The 2008 Dipsea

The weather was spectacular on this sunny June day: sunny and warm. Fantastic weather for hikers and spectators, but another hot, dry and dusty day on the Dipsea course.



Even with their "winner's penalty minutes," previous Dipsea champions Melody-Anne Schultz, Russ Kiernan, and Jamie Berns all left the starting line well before perennial top-3 finisher Roy Rivers, but Roy managed to work his way up to the front, surprising a lot of Dipsea prognosticators, to take this year's trophy with an actual time of 53:23, the sixth fastest time in the race.

Three-time Dipsea champion Russ Kiernan came in second place, and Hans Schmid, despite having run a high-altitude marathon the previous week, came in just behind Russ in third place.

For the third year in a row, Mark McManus finished with the best actual time on the course, 50:33, finishing in fourth place. And three-time Dipsea champion Melody Anne Schultz rounded out the top 5.

There were a lot of newcomers to the top 35 this year; fully one-third of them did not earn the coveted black shirts in 2007. And four high school students earned black shirts this year, possibly on their way to becoming future Dipsea winners.