Even Against Mother Nature: Mission Success

Competing in a mud-filled, sold-out field of 400 runners at the Mission Trails Regional Park, Patrick Baldwin (31) of Del Mar, CA and triathlon legend Heather Fuhr (40) of Encinitas, CA, mucked their way through the rainy 15k to top the XTERRA Mission Gorge Trail Run with times of 1:08:00 and 1:14:29 respectively. Not far behind were Samantha McGlone (28) finishing in 1:18:00 and Carlos Vizcarra (34) of Los Angeles with a time of 1:08:24.

In the 5k competitions, Joey Sutera (30) of San Diego finished the event in first place with a time of 18:48 followed closely by San Marcos, CA resident Jose Guerrero (20) with a time of 19:42. Angelique Barron (18) of San Marcos, CA won the women's division in 23:43, and Linda Sutera (28) of San Diego was right on her tail with 24:00.

As described by one runner, "It was like running in snot." But weather did not stop athletes ages 10-68 from 11 states including pros Conrad Stoltz, who was named the XTERRA athlete of the year at the endurance sports awards on Saturday, and Amber Monforte from coming out to battle nature's finest.

Under the umbrella of the SoCal XTERRA Trail Run Series, Mission Gorge was the fifth race leaving only two more opportunities for competitors to earn points toward their series scores.

Coming up next in the SoCal series is the XTERRA Malibu Creek Trail Challenge Xduro on May 10th offering trail runners a new punishing, half-marathon distance test of endurance.

Complete results from Sunday's race are attached and more information can be found online at www.xterratrailrun.com. Media interested in photos from this event should contact emily@xterraplanet.com.

RESULTS 5K | RESULTS 15K

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