M.A.D. About Adventure – Pioche, Nevada
This year was the 2nd annual Horses Wild Joker event. The first year was in 2019 and Rocky Road Adventures only had 4 participants; 2 trail runners and 2 MTB’ers/trail runners. In 2020, the event was cancelled and the event came back this year. Horses Wild was held on September 18th, 2021 on the MTB single-track trails at Barnes Canyon in Caliente Nevada. In 2019, the event was either a 28k trail run or 30k duathlon (MTB & Trail Run combo). This year, RRA, changed the event to a 1 hour, 4 hour, 7 hour continual loop race that either offered trail running, or mountain biking, or both. The event was a different kind of twist to the overall win. The participant that had the most elevation gain and most laps took the win. There were 2 loops to choose from; mongoose course that was 8.8 miles and 1,154 ft of gain and primer course that was 3 miles and had 452 ft of gain. It was all about how many laps of gain and miles they could get in the amount of time they signed up for; 1 hour, 4 hours, or 7 hours.
The event ended up being beyond fun! We had trail runners and MTB’ers, young and old, and bipolar weather….very awesome. The weather gave us rain, sunshine, humidity, warmth, and cold all in the 7 hours of racing.
The trails beat some of the participants and the remaining participants beat the trails! Barnes Canyon MTB trails are awesome and have a little bit of everything to make you enjoy the scenery and pay attention. Compared to 2019, RRA had 10 participants this year and within those 10 was 3 youth riders/runner. RRA was beyond excited to have those 3 kiddos out there struggling but determined to finish what they started.
In the 1 Hr MTB/Trail Run Duathlon had one participant, Hannah Robins from St. George Utah took our overall finish with a total of 904 ft gain completing 2 laps of the 3 mile loop; one lap on her MTB and one running totaling 6 miles.
The 1 Hr MTB Race there were 2 participants; 1st place was Kaleb Nielson from McGill Nevada. This young man at the age of 12 rode the big loop one time of 8.8 miles and had 1,154 ft gain. 2nd place went to my son, Austin Romans, who is from Dry Valley. He accomplished 2 laps of the 3 mile course having a total of 904 ft gain and 6 miles.
In the 1 Hr Trail Run, there was two participants; Stacey Omar from Pioche Nevada and our youngest competitor of the event, Breanna Nielson from McGill Nevada. Stacey and Breanna both completed only one lap of the 3 mile loop with both having the total elevation gain of 452 ft. The tie breaker when off the fastest time. Stacey received 1st place with a time of 48:18 and Breanna’s time was 1:58:54. As stated before, Breanna also received our youngest participant award.
There was only one participant in any of the 7 Hr categories; Ian Floyd from Las Vegas Nevada entered into the 7 Hr Trail Run and completed 6 laps for a total of 29.6 miles and 4,118 ft gain. He received 1st place and the furthest traveled to event.
The 4 Hr MTB / Trail Run went to the dad of the youngsters, Curtis Nielson from McGill Nevada. He completed 3 laps, 1 lap of the 8.8 mile loop and 2 laps of the 3 mile loop. He got a total of 2,059 ft gain and 14.8 miles. He rode 2 laps and hiked one lap with his kiddo Breanna. AWESOME DAD FOR SURE!!
In the 4 Hr MTB race, there were 3 competitors and they really hustled and brought it. 3rd place finisher went to Terry Donaho from Mesquite Nevada, he finished 2 laps of the 8.8 miles totally 17.6 miles and 2.310 ft gain. 2nd place went to the last youngster at event, Carter Nielson from McGill Nevada. He completed 5 laps; one lap of the 8.8 mile and 4 laps of the 3 miles, totaling 20.8 miles and 2,963 ft gain. He absolutely rocked it!! Our 1st place finisher was Bryan Chesser from Caliente Nevada, he completed 4 laps of the 8.8 mile loop for a grand total of 4.620 ft gain and 35.2 miles. The most miles and gain of all the competitors.
I am so proud of all these competitors and it was beyond fun. I look forward to 2022 event and hope all and more come back.
A huge thank you’s need to go out to Tailwind Nutrition for sponsoring the event with their awesome and healthy product. To my family…Jason, Austin, and Hannah for helping me with set up and clean up. To Terry & Terri for their great work on the swag hats, sponsorship of this event, their help during the event, and their friendship.
And a huge congrats to all the participants, again well done. Thank you for sharing this day and event with me.
