by John Welch

This article is a continuation of the Sunmart Texas Trail Endurance Runs coverage in the January issue of ITR. For complete details on the Sunmart Texas Trail Endurance Runs, pick up a copy of the January issue of ITR. Subscribe to ITR today!

Besides the phenomenal distance running stamina of 50-mile winner Yiannis Kouros of Greece, a number of individuals at the Sunmart Texas Trail Endurance Runs on Dec. 14 in Huntsville State Park demonstrated the moxie to go long.

Mark Godale, who finished second to the Greek by a respective time of 6:09 to 6:18:17, won the Nifty 50 Miler in Coventry, Rhode Island, on Nov. 17. And the day after the Sunmart 50- Miler, Godale, an Aurora, Ohio, art director, planned to do the Dallas White Rock Marathon. And it wasn't an idle boast, as Godale, the 2001 Sunmart 50-Mile victor, did an exact duplicate of the two-day feat last year as well.

"I planned to just go there and break 3-hours last year," Godale said. "I guess doing the Nifty 50 this year did take something out of me. I just didn't have it at Sunmart this time around."

Still, how many individuals have Godale's resiliency when it comes to doing back to back races so soon after a major effort.

One runner who might come close to Godale's derring-do is Joy Smith of Houston. Smith, 40, was the runner-up behind Medina, Ohio, mother of two Connie Gardner in the Sunmart 50-Miler on Dec. 14. Gardner, a seasoned ultra marathon veteran in her own right, bested Smith 7:14:00 to 7:30:09. And what's even more amazing than Smith's four-time participation in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials (1988-2000) is the fact that Sunmart was her first ultra marathon. Smith didn't even get her feet wet with the Sunmart 50K before trying a full-fledged 50-Miler. Talk about moxie!

Sunmart seems to bring the best out in its runners. The race keeps growing at a swift pace. This year, nearly 1,100 runners from 40 states and seven countries entered the 13th annual affair. Sunmart still claims the distinction of being the largest ultra marathon event in the United States. The JFK 50- Miler is still the largest ultra race.

Maybe runners like Kouros and Godale and Gardner and Smith are the reason that Sunmart keeps growing. The location of the event in scenic Huntsville State Park is certainly a factor, but all indications are that John Cook of Sunmart is the driving force behind the race. His support, plus the fact that he is an ultra marathoner, makes the race something that most of the top runners want to be a part of. And when you get the best ones, the grass roots runners, like most of the rest of the field just happen to tag along for the experience.

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