Courtesy: event press release

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Look for complete coverage of the Sunmart Texas Trail Endurance Runs (including official results for EVERY Sunmart finisher, race recaps, photos, etc.) in the January 2005 issue of Inside Texas Running. Subscribe to ITR today!

Ulrich Steidl, a former member of the German national track and cross country team, won his fifth consecutive 50-kilometer race in course record time at the 15th annual Sunmart Texas Trail Endurance Runs at Huntsville State Park on Saturday. It was Steidl's first Sunmart victory.

Steidl, who is a 32-year-old high school chemistry teacher from Seattle, Wash., covered the multi-loop route through the park's trail system in 3 hours, 11 minutes, 45 seconds to eclipse the course record of 3:12:25 set by Rich Hanna in 1994.

Dave Terris, 41, of San Antonio, Texas, the winner of the 50K in 2003, was second at 3:33:40. Jim Harrington, 39, of Negaunee, Mich., the runner-up last year, was third in 3:35:21.

Steidl, a native of Erlenback, Germany, broke from a small field that included Terris and Harrington shortly into the first 6- mile loop and quickly forged a lead that none of his pursuers could match.

"I took the lead after the first half-mile, and by mile ten I lengthened the lead to one and one half minutes," said Steidl, whose personal best in the marathon is 2:13. "I was able to do a negative split on the second lap, and I knew if I kept my pace I'd be close to the record."

But neither Terris nor Harrington were willing to concede the victory, and kept Steidl in their sights for the first 18 miles of the race.

"I was running about six-minute pace at the start, and I just decided to run my own race," Steidl said. "During the last six miles of the race, I knew I was close to the record, but I did have to push hard to keep my record streak alive."

In the womens 50K, Chris Purslow, 37, of Waco, Texas, won in 4:05:06. Jean Herbert of Albuquerque, N.M., was second at 4:19:39. Anna Horne, 23, of Copperas Cove, Texas, was third in 4:21:47.

Yiannis Kouros, 47, of Athens, Greece, who was the 2002 winner of the 50-mile race, repeated as the mens 50-mile winner in 6:11:28. Hal Koerner, 28, of Seattle, Wash., was second at 6:43:48. Ken Gordon, 39, of Albuquerque, N.M., was third in 6:52:42.

Kouros, a music composer and professional runner, jumped into the 50-mile lead when Brazilian Marcio Oliveira, the 50-mile winner in 2003, took a spill and was unable to continue.

"The whole race I thought I was second place, because I didn't know Oliveira had dropped out," said Kouros, who holds numerous distance records from 24-hours to 1,000-miles. "I only saw him (Oliveira) on the first lap, and I thought he was running too fast. I prefer hotter weather and races much longer, like 48- hours."

Connie Gardner, 41, of Medina, Ohio, who won the womens 50-mile race in 2002, duplicated her victory with a time of 7:16:23. Tania Pacev, 45, of Littleton, Colo, the 2001 winner, was second at 7:23:34. Laura Nelson, 39, of Woodstock, Va., was third at 7:31:48.

But Gardner set the early pace and maintained it to the finish line at Lake Raven.

"Tania (Pacev) was closing in on me the whole way," said Gardner, who was the 2004 USATF Womens Ultra Runner of the Year. "She (Pacev) was within two-minutes of me for part of a lap, then I surged to about a four minute lead on her. But even with that, she looked like she could pull on me."

More than 950 runners from 35 states and four countries make the 15th annual Sunmart event the largest ultra-marathon in the United States.