~ Kristal Romans, Race Director/Owner
Little BIG Dog Trail Run held on January 23rd of this year, 2021, and was a wonderful success. Oh how I love see my participants out hiking and running my events and at our local trials. The best part about this race is that you can enter the trail run with your favorite running/hiking pup. Like prior years, this event is held on the challenging, fun trails at Kershaw-Ryan State Park in Caliente Nv. This is a little bit of a tough course and holding it in January, the weather can make it a challenge also but this year the weather was great and every participant finished and did GREAT. The race started out chilly but definitely warmed up as the day went on. No snow this year during race, which is always a bit of a bummer, the snow if part of the challenge but there was some icy spots on the road and I watched a few runners ski a bit. With that said, no injuries and that is a good thing. As a race director, I am grateful for careful runners! Even more grateful that all dogs got along and enjoyed there time with their masters.
I would like to thank all who made it out for this 3rd annual trail race with your dog. The first year I put it on in 2019, I had 9 runners and 7 out of the 9 run with their dogs. In 2020, I had 11 runners and 9 of those 11 ran with their dogs. This year, I had 19 present (a few more doing the virtual option) and 12 of those ran with their dogs. It’s growing and I’m so grateful and blessed. I love the gradual growth but honestly if I had 4 people I’d be just as jazzed and grateful. It’s only about the numbers for me because I love seeing people out exercising and seeing what they can accomplish. And lets be honest…the dogs just make it so cool. The dogs are amazing and love seeing the different breeds and most of all, I love hearing the stories about their dogs!
This trail run has 2 distances with 2 categories for each. There is a 14k and a 4k with a category to run with your dog and a category to run w/o a dog. The 4k course is 2.8 miles with 600 ft total climbing and 400 ft total downhill, not exactly an easy 2.8 miles. It feels like 4 miles when running it. The 14k course is 8.8 miles and has 1230 ft of climbing and 980 ft of downhill, again a good challenging run. Both have wonderful views once at the top. Now onto the race placings….
4K Placings
*Our 1st place Overall winner for the 4k and 1st place in category w/o a dog was our local Poiche Nv gal, Jaycee Bernal with a time of 35:34.
*2nd place Overall for the 4k and 1st place in category with a dog was another local Piocher and my son, Austin Romans and his dog “Gus” with a time of 37:30.*3rd place Overall for the 4k and 2nd place in category with a dog was my 2nd time participant at this race and just up the road from us was Kristi Rozich and her adorable dog “Natty” from Ely Nv with a time of 38:49 and increased her time by 3:40 then her first race here 2 years ago!
*4th place Overall for the 4k and 3rd place in category with a dog was another 2nd time participant here and from LV area was Shawn Barnes and his beautiful dog “Lily” with a time of 40:09. His and Lily’s time the prior year was 40:10…talk about consistent!!
*5th place Overall for the 4k and 2nd place in category w/o a dog was again another 2nd time participant, Danny Siegal, along with his girlfriend Nicole Franco and their dog “Bailey” from the LV area. Danny finished with a time of 42:59. Nicole and Bailey finished in 6th place overall and 4th in category with a dog and with a time of 43:04.
*Had a lot of first time participants from the local areas like Lola & Warren from Alamo who ran with their 2 dogs “Mercy & Crash”. Love their names! From Panaca, we had Susan & Max with their 2 dogs “Ginger & Scooby Doo”. And from Pioche, Stacey with her pup “Pearl”, Alisha and her pup “Daisy”, and my right hand lady, if she isn’t volunteering she is participating, Alice & Rylee Midgley with their dog Frank. Alice, Rylee, and Frank have participated in this run all 3 years with Frank!
*Had a couple newbies from the Las Vegas area; Scott and his dog “Sasha” and Yelena Hamai who ran w/o a pup.
14k Placings*
Our 1st place Overall winner in the 14k was a return customer all the way from San Francisco area, Jason Reed, with a time of 1:34:11 and ran w/o a pup. Jason had entered my race in 2020 Night Echoes Moonlight Run and came back to our little town for another race.*2nd place Overall for the 14k and 2nd place in category w/o a pup, was another return customer who ran my Horses Wild Joke Race in 2019 and is from down the road in Mesquite Nv, Leon Durbin with a time of 1:47:49.
*3rd place Overall and 3rd place w/o a pup was Leon’s buddy and from Mesquite Nv also, Daniel Ramirez with a time of 1:47:51.
*4th place Overall and 1st place in category with a pup was another 3rd time participant along with Alice and Rylee at this event, my friend Sarah Somers and her pup “Sugar” with a time of 1:56:56. Sarah is from Pioche and she switches back and forth between her dog Sugar and Forest. Forest ran last year and Sugar ran in 2019.
