From Josh Seeherman –

A few Strawberries ran the Woodminster 9 mile XC craziness . . . . it wasn’t terrible in that the climbs were confined to two big ones, and the first was almost right of the gate.  Then again, that 850′ special (the “Woodmonster”) was pretty gross; apparently one section is 650′ in 3/4 of a mile.  I walked a little, maybe 5 steps or so a few times, used the mental agony of The Connector to my advantage as I passed 20-30 people.  Felt pretty good through the last few miles though in Redwood on the Sequoia trail.

Results “straight up” i.e. no handicapping

1 Varner 53:32 (5:57 pace !)

4 George Torgun 59:15.7

7 Jack Wallace 1:04.00.7

25 Dan Sivolella 1:12.11.2

26 Josh Seeherman 1:12.19.6

170 finishers

Due to the handicapping, I didn’t see Dan Sivolella the entire race as he had an 8 minute start and I made up a lot of theoretical ground after the Woodmonster hill.  However, considering he ran 37:30 at Marin, which was faster than I ran in 2012, that leaves me slightly happier about my current fitness.

Varner actually won the race outright, beating the top female (who had a 12 minute head start and ran 65 min) in the final 100 meters.

–Josh