Mader and Linn Run to Convincing Wins at Monte Sano

More than 200 participate in XTERRA Alabama Series race

Brandon Mader and Elena Linn ran away with the top honors at the XTERRA Monte Sano Trail Run last weekend.

Mader was the overall winner, and Linn was the top female for the 15-kilometer course at Huntsville, Ala. More than 200 runners participated in the event, which was completed on Saturday, Oct. 22, at Monte Sano State Park.

Mader completed the course in 1 hour, 1 minute, 55 seconds, to win it for the second consecutive year.

"The course was beautiful because the weather was perfect, and the leaves have just started changing so there was good color," said Mader, who is from Huntsville. "The footing is very technical and you are hardly ever running in a straight line so it's a difficult course to navigate.  There is also never a point where you're running on flat ground after the first mile so it's a challenge to keep a consistent pace."

Mader raced to an early lead and stayed in front the entire way. Eric Charette placed second with a time of 1:05:39; David O'Keefe was third in 1:07:25.

"The field was very strong with two other elite trail runners besides myself (Eric Charette and Tim Vinson) as well as a recent Olympic track hopeful (Antoine Bastiste)," Mader said. "So, given the strength of the field, I took it out at a solid pace, but surprised myself with how well I was running and just kept pushing accordingly."

Linn was an impressive fourth overall and dominated the women's field. She finished with a time of 1:11:25, which was more than nine minutes ahead of the next female.

"I wasn't aware at all of how far ahead I was," said Linn, who is from Birmingham, Ala. "The lead pack of guys took off at the beginning and I went out pretty conservative, so I didn't see the (women) at all. There was a group of two guys that I ended up running with for the second half of the race."

The XTERRA Monte Sano Trail Run was the second of four races in the 2011-12 season for the XTERRA Alabama Trail Run Series. The next event in the series will be the XTERRA Oak Mountain Trail Run on November 13. To register for an Alabama Series race, or learn more about it, please visit www.dirtyspokes.com or www.xterratrailrun.com.

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