Keith Norberg of South Lake Tahoe returned to the Ponderosa Ridge Run after a 12 year hiatus and came away with a first-place finish in the 28th annual trail run from Spooner Summit to Kingsbury.
Norberg, 44, ran a time of 1 hour, 35 minutes, 14 seconds to outlast a field of nine entries in the challenging 9.5-mile run. The time was slower than the non-winning 1:21 he ran in 1990, but Saturday's run did serve as tune-up before he runs the San Francisco Chronicle Marathon on July 28.
The South Tahoe Track Club-hosted Ponderosa Ridge Run is a challenge in itself with a layout that starts at just over 7,000 feet and climbs to 9,000 feet in the first four-and-a-half miles. The only awards distributed are green ribbons that simply read -- "Survivor."
Dave Price of Gardnerville finished second in 1:38:44 and Mark Magagna third in 1:39:33. Ted Smith of Stateline, who is entered in the Tahoe Rim Trail 50-K Endurance Run on July 20, was fourth in 1:45:20. Karl Horeis of Kingsbury, 25, who successfully climbed 22,841-foot Aconcagua in Argentina this past February, was fifth in 1:45:50 despite arriving seven minutes late for the start.
Rich Glasson was sixth in 1:51:46; Ron Nageotte, who is entered in the Tahoe Rim Trail 50-Miler, was seventh in 1:52:29; and Gary Dobrenz, 56, of Los Angeles was eighth in 2:02:20. Staci Baker of South Lake Tahoe was the first woman to finish in just over three hours.
Eight of the nine entries had competed in the Ridge Run previously.