Vail Recreation District Summer Solstice 10K and 5K participants share stories of longest runs on longest day of the year
Vail Recreation District/Courtesy photo
Five years ago, Franklin Reilly decided to celebrate his 21st birthday in a unique way.
“Most people would throw a big party — I couldn’t do that,” the Battle Mountain alumnus said. “It was about a month into the pandemic.”
On the longest day of the year, runners at the Vail Recreation District’s Beaver Creek Summer Solstice 10K and 5K trail race reflected on their longest runs ever. Reilly — who placed third overall in the 10K race, just nine seconds behind former Eagle Valley runner Cooper Filmore — took top honors for the best story. He leveraged his birthday as “an excuse to force friends and family to come and run with me” on a 100-mile route back in May 2020.
One of those individuals was John O’Neill, who was in second place through the uphill half of Saturday’s race before ending up fifth overall.
“It was rough. I don’t run as much as I used to,” the former professional triathlete and skimo racer said. His longest run ever was when he took second — despite breaking the course record — at the Grand Traverse run in 2019. That performance qualified him for the elite wave of the 50-mile North Face Endurance Challenge 50.
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“It was 10 miles longer,” he said. “And 10 miles makes a big difference.”
O’Neill is part of a Battle Mountain cross-country alumni group competing in the 200-mile Ragnar Relay from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs in August. Former teammates Jonny Stevens and Tyler Thompson spearheaded the project. Two teams of 12 plan to participate.
“We’ll see who has managed to stay in shape and who hasn’t,” O’Neill said with a laugh before turning humorously serious and proclaiming, “Any Battle Mountain alumni who are doing that race, start training as soon as you read this.”
Madison, Connecticut runner Anna Steffen won the women’s 10K race in a time of 48 minutes, 43 seconds. Locals Sarah Hochtl (50:55) and Ali Bender (51.26) rounded out the podium.
In the 5K, Zeke Smith stopped the clock at 23:49 to claim the overall win. Shortly after, Golden sophomore Kyle Buxton held off his sister in a finishing-chute sprint to win his age group — and place sixth overall — in a time of 27:40.
“I was cramping pretty bad on the end of the uphill, but on the downhill I was able to flow a little,” the 14-year-old said. “It felt good.”
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Mackenzie Buxton, who ran the 10K at Beaver Creek two years ago. “I had an OK track season but then took my break and coming back just wanted to have fun with it. It was harder than I thought.”
When the siblings stepped off the singletrack shortly before running past John and Karen Arnold Red Tail Stadium, Mackenzie Buxton started gaining on her brother. She spotted him on a fire road switchback with about 2 miles to go and surged ahead.
“Every time I got up to him, he’d sprint ahead of me a little bit,” she said.
The farthest either Buxton has gone in their lives is 14 miles while on a guided running trip in Spain.
“We were running from Girona to the Mediterranean, which was really cool,” said Kyle Buxton, who has his sights set on a sub-2:05 in the 800-meters next spring. His sister is going to hold onto the middle distances for as long as she can, too.
“These trail races are so much fun and maybe as I grow out of the 800 and mile, I will go into longer distances,” Mackenzie Buxton said.
Age continues to be just a number for Dan Weiland, who finished sixth overall and tops in the 50-59 age category for 10K. A veteran and master of every kind of endurance challenge — from Nordic skiing, snowshoe and skimo to mountain bike, winter duathlon and beyond — Weiland said the longest he’s ever run is “4 miles.”
When pressed about potentially spreading misinformation, he remembered he was in fact once on foot for about 36 hours, climbing over 50,000 feet during a multi-sport Primal Quest Adventure race in Telluride “back in the day.” Was it the hardest thing he’s ever done?
“Probably,” Weiland answered. “Except for the 2024 Grand Traverse.“
Liliana Rush said the secret to getting better with age is “consistency.” The 46-year-old notched a course personal best Saturday, finishing the 10K in 1:05:50.
“It was awesome,” the Avon resident said. Rush’s longest run ever was the inaugural Cougar Ridge Classic 26K, but she plans to return to her home of Peru for a 30K soon.
Nathan Neff is also thinking about trying the Cougar Ridge Classic this September. The 34-year-old said his longest run ever was the Pittsburgh Half Marathon this past year.
“But this was by far my hardest and most difficult run of my life,” the Minturn resident said regarding Saturday’s trail race. Neff, who finished in 1:01, credited coworker Matthew Morris for pushing him the whole way.
“If it wasn’t for him, I would have been way slower,” Neff continued. “I liked the views — when I had a second to take a look and I wasn’t dying.”
Having just gotten into running a couple years ago, the Summer Solstice was Neff’s first Vail Recreation District event.
“I loved the atmosphere, love all the vendors,” he said. “It’s great. I’ll definitely be doing more.”
Josiah Workman has been coming to the Vail Recreation District races since he was in college. While the hill climb is the first event he pencils in every year — “I just love to suffer,” he commented — the Summer Solstice is the favorite for his wife, Ellen Stothard. She finished the long loop, which included 1,018 feet of climb, in 1:07:07.
Stothard’s longest run ever was the Boulder Rez Marathon.
“I tore my hip flexor training and I still ran it because I was being really stubborn,” she recalled. “And it was really awesome.”
Workman notched a sub-10-hour finish in the Run Rabbit Run 50-mile race in Steamboat Springs in 2016. When asked about doubling the distance, he said, “Yeah it seems like something I’d want to do, but I’m a desk person and it’s hard to train.”
Still, he plans to keep coming back for the town series events.
“I’ve just been doing it for so long and it’s fun to go eat more donuts than I ever should,” the 33-year-old said.
Back in 2020, Reilly ended up raising over $11,000 for local food banks for his century run. Starting in Edwards, he tracked a counterclockwise lollipop out to McCoy, down to Dosterso and back. He said he was on pace for an impressive 15-hour finish through the first 65 miles, but then the wheels came off. Ironically, he ended up completing his journey in — you guessed it — 21 hours.
“I think it’s good to do things that really challenge you or attempt a task that you’re not sure you can complete,” he said.
Reilly recently left his position at U.S. Ski and Snowboard and for a new gig in Denver. He said the new job and his stale, concrete jungle routes have made maintaining fitness a challenge. Even though he felt fatigued, coming home for Saturday’s race was just what the doctor ordered.
“There’s just something about meandering through rolling trails. It’s so therapeutic,” he said before adding that he plans to return to Vail for the rest of the recreation district’s trail races. “This is my mental escape.”