*5th place Overall and 4th place w/o a dog is another first time participant and pleasure to have from Helendale Ca, Melissa Timko with a time of 2:01:04.Well Done To All The Participants! Most of all thank you for entering and allowing me to get to know you and your pups.
I have some Thank You’s before signing off …..
- Thank you to Tailwind Nutrition, my official sports drink nutrition sponsor…. what blessing to have a great option for nutrition.
- Thank you to Kershaw-Ryan State Park for a great venue and allowing Rocky Road Adventures to keep having this event there.
- Thank you so much to Loving Care Animal Society for your donations to the raffle, beyond awesome!!
Thank you to my 2 volunteers, Jessica and Chey…. I’m so grateful for you both so much! Love ya both and thank you.
I do hope to see you all and many more in January of 2022 ….. till then keep running!!!!
Kristal Romans
Rocky Road Adventures
Race Director / Owner
Last month, on Saturday, October 24th Rocky Road Adventures hosted its 3rd Annual Battle Born Trail Run. This trail run is in observation of Nevada Day. Nevada (meaning “snow-capped mountains) became the 36th state into the union on October 31st, 1864. This year’s Battle Born Trail Run brought us a great group of participants from neighboring areas, like the Las Vegas area, Eureka, Ely, Cedar City Utah, and several locals.
This year’s returning distance was 3.6 miles for the 36th state and new this year, Rocky Road Adventures (RRA) added a 10.31 mile trail run for October 31st and a kids 1.864k dash for the year 1864, held on the hiking trails at Cathedral Gorge State Park.
This year RRA not only had a morning race but also a sunset race. The morning race distances were all three distances (10.31 mi, 3.6 mi, & 1.864k kids dash) and the sunset race was only for the 3.6 milers and the kids dash. The morning distance runners were able to choose to “Double the Battle” and run a morning race and the sunset race. This format of a morning and evening race along with the new distances was a huge success and gave participants new options at a great venue.
The race morning started out with the 10.31 milers on the start line first at a 8 am start time. This year’s start was different from the prior 2 years, the participants started at the old water tower that is a very cool feature within the state park.
The 10.31 milers took off following the trail ahead and all thinking about just 10 more miles to go. While the 10 milers were setting their paces, it was start time for the morning 3.6 milers, at 9 am they all started on their forward jaunts to “the stairs”.
“The stairs” in quotes was quite the talk of the morning before the race. Many newcomers were not understanding the big deal with “the stairs” or “the eastside” of Cathedral that the 10 milers had to tackle. “The eastside” was all raw desert, no establish trail system made by man and tools. For RRA to get 10 miles around Cathedral Gorge, I had to incorporate the eastside that parallels Hwy 93. Again, it was all raw desert but, I did have some help from 2 local astray ranching sheep, (now named Shep & Sheepy), who had a perfect sheep trail for the trail runners to follow. Even with their help, this eastside was all sand, it only ended when the runners finally reached the paved road. The trail ran through the old Bullionville Cementary and where the raw desert and all sand came in, 2.5 miles of hard running.
Back to the race starts, as the 3.6’ers were tackling “the stairs”, the kiddos were ready for their start.
With 4 signed up, they were off and running. It didn’t take long for the 3.6’ers to start filing into the finish line. With a 1st place finish, Jaycee Bernal from Pioche Nv, made it in with a 36:47 finish time. If anyone knows her locally, that smile! I bet she smiled the whole time, no way 3.6 miles will bring her down! Second place brought us another local gal from Panaca Nv and I wouldn’t say she smiled the whole time, I do recall the photographer hearing her say some choice words, maybe phrases towards the race director, me 😉 With a 40:29, Chanille Chouquer finished. Chanille is no stranger to this course, finishing in 2018 with a 39:13, showing her consistency. To round out the top 3 and finishing in 3rd place was an out-of-towner but Lincoln County’s neighbor, Kelsey Bynum from White Pine County, Ely Nv, with a 47:08 finishing time. Well done to these gals taking the podium for the 3.6 mile morning race.
While the 10 milers were still out on the course, possibly attempting “the eastside”, the kiddos were beginning to see the finish line. First place and second place came easily to the Bushman brothers. Eight year old Brax nedged out his 12 year old brother by 8 tenths of a second. Brax’s finishing time was 16:40.1 and brother, JD’s, was 16:40.9. Third and fourth place went to another set of siblings from Pioche Nv, Rylee Midgley with a 22:36 for 3rd place and Wyatt Midgley with a 22:44 for 4th place. It was a wonderful sight to see these 8, 9, & 12 year old kids out running a 1.864k, which is 1.15 miles. Their course even incorporated half of “the stairs”. Well done kiddos!
