Utah Couple Prevails at Arizona Finale

A weekend escape from the cold weather in Salt Lake City led to a victorious run in Fountain Hills, Ariz., for Jake Krong and Andrea North .

Krong and North - who are a couple - took top honors at the XTERRA McDowell Mountain Trail Run on Sunday, Feb. 6, at Fountain Hills.

Krong, 27, was the overall winner, completing the 15-mile course in 1 hour, 28 minutes, 19 seconds. North, 24, was the first female, finishing with a time of 1:43:44.

"The weather and course were awesome," Krong said. "We'd been running in wind chills that were barely breaking zero degrees for the previous week in Salt Lake City, so the low 40s temps at the start felt perfect."

Krong and North live and work in Salt Lake City, but they were in Phoenix to visit his parents for the weekend. They discovered the nearby XTERRA race while looking for things to do online. They are both planning to run in marathons later this year, so the challenging trails at McDowell Mountain Regional Park served as a form of training.

Krong, a former member of the track and cross country teams at Colgate University, took the lead midway through the course and ran by himself for the final seven miles.

"I positioned myself in second place right off the start, and stayed there for the first half of the race," he said. "Three different guys took the lead at various points; I just maintained my position in second and tried to run relaxed. I knew I was feeling strong, so as soon as we hit the 8-mile mark, I burst to the lead and really increased the pace."

Eric Bohn of Flagstaff, Ariz., placed second in 1:30:09, and Andrew Drobeck of Missoula, Mont., was third in 1:31:08.

North had a similar strategy in the women's division. She stayed in the lead pack for the first half of the race, then broke ahead by herself for the second half.

During one section late in the course, North said she could see Krong in the overall lead, and it encouraged her to stay strong down the stretch.

"I was very excited to see that I was able to run about 20 seconds faster per mile than I anticipated," North said. "It was great to see Jake at the front of the pack when we crossed paths at the out-and-back portion of the race."

Trisha Miller of Missoula, Mont., placed second in 1:45:02, and Dawn Stone of Flagstaff, Ariz., was third in 1:49:35.

More than 300 runners of various ages and skill levels participated in the XTERRA McDowell Mountain Trail Run.

For complete results from the XTERRA McDowell Mountain Trail Run, please visit www.aztrailrace.com or www.xterratrailrun.com.

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