Luke Paulson of Asheville, North Carolina, won the 2018 Rock/Creek StumpJump 50k trail race last Saturday by nearly 11 minutes.
Paulson, 26, finished the renowned 31-mile race from Signal Mountain Middle School/High School and back in 4 hours, 36 minutes, 18 seconds. Two Ohio residents also beat five hours, Drew Macomber of Dayton in 4:46:56 and event record-holder David Riddle of Cincinnati in 4:54:00, and William Ansick of Auburn, Alabama, was fourth in 5:14:28 with Asheville’s Jonathan Ibach fifth in 5:19:23.
Riddle won in 2011 in 3:49:52.
An area runner was sixth – 47-year-old Frank Mathews from Flintstone. His time was 5:26:08. Signal Mountain’s Andrew Laramore, 39, was 10th out of 215 finishers in 5:40:11. He was one spot ahead of women’s winner Emily Ansick of Auburn, who completed the course in 5:44:34.
This was the fourth year in a row that she was the first female and her husband was either fourth or third overall.