Trailing behind the kid finishers came our first place runner for the 10.31 mile, Jeff Bzoskie from Las Vegas Nv with a finishing time of 1:44:18. When asking him “How was the course?”, he replied, “I have done 100 mile races and that “eastside” is the hardest section I’ve ever done”. Well, that made me as a race director of trail races, very happy and satisfied that a very athletic runner like himself got a great challenge. Even with Jeff saying that, he was very pleased and happy with the race and the course, phew! Approximately 7 minutes after Jeff, our second and third placers arrived, Kimberly Cleveland taking 2nd place with a 1:51:44 and right on her heels, literally, was 3rd place finisher, Jaimee Troth with a 1:51:48. I don’t remember what Kimberly and Jaimee said about the race course but I do recall something about that “eastside” and what a challenge it was.
I personally am very proud and pleased with the 12 runners that signed up for this 10 miler and tackling it without really knowing the depth of what I meant about “raw” desert. Thank you all for being my test dummies and being my heroes. As I said to each runner at some point when finished, “what doesn’t challenge you, won’t change you”. Well done “eastsiders”! Shep & Sheepy are proud of you too!
With the all the morning runners done with their races, it was time to relax till the sunset races….okay, I lied, there is never any rest time. With this night race being the first for Battle Born, I had to run the whole 3.6 mile course and attach glow sticks to the ribbon markers in hopes that the runners would see them and be able to follow the course properly.
As 4pm rolled around, the participants arrived and got checked in. This first time night race, would start us out with the kids dash, 1.864k at 5 pm. Sunset was at 5:47pm and I didn’t want the kids running at night so they started and finished before the sun decided to go down. With the Midgley kids coming back for a second round and 2 fresh leggers, the 4 kids were off and running. Eight year old, Truce Tolman from Panaca, son of earlier participant Chanille Chouquer and 2nd place finisher of the 3.6 mile, took the lead and finished the race in 1st place with an outstanding 14:19. And not far behind him was our last minute entry from Las Vegas Nv, who came up with her family for a day hike, Layna Miller with a 15:44. Layna and her family were hiking and exploring when they saw me attaching the glow sticks earlier, they asked what was going on and I had mentioned the race to them. They had decided last minute to enter their daughter, who is 7 years old and the youngest participant of the race day also the youngest participant to date that Rocky Road Adventures has ever had. Well done young Layna and thank you for allowing us all to watch you shine. The Midgley kiddos finished out third and fourth place again but this time little brother Wyatt was 3rd place with a 19:10 and Rylee was 4th place with a 23:18. Both Wyatt and Rylee, ran the morning and evening race and receiving the “Doubled the Battle” medal. Well done to those two kiddos for tackling it twice. Their course was not easy, they too, had to go up and down part of “the stairs”, and run in sandy rocky terrain. I would say that Truce took the fastest time from the morning race and the night race but come to find out the kids that ran the morning race had to go further than the night racers. My photographer that morning, aka my daughter, messed up and put the turn around sign in the wrong stop and so the morning runners for the kids race did go a little bit further. But all in all, two 8 year old kids both took 1st place, very impressive. Congratulations to you all!
With the kids dash done and all kiddos accounted for, it was time to start the sunset bunch of 3.6’ers. As 5:47pm rolled around, the sunset bunch were off and running into the dusk Cathedral Gorge. The timing of the race was perfect, many of the runners were at Millers Point for the sunset. Pitch black came upon us and we could see a runner with lights coming to the last quarter of mile stretch. Once the eye got adjusted, there were actually two runners and in front of him was local, Cheyenne Romans, (yes, my daughter and yes, the photographer from earlier race, she multitasks like her mom). Cheyenne finished with a 35:43 taking 1st place and on her tail with a 36:06 was Christopher Welch form Las Vegas Nv. Both had great times and beat the winning time from the earlier race. To take 3rd place for the sunset race, was my favorite race finisher, Brody Sweet, 11 year old from Eureka Nv with a 44:36 finishing time. Wow, 11 years old and ran 3.6 miles, partially at night…beyond impressive. Well done Brody!
Cheyenne did get the fastest time from the morning race and sunset race combined with that 35:43 time and received a Battle Born Trucker Visor as reward. Great Job!
