Ron Herzog was born 1/30/38. He died 5/28/96 of ALS. He was one of my first ultra running partners and a good friend.

In 1992 the ultra running group ran at Tiger Mountain on weekends. Ron Herzog and Ike Hessler tried to come and meet us but it was a long drive from Lake Stevens. So, they said why don't you come up here and run. I said, okay, lets start a race. We called it the Granite Falls 50K and ran the first one 11/15/92. We offered 3 distances: 20K, 50K and 50K + an extra credit 4 mile hill.

In 1992 Lynn O'Malley and I drove our cars right to the stream crossing for the aid station. That was the only year we were able to get that close. In future years the two mile road became more difficult to negotiate and finally caved in, as you have seen. There was also a year that the runners had to go 20 miles before they found me at my truck stopped by a 4 foot gap in the road at a bridge!

One of the snow years people couldn't see the ribbons and got off course. When asked what he was doing on their property, Steve Pierce said "a 50K" . The Navy said "oh yeah, where's your bike?" I'm sure Steve remembers the procedure that followed.

In 1995 I learned that Ron had ALS. I renamed the event to the Ron Herzog Granite Falls 50K. Ron and his wife, Michelle, attended the event. I notified everyone that he would be there. In 1996, Ron left us. I renamed the event Ron Herzog Memorial 50K. In 2001 I wanted to make a change and added TANKS ALOT. But people insisted on the HERZOG course, so the race prevailed.

We have had snow, rain, cold, wind and only a couple of nice days in the last 12 years.

The 1992 participants were:
20K
Jenny Demitruf   2:05:09
Ricki Vadset   2:05:09
Becky Wallick  2:06:30

50k
Stuart Dutfield   4:10:12
Mark Hartinger   4:10:22
Richard West   4:18:33
Gene Trahern    4:19:03
Sean Nordquist    4:22:17
Randy Elliot    4:30:58
Scott Krell    5:10:36
John Bandur    5:24:24

50K+
Ike Hessler    5:19:30
Larry Webster    5:19:30
Ray Nicholl    5:41:59

Untrimmed participants
Ron Herzog
Michelle Lohr
Tom Moore

Volunteers
Lynn O'Malley
Chris Ralph
Jean & Rose Copus
Paul Taylor

In 2004 we had 52 starters and 52 finishers.

CRC will donate $200 to search and rescue and $500 to ALS in Ron's memory.

Please thank Steve from Hammer Gel for his contribution, Krissy Sybrowsky for the draw prizes, Tim and Clay from Snohomish County Search and Rescue, Linda Ripley for preparing the food, Barb and Mike Sharkey for helping out at the start/finish and Tom Ripley my co-director.

Bill Ball and Jim Kerby are going to take over the event.

Thank You for attending. It has been a pleasure to host this event. Please visit my website and consider attending the 12 hour race May 21,2005.

TANKS ALOT, Ron Herzog!
Chris Ralph, RD
www.cascaderunningclub.com