Larkspur Resident Diana Fitzpatrick, 55, Wins 103rd Dipsea Race

By Dave Albee

In the closest race finish in 25 years, Diana Fitzpatrick, a 55-year-old attorney from Larkspur, outlasted 42-year-old Chris Lundy of Sausalito and 56-year-old Brian Pilcher of Ross to win the 103rd running of the Dipsea on Sunday.

Fitzpatrick, a three-time Olympic  Marathon Trials qualifier, utilized a 16-minute head start in the unique the 7.5 mile trail race to cross the finish line at Stinson Beach four seconds in front of Lundy, who placed second for the second year in a row. Pilcher, 2010 Dipsea champion, finished nine seconds behind the winner.

The three embraced after crossing the finish line in the second oldest foot race in America, behind only the Boston Marathon.

“It’s a community affair and for that reason it means more than a lot of other races,” said Fitzpatrick, whose husband, Tim, and children, Katie and Chris, also competed in the Dipsea on Sunday. “The training together and the friendships and the camaraderie around it. You can feel it."

Defending race champion Hans Schmid of Greenbrae, who was the oldest winner in Dipsea history last year at the age of 72, placed fourth in the race, which features head starts based on age and gender. Fitzpatrick passed Schmid, who had a 23-minute head start, near the bottom of Steep Ravine along the Dipsea Trail to take the lead for good.

“She passed me first and she said, `Stay with me,’ ” Schmid said. “But easier said than done.”

Soon after Lundy, who lost to Schmid by 27 seconds last year, Pilcher passed the defending champ and the pair set their sights on catching Fitzpatrick, who last year placed third in the historic race, her highest Dipsea finish.

“I actually did not expect to win today because I thought Brian Pilcher would,” said Fitzpatrick, a strong endurance runner whose adjusted winning time – including her 16-minute head start – was one hour, two minutes and 42 seconds.

However, when Fitzpatrick – a graduate of the NYU School of Law who works for Nolo Press, a self-help publisher in Berkeley – approached the finish line, she saw no one in ahead of her and she wasn’t about to gaze over her shoulder.

“I try not to look behind me,” said Fitzpatrick, who set the Napa Valley Marathon women’s course record in 1992. “I’ve been passed at the finish line and I have been outstepped at the finish line. I felt like that was going to happen today.”

Alex Varner, a scratch runner with no head start, passed more than 400 runners and finished fifth with an actual time of 47 minutes and 59 seconds, a minute faster than last year’s effort. He extended his Dipsea record by winning the best time award in the race for the fifth consecutive year. No runner has won the race with the fastest overall time since seven-time Dipsea champion Sal Vasquez in 1985.

Varner later received the Norman Bright Award for “Extraordinary Effort in the Dipsea Race” in post-race awards ceremony near the finish line at Stinson Beach. He may have been closer to the leaders had the course not been slippery from a heavy drizzle overnight. Two runners were transported by ambulance for injuries.

Schmid, his eyeglasses steaming and wet after the race, felt fortunate to finish the race without Schmid, his eyeglasses steaming and wet after the race, felt fortunate to finish the race without falling.

“I actually feel better than I did last year,” Schmid said. “My problem was I couldn’t see. I thought I needed windshield wipers.”

Sunday’s race was the closest finish since 1988 when Kay Willoughly, Peggy Smyth and Patricia English placed 1-2-3 within 10 seconds.

The race course, which ascends to more than 1,300 feet above sea level, includes a steep climb up three flights of stairs totaling 688 steps, a mere quarter mile into the race. It also features a trek through rainforest of Muir Woods, slippery slopes and a dangerous descent down Steep Ravine, where the path narrows between rocks and tree roots. The finish line at Stinson Beach comes in sight cresting the hill on the Moors, which offers a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean.

The starting field consisted of 1,500 runners ranging in ages from seven (Isabella Hughes and Brendan King of Mill Valley) to 83 (Lyle Langlois of Phoenix, Ariz) plus 79-year-old Barbara Robben of Berkeley, the oldest female. Runners representing 28 states from Maine to Hawaii plus the District of Columbia and four foreign countries competed.

Hours after driving back from the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Oregon, 18-year-old John Lawson of Woodacre was the first high school runner to finish in the Dipsea field on Sunday. He placed ninth in a time of 51.56. Melissa Brown of St. Louis, Mo.  was the first female high school finisher.

Roy Kissin of Larkspur and his 22-year-old son, Peter, won the Alan Beardall Family Trophy while the Tamalpa Club took home the team trophy for 36th time in the last 37 years. 

On the 10th anniversary of Jack Kirk’s final start in the Dipsea at the age of 95, the family of the late Tony Stratta, who competed in 59 Dipsea races, the last in 2007 at the age of 77, accepted posthumously Kirk’s “Dipsea Demon” award for dedication, perseverance and performance over time.

Mike Giannini, longtime Emergency Medical Services Battalion Chief from Marin County Fire, was named the winner of the Red Tail Hawk Award (Jerry Hauke Perpetual Award) for leadership, dedication and sportsmanship. He was instrumental in forming the existing emergency plan for the all-volunteer race.

Michael Boitano and his sister, Mary Etta Blanchard, who won the Dipsea in consecutive years from 1972-74 as pre-teens, were inducted into the Dipsea Hall of Fame on its 20 on Friday night. Blanchard, now assistant track and cross country coach at Justin-Siena High School in Napa, first ran in the Dipsea in 1968 at the age of five.