Baldy Blitzers take to the mountain

Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (2) – 5/17/21

There are clear instructions for the Big Sky Wind Drinker Running Club’s popular spring race: run straight up, run straight down. The Baldy Blitz, “has always been an early-season, no-frills, self-supported race,” race director Kurt Buchl described to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Because the race is scheduled so early in the year, it’s often graced by spring blizzards and inclement weather. After 2020’s Baldy Blitz was postponed until the fall due to the pandemic before being canceled all together due to the Bridger Foothills Fire, many fans of the race were happy to be back out, and doubly so with the pristine weather this past weekend. This year drew 89 runners, and the winning male and female were David Ayala at 1:33:15 and Heidi Makoutz at 2:07:36. “I’m a big fan of the Baldy Blitz because of its focus on the local running community and its relative bare-bones approach to running a race,” Ayala told the Chronicle. “There’s not a lot of hoopla.”