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<\/p>\nRamon Dominguez smiles with his wife, Sharon, left, and Gabi Kuenzli after winning the Last Man Standing Lake Placid race held at Mount Van Hoevenberg Saturday and Sunday. Dominguez, a retired jockey, won the race, lasting 27 laps, or 112.5 miles over 27 hours.
\n(Enterprise photo \u2014 Chris Gaige)\n<\/p>\n
\tLAKE PLACID \u2014 Through the muggy summer haze, daunting dark of night and pounding rain \u2014 the nearly 95 competitors in the Last Man Standing Lake Placid ran on and on.<\/p>\n
\tHour after hour, loop after grueling loop, racers began to drop out as others defied what they thought was possible when they began the ultra running challenge at 9 a.m. Saturday on the trails around Mount Van Hoevenberg. The race tests how much endurance athletes can muster as they log 4.167-mile laps on the hour, every hour, for as long as they are able and willing to make it to the next lap on time.<\/p>\n
\tRamon Dominguez, a world-renowned retired horse jockey, was the overall winner \u2014 lasting 27 laps, or 112.5 miles over 27 hours. He edged out Will Connolly, of Lake Placid, who finished in second overall after 26 laps, or 108.3 miles over 26 hours.<\/p>\n
\tConnolly had a strong sense that it was going to be the two of them fighting to the end. At the start, another racer asked what their goals were. The simple, but profound, answer was indicative of how things would shake out, according to Connolly.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m here to win,\u2019 and he asked Ramon, and he said, \u2018So am I,\u201d Connolly said after the race. \u201cI pretty much knew right then and there that it was probably going to be the two of us at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ramon Dominguez crosses the finish line of Lap 27 at the Last Man Standing race Lake Placid held at Mount Van Hoevenberg Saturday and Sunday. Dominguez, a retired jockey, won the race. (Enterprise photo \u2014 Chris Gaige)<\/p>\n
\tThe prediction came to fruition at 6 a.m. Sunday, to be exact. Lap 21, or 87.5 miles, was the first mano a mano lap after the third remaining runner dropped out during the 20th lap. Connolly said that\u2019s when the mental dynamics were on full display.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cEach of us are probably looking for chinks in the other one\u2019s armour,\u201d he said. \u201cHoping for a little break here and a break there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThey continued throughout most of the morning until Lap 27, when Connolly finally tapped out. Dominguez took that lap solo to cement his victory, a total of 112.5 miles.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m on cloud nine,\u201d Dominguez said.<\/p>\n
\tHe admitted that his goal of winning the race may have been a bit lofty. Though he has taken up running in retirement, most of that has focused on shorter-distance events, and he didn\u2019t have much experience with ultra-distance running.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Run3-1100x733.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Will Connolly, left, smiles with his pit crew who kept him supplied at the Last Man Standing Lake Placid race held at Mount Van Hoevenberg Saturday and Sunday. Connolly ran 26 laps, or 108.33 miles over 26 hours, to place second overall. From Connolly are his wife, Montana Connolly, Vinny Grace and Oliver D\u2019Orazio.
