A Running Legacy at the Trinidad to Clam Beach Run

The 60th annual Trinidad to Clam Beach Run in Honor of Ford Hess returned Feb. 7, followed by a party for the roughly 1,000 who ran, jogged or walked the scenic 5.75-mile course beginning at Saunders Park in Trinidad. Participants crossed very little water this year in Little River at Moonstone Beach, and finished at Clam Beach with free food, a warming fire and live music by the Cal Poly Humboldt Marching Lumberjacks.

The Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce added some living history to this year’s race by inviting back Bill Ferlatte and Tom Beck, two Humboldt State College runners who helped transform one of cross country coach Ford Hess’s legendary training routes into the 1966 race route used for many years.

“We would come to this area for training runs as a break from the campus area,” said Ferlatte. “Tom Beck and I thought it would be fun to create a race that other runners would enjoy. So with the guidance of Dr. Hess, we mapped out the original 8.75-mile course starting at the Old Colonial Inn north of Trinidad and going south to the Little River, and then south on the beach to Clam Beach.”

The race organizers in the early years didn’t pay attention to tide levels at race time or use a rope crossing at Little River. Ferlatte placed fifth behind winner Gary Tuttle in that first race 60 years ago. Tuttle went on to win three of the first four races.

Beck said he missed the first race while recovering from running a marathon but returned in 1972 to run the Trinidad to Clam Beach Run for his first time with a third-place finish in the 30-39 age group. He ran the race again in 1983 and 1985.

“Dr. Ford Hess was my coach all three seasons that I ran on the HSC cross country team,” said Beck. “In the fall of 1965, Bill Ferlatte and I got the idea of making this training course a regular race on the AAU schedule of long-distance races for Northern California.” They were familiar with annual Bay Area races, like the Dipsea and the Bay to Breakers, and the Trinidad to Clam Beach course seemed like an excellent choice for a local version. 

 “Dr. Hess agreed and, as a member of the Trinidad City Council, took Bill and me to one of their meetings to make the pitch for them to sanction the race and to provide funding for medals and ribbons for the runners,” said Beck.

The Trinidad chamber also invited Darren Walton back this year, as he placed seventh in the 1966 race. Sixty years later, the 75-year-old ran the now shorter 5.75-mile race with a new hip and new knee. During the inaugural run, he was a 15-year-old Novato High School sophomore running cross country with classmates Don Makela (who later won the race in 1973) and Ron Elijah (who won the race in 1976). “I was looking for somewhere to run other than a road race back in 1966,” said Walton, “and heard about this new race with hills and river crossing. My coach also encouraged me to go, saying, ‘If you want some competition … ’ And now I’ll have run in the first, the 50th and the 60th anniversary of the race.”

To acknowledge the original 8.75-miles route of the Trinidad-Clam Beach Run starting near the Larrupin’ Café, the Trinidad chamber invited Mike Pigg, Sarah Landis, AJ Armanini and James Kern to run the original race route and distance. Pigg was the first to reach Little River, closely followed by Armani and Landis, but Landis finished first (1:07:04), trailed by Armanini, Pigg and Kern.

“Great idea to invite Mike [Pigg], the hardest working athlete I know,” said Mike Williams, owner of the Joggin’ Shoppe in Arcata. “Anyone that has trained with Mike has a story about going a little farther and harder than you planned that day.”

Though Riley Martel-Phillips trailed Anna Hanstveit at the Little River crossing, she took the lead on Clam Beach and was a back-to-back winner of the women runners, finishing in 33:31 (27th overall), followed by Anna Hanstveit (34:14) and Emma Hanstveit (34:57), seniors on the Cal Poly Humboldt women’s triathlon team.

Among the men, winner Jonah Grubbs (29:06) was behind eventual second-place finisher Sebastian Vaisset (29:35) by a short distance at Little River but pulled ahead on Clam Beach. Daniel Shaver (29:42) placed third. For all results, visit runtheday.com/results.

The Marching Lumberjacks closed the post-race activities with their traditional playing of “Rubber Ducky,” then marching and splashing into the chilly surf.

Mark Larson (he/him) is a retired Cal Poly Humboldt journalism professor and active freelance photographer who likes to walk. 

This article appears in Needles and Ink.