After a season of running up and down hills, over streams and jumping hay bales, it is no doubt time to have a little serious fun.

Serious fun because most cross country runner are laser-focused on the 5,000 meter courses that have been laid out before them.

And this year’s race, which began in Pablo, was no exception. Even a couple of Thompson Falls coaches got in on the action which took place Saturday morning at the Silver Fox Golf Course in Pablo.

No team titles are up for grabs and fun is the key, but the runners still take their times and the opportunity to record personal bests very seriously.

“This race makes for lot of fun passing and different finishing orders,” T Falls head coach Sarah Naegeli said. “The different finishing orders tend to lead to some great PR’s (personal records). Runners sometimes get used to finishing in a particular order, so when that order is changed, sometimes they find out they can have a different racing pace”.

For example, Naegeli said, Blue Hawks runner Jakob Molina ran in the JV race and had a huge PR of 1 minute, 40 seconds,” Naegeli said. “Aubrey Baxter (T Falls 8th grader) ran over two miles of the race by herself. She passed into the lead and ended up essentially racing the golf cart. Overall she placed second or third, I can;’t remember which”

Baxter would go on to finish first in the top three among varsity girls entered in the race with a time of 21:15, a new PR. In addition, Kylee Huff covered the course in 27:11 for the Lady Hawks.

Blue Hawks boys also had good times on the course, which Naegeli described as having “lots of rolling hills, lot of soft, gentle surfaces to race on, and hay bales and logs to jump over”.

Cael Thilmony was first among Thompson Falls boys with a time of 18:18, good for a Top 10 finish and a new PR; Simon Armstrong (21:56), PR; Blake Schusterman (22:19), PR; and Wesley Powers, (23:41.

“This race has a unique format for varsity runners,” Naegeli said. “They start the runners in seven different waves, the seventh place runners from each team start, then 20 seconds later the 6th place runners, etc., so the first place runners on each team actually start out two minutes after the first wave. Two coaches ran in the open run, as did our manager Sean Nowland, who ran the race in about 28:30”.

This Wednesday Thompson Falls will host the Western B/C Invitational at the River’s Bend Golf Course as the runners prepare for and try to qualify for the State Championships in Missoula October 22.