A special recognition of “Awesomeness” goes out to all my runners that signed up to run a morning race and the sunset race, Double the Battle. Steve Zimmerman, Leslie Zimmerman, and Abby Sweet, all from Eureka Nv, ran the morning 10.31 miler and then came back to run the sunset 3.6 miler. Not only did they tackle “the eastside” but tackled “the stairs” 5 times total. You are my heroes and I salute you on a job well done. The one and only, Alice Midgley, who not only runs my races but volunteers at each one if she isn’t running in it, ran both the morning and sunset 3.6 miler. You are awesome, my friend! Also, to the two Midgley kiddos that ran the morning and evening 1.864k kids dash, well done, you have the guts and you conquered. Well done to all my, Doubled the Battled participants. Thank you for partaking in this new idea for Battle Born Trail Run.
To my volunteers, Cheyenne, Lee, Dann, Alice, and Leslie……….Thank you for helping me. Without you, I’d be dead in the water.
Thank you Cathedral Gorge State Park for allowing this event to happen and having such a beautiful park for us to run and compete at!
Thank you to Tailwind Nutrition for sponsoring Rocky Road Adventures this year with your great product!
Thank you Battle Born Participants for choosing Rocky Road Adventures this year. I do hope this race made your 2020 year a bit brighter and memorable.
Thank you,
Kristal Romans
Rocky Road Adventures
Owner / Race Director
1st Annual Just For Kicks 10k & 5k Trail Run was 3 weeks ago. I’m just now getting time to post on it, my apologies for the delay.
This run was held during our local county fair and rodeo in Panaca, Nv. It was a regular 5k/10k run but the finish awards had a twist, rodeo style twist.
I want to thank the few participants I had, several drove all the way from California to run it.
OVERALL 5K FINISHER & WINNER OF THE 1D RUN-ARREL RACE WAS:
Lillian O’Rourke from Carisbad Ca with a time of 19:26…Wowzers!
I started the race, blinked, and she was done. Amazing job young lady.
Her partners in running crime, also from Cali, came in behind her within 2 minutes. 2nd overall was Sydney Resser with a time of 21:38 and 3rd overall was Madelyn Poole with a very close time of 21:53. 4th overall, another young gun, Kiera Erickson from Cedar Hills UT, with a time of 22:19. Well done to these young ladies! They all have bright futures in running. Huge honor to have them at one of my races.
WINNER OF THE 2D RUN-ARREL RACE was our one and only local who I love dearly, Marie Bleak from Pioche Nv with a smokin time of 24:07….less than 2 minutes behind the 15 year old young gun. I would say that is awesome Marie. Well done Friend.
WINNER OF THE 3D RUN-ARREL RACE was again a beautiful local also from Pioche, Jaycee Bernal with a time of 29:31. And on her tail was another Utah gal who plays basketball for Dixie State, Hannah Robins with a 29:35. This next runner not only killed in time ..buuuut gave us the drama theatrics saying at the start “I’m old or I never run”…blah blah blah, well this Alamo gal, Chassy Old Lady Scott ran it in 29:52. Just a few minutes behind all these young whipper snappers . See I told you, you would be fine.
Gracie Carter from Mesquite brought it home with a 45:55, she did awesome for coming as support and ended up running.
And to my one and only 10ker, Paula Dehner from Mesquite won the 10k and ran it well with a 1:08:37.
Congratulations to all my participants at this race. The conversations were awesome and hope to see you all again at a Rocky Road Adventures race. Most of all I look forward to doing it again next year!
Lincoln County Record – 10/4/19
In March of 2018, I decided to create a business and start this adventure down the race directing, trail running road. Rocky Road Adventures is closing in on its one year anniversary as a business. The first race was in August of 2018, Lincoln County Adventure Relay, that RRA decided to take over from previous individuals putting it on for many years. Following LCAR was Rocky Road Adventures 1st annual Battle Born Trail Run in recognizance of Nevada Day and 1st annual Little BIG Dog Trail Run, a challenged run with your pup.
This blog is recognizing the participant that ran in all 3 of those races above and finished 1st place overall in all 3. This local resident and bad-ass competitor not only won all 3 races but has been a wonderful supporter of my new business adventure.
A huge shout out to SARAH SOMERS of Pioche, Nv.
Thank you Sarah and Hope to see at more of RRA Events!
M.A.D. About Adventure? Well Rocky Road is and will be offering races to hopefully satisfy all your adventure needs. Rocky Road Adventures will consist of 5 & 10k’s, half & full marathons, duathlons, triathlons, hiking, navigation, kayaking, paddle-boarding, and so much more.
Please stay tuned for upcoming events……
M.A.D. stands for Motivation Accountability Determination. Be motivated, be accountable, and have the unstoppable determination to follow through with our goals.
-Rocky Road Adventures
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