Although no runner was remotely close to Sean Meissner on Sunday morning, the 14th Lake Tahoe Marathon winner was in a battle throughout the 26.2-mile race from Tahoe City to Pope Beach in South Lake Tahoe.
Meissner overcame one of the warmest days in LTM history to claim what he referred to as the biggest marathon win of his running career. Temperatures climbed into the upper 70s, and Meissner was just looking to cool off after winning his third different LTM event. He dumped several cups of water over his sweat-drenched head in the minutes following his victory.
"It's crazy, because two years ago we had snow," said the 36-year-old runner. "I carried a bottle (of water) pretty much the whole way until friends started running with me, and I could hand it to them. I know I needed to drink more often than just at the aid stations, so having a bottle really helped me."
The Sisters, Ore., ultrarunner crossed the finish line in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 58 minutes to finish well ahead of the top two triple marathon placers Ian Sharman of London and Lynyrd Skynrod of Reno.
"My two goals were to win and to finish under 2:50. I got one of the goals, so I'm happy about that," Meissner said.
Truckee's Gretchen Brugman won the women's marathon in an unofficial time of 3:34:24. The 2003 women's triple marathon winner nearly didn't run Sunday because of a lingering bout of the flu.
"It's a little bit of a surprise. It's not exactly one of the fastest winning times ever," Brugman said. "My original goal was to run about 3:30, but I've been sick all week. Friday was kind of the low point, but I felt good this morning."
Despite her less-than-peak condition, Brugman was still able to set a personal course record.
"I've run a couple of other times, but I've never broken four hours," she said.
Meissner said that his time was also impacted by pushing his pace sooner than he should have.
"Once I hit the hills at D.L. Bliss at mile 15-17 I was going a little slower than I wanted, and even on the downhills it wasn't as fast," Meissner said.
Skynrod, however, took home the $500 first prize for claiming possibly his last triple marathon title.
"I guess it's worth it, but I'm pretty sure I won't be doing another one," Skynrod said. "I've wrecked myself out here enough. I was thinking about taking up cage fighting. I hear that's a little less brutal. I might not get so beat up doing that sport and make more money."
Skynrod was attempting to break the world record in the triple marathon. But the second leg from Spooner Summit to Tahoe City on Saturday took its toll on Skynrod as he slowed to a 2:54 marathon after opening with a 2:43 effort. His time on Sunday was unofficially 3:02.
"It wasn't in the cards, I guess," Skynrod said. "I needed to run 2:43s the whole way."
Skynrod has been known to fire up a cigarette at the finish line in past LTM events. He smokes anywhere from 10 cigarettes to more than a pack a day but didn't puff on many over the past three days.
"A lot more sleeping than smoking in the last three days," he said.
Sharman didn't have any illusions of winning the marathon on Sunday after running marathons the previous two days.
"I just assumed there would be several guys going well under three hours," said Sharman, who hung with Meissner for 4 miles, then lost track of the winner.
Meissner, a four-time winner of the triple marathon, says he isn't through with that event. His goal is to run a sub-nine hours as well as run the 72-mile ultra in under 10 hours.
"I have no desire to do the super triple, so you'll never see me win that," he said. "I would like to come back to the marathon (too) and run faster."
