Matt Carpenter, Kami Semick, Max King, and Cynthia Anderson Get P-A-I-D!

Matt Carpenter and Kami Semick brought home the $10,000 paycheck on Saturday for their respective wins at The North Face 50 Championship. Carpenter clocked a 6:49:33 on this challenging course, five minutes ahead of last years champion, Uli Stedl. Semick showed no signs of fatigue from her silver medal finish at the IAU 100k World Championship on her way to a 7:58:43, five minutes ahead of Oregon's Suzanna Beck. All results here.

(Ben Bruce and Max King take on the Hawaii course, photo courtesy of Nils Nilsen)

In Hawaii, it was Team USA Cross Country star Max King and Hawaiian local Cynthia Anderson who won the 2008 XTERRA Trail Running World Championship half marathon. Bend, OR's King led from start to finish in 1:18:23, beating Ben Bruce, of Eugene, who finished second in 1:21:55, and Thomas Taylor, of Phoenix, AZ, who finished third in 1:29:33. In the women’s race Anderson, a former cross country and track stand-out at the University of Rhode Island, was in a tight duel with Canadian Danelle Kabush the entire way. Kabush, the race favorite, had the lead until about mile seven when Anderson passed on a steep uphill. Kabush stayed close the rest of the way and was right on Anderson’s heel for much of the final six miles but ultimately finished 32 seconds back with a time of 1:40:10. Anderson’s winning time was 1:39:38. King and Anderson each received $2,000 for their win. Photos here and story/results here.

A big payday weekend for trail running!