\n(Enterprise photo \u2014 Chris Gaige)<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI haven\u2019t even run a marathon,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I did have a good baseline and I poured my mind into it, and I was extremely excited to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDominguez said the rain Sunday morning was actually a welcome refresher after a day of running \u2014 he just had to switch over to hiking boots after nearly falling on his back on the course due to the slippery conditions.<\/p>\n
\tWhat Dominguez may have lacked in prior ultra-distance running experience, he made up for in mental fortitude, determination and grit \u2014 something his background speaks to.<\/p>\n
\tHe\u2019s one of the most accomplished thoroughbred horse racing jockeys of all time. With just under 5,000 career wins \u2014 including $191 million in purse earnings and three consecutive Eclipse awards from 2010, 2011 and 2012 \u2014 he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2016.<\/p>\n
\tHis career came to an abrupt end in 2013 when he suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple skull fractures from falling while riding at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Through extensive therapy, Dominguez was able to regain normal mental capacity, though, on the advice of doctors, he retired from the sport that year.<\/p>\n
\tDominguez, who grew up in Venezuela before immigrating to the U.S. in 1996 and now lives in Saratoga Springs with his family, turned to running in his retirement to stay in shape and stoke his competitive spirit.<\/p>\n
\tGabi Kuenzli, a Latin American history professor at the University of South Carolina, came up to watch Dominguez race. She said Dominguez\u2019s grit and determination is incomprehensible, even as compared to other professional athletes \u2014 something that she wasn\u2019t surprised to see remain a part of his persona as he races in retirement.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most respected jockeys in the profession,\u201d she said. \u201cSo you\u2019re dealing with a competitor the likes of which you can\u2019t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThough the competition was intense in the moment, it was nothing but respect at the end of the event. When Dominguez crossed the finish line for the final time, he and Connolly embraced, and Connolly placed the medal around Dominguez\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n
\tFor Connolly, who lives adjacent to this race course where he and his wife, Montana, own and operate the Van Hoevenberg Lodge & Cabins, it was fun to share the course with Dominguez and other late-standing athletes with a similarly ultra-resilient mindset.<\/p>\n
\tAs the hours went on and Saturday turned into Sunday, the field got smaller and smaller. Fighting through the night, when runners relied on nothing but a headlamp through the woods, took extra grit. It was something Connolly drew on his experience as a Naval special warfare veteran to pull through.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI know this from going through selection in the military that nighttime is the worst \u2014 most people quit at night,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t see as much, so you\u2019re other senses are heightened, so you feel all your aches and pains and it just lives in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe said that the first few nighttime laps had an air of excitement among the athletes, who all bestowed the honor at that point of having made it to the night. It didn\u2019t take long for the vibes to head south.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThree or four (night) laps in, nobody\u2019s talking to each other,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just suffering and the last couple nighttime laps \u2026 they\u2019re rough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFighting off sleep deprivation, physical deterioration and the mind\u2019s rational scream to stop, Last Man Standing is a brutal test of endurance and willpower. It wasn\u2019t the elements that decided when it was time to stop. It was the runners themselves.<\/p>\n
\tThey\u2019ve grown in popularity across the country in recent years, said event organizer and owner of Beastmode Running Company, Anthony Samoraj. The races follow a similar format: 4.167 mile laps beginning every hour on the hour.<\/p>\n
\tIf athletes finish early, they had the chance to rest and recover for a bit \u2014 the only criterion to keep going was that the athletes be ready and start the next lap when the bell goes off on the next hour. There was careful planning and strategy amongst many of the athletes, such as calculating how much rest time they wanted between laps as the event went on, how they were refueling themselves and, as the event went on, how to make the competition think they were in OK shape to keep going, even as they felt on the verge of dropping out.<\/p>\n
\tThe precise lap distance is so that if athletes remain in the event for 6 laps, they will have run 25 miles in 6 hours, 12 laps is 50 miles in 12 hours and 24 laps is 100 miles in 24 hours. Come Sunday morning at Mount Van Hoevenberg, a full 24 hours after the race began, it was down to two racers who showed no signs of stopping, even as the region had been in the midst of a downpour.<\/p>\n
\tWhile Sunday\u2019s spotlight went to those who went the furthest distance, Samoraj said one of the things he was most proud of about the event was that over half of the field \u2014 which featured around 95 runners at the start \u2014 set a personal record for the longest distance they had ever run.<\/p>\n
\tHe said that while the numbers put up by the top finishers may seem daunting, the race format lends itself well to casual runners, and they just might be surprised with how deep they can dig as the race grinds on.<\/p>\n
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\tESSEX \u2014 Essex Initiatives will host its 51st annual Essex Day celebration on Main Street in downtown Essex on …<\/p>\n
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