Over the Hill Track Club
UpcomingEvents
Welcome to the Over the Hill Track Club website. We are a recreational club serving Ridgecrest, California and the Indian Wells Valley. Here in the high Mojave desert, we organize a year-round schedule of races, fun-runs and other activities. Most events are open to the public. We are most known for the High Desert Ultra 50K and 30K that we host in early December. Follow us on the Over the Hill Track Club Facebook Page Ridgecrest Running.
We are a 501(c)(3) organization, with the mission of promoting and encouraging running and related activities as a sport and healthy lifestyle within our community. Profits from our activities go towards supporting local youth running groups and community charitable organizations.
Our intrepid group battled the summer heat and completed another six challenging trail routes, with a new route active each Monday, starting August 8. Each route was active for two weeks. Kudos to our course developer team of Jenny McLaughlin, Tony Scanlan, Brian Hildreth, Wesley Elmore and Jessica Kormelink, who mapped out and marked our routes! Carol Wolfe organized a few evening meetups to encourage mutual support--sometimes complete with post-run food! And thanks also to Tom Rindt, for website help.
In our fifth year, thirty-seven runners and hikers signed up. The Burroughs High Cross Country Team also did some training runs on our courses! Thirty-one participants turned in results, and earned series points, for at least one of the six courses. Congratulations to this year's top points-earners! Here are the complete challenge results.
| Male 19 and Under | Aaron Aberer |
| Female 19 and Under | Mika Hildreth |
| Female 20-29 | Amanda Strand |
| Male 30-39 | Trey Benke |
| Female 30-39 | Rebekah Aftim |
| Male 40-49 | John Baronowski |
| Female 40-49 | Cara Lamoreux |
| Male 50-59 | Brian Hildreth |
| Female 50-59 | Elaine Reindeau |
| Male 60 and Up | Wesley Elmore |
| Female 60 and Up | Dianne Rindt |
Here are a few of the images contributed by our challenge participants!
Photo credits: Rebekah Aftim, Trey Benke, Wesley Elmore, Julie Frisbee, Brian Hildreth, Julie Jensen, Germain Ortiz, Dawn Petrovich, Dianne Rindt, Tony Scanlan, Carol Wolfe.
For everyone who did not join us, but may still want to run or hike the routes that we ran and experiment with route navigation, course information for 2024, as well as previous years, can be found on our challenge pages.
The Back to School Fun Run and Walk took place on Saturday, August 17, 2024. Ninety-four people signed up this year! Both the middle school and high school cross-country teams were well represented. Also, many non-students toed the line.
The first two runners across the finish line were high-schoolers Eve Washburn and Silas Aberer, and the first two middle-schoolers were Peyton Sievers and Aaron Aberer.
One participant finished her first ever OTHTC event. We hope Mrs. Scanlan (Tony's mom) joins us in future events.
Special thanks to Kathy Martin for helping mark the course. And, to Don Snyder for preparing the snacks, setting up the refreshment tables and hauling water.
10/19/2024
Bucket List Marathon
7am
College Trailhead
This year's Fat-Ass style Bucket List Marathon (or, any distance you want to go!) is going to be held once again on the Caballo Blanco five-ish-mile loop course on October 19, 2024. Race Director will be Carol Wolfe. The course hub (start/finish) is the college Trailhead at, the dirt parking lot above Cerro Coso College. The event is open to everyone--walkers, elders, youth, sprinters, well-behaved dogs on leash, chupacabras.
The course will be open from 7am to 6pm, and will be marked with ribbons, chalk and glow sticks. You can start the event at any time after 7am, and you can do as few or as many loops as you like during the course open time frame. If you intend to do a full marathon, you will need to add an extra mile (or so) at some point to have your total mileage come out to 26.2 miles. Keep in mind the amount of time you expect to be on the trail, and plan accordingly, so that you will be finished by 6pm.
In true "Fat Ass" style, this event has few frills! There will be no aid stations out on the trail...the only aid is at the start/finish hub. While we will have some food, drinks and electrolytes, please bring some of your own to make sure you have exactly what you need. You are welcome (and encouraged!) to bring food and drinks to share. Please bring your own water bottle. And consider bringing a chair, for any refueling, resting or socializing you may want to do, between laps or after finishing, at the race hub. Porta-potty will be provided.
There will be one award given, via a drawing. Only those completing a marathon or longer are eligible.
A map of the course is shown below. You can run the course either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Clicking on the map will take you to an online interactive map on CalTopo, where you can download a .gpx file of the course.
You may also want to visit our Facebook event page!
7am
College Trailhead
OTHTC is a member of the Road Runners Club of America.
