support of this event!

So what’s next?

Now that you’ve completed Skunk, why not jump into the Earth Day Half Marathon (April 22, Syracuse) and the Herald of Victory Half (May 27, Binghamton) and earn yourself an extra sweet medal for finishing the Upstate New York Half Marathon Series.