The Trail World Championships and the GoPro Mountain Games were among the weekend’s biggest highlights. Next weekends’s competitive Broken Arrow Skyrace is also previewed in this week’s column.
Trail World Championships – Badia Prataglia, Italy
iRunFar was on hand with live coverage, and has separately recapped the Trail World Championships, which was in 2017 a joint venture between the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and the International Trail Running Association (ITRA) run on the Sacred Forest Trails course in northern Tuscany, Italy on relatively non-technical trails over the 50k distance and with over 3,000 meters of climbing.
Men
Spain’s Luis Alberto Hernando (pre-race and post-race interviews) is good, maybe the world’s best. That title is surely befitting of a now two-time world champion. He squashed any thought that this 50k course might be too short for his wheels and ran to victory in 4:23, finishing exactly one minute ahead of Spain’s Cristofer Clemente (post-race interview). France’s Cédric Fleureton (post-race interview) broke up the Spanish team with a third-place 4:28 finish. Spain won the team competition in dominating fashion ahead of France and the U.S.
Luis Alberto Hernando winning his second-straight Trail World Championships. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The U.S. team was led by perennial national-team member Mario Mendoza. He hasn’t always found consistent success on the big stage and was just 123rd at last year’s championships. Mendoza went the way of Lloyd Christmas, though, and totally redeemed himself. He ran into the top 10 in the second half of the race for an impressive ninth-place finish in 4:41. Cody Reed and Andy Wacker also scored for the U.S., finishing 15th in 4:44 and 20th in 4:50, respectively. Wacker was leading the race at 19k. Some 10k later he was suffering through a bonk before holding enough form to preserve a strong finish.
Bronze medal aside, the rest of the U.S. men’s team didn’t do so well. With CCC as a goal race later this summer, Hayden Hawks looks like he could use a rest. After a sterling start to his ultra career, his bad race streak is now at two. Here he told iRunFar that his “legs are gone” just 19k into the race, and finished 81st in 5:27. David Roche suffered from severe leg cramps and finished 198th in 6:38. We believe Tyler Sigl dropped late in the race after suffering with asthma.
Women
After achieving mostly in-country success, France’s Adeline Roche (post-race interview) and Amandine Ferrato (post-race interview) went next level at the world championships. The two raced first to the finish in 5:00, Roche just three seconds ahead of her teammate. Silvia Rampazzo (Italy), who was second two weeks ago at the Zegama Marathon, was third in 5:11.
Adeline Roche finishing ahead of teammate Amandine Ferrato to win the 2017 Trail World Championships. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
With three runners in the top five, and five runners in the top eight, the French team was completely unmatched. They won the team gold medal ahead of Italy and Spain.
Ladia Albertson-Junkans was in the lead group 19k into the race, and was still fifth at 39k. She appears to have ran into problems late, but finished 13th in 5:27 as the top U.S. finisher. Anita Ortiz and Corrine Malcolm were 43rd and 44th in 6:00 and 6:01, and Caitlin Smith was 48th in 6:07. Megan Roche and Keely Henninger were 72nd and 75th in 6:38 and 6:47 for the rest of the U.S. team. The American women finished sixth. Though outside of the medals, it was a big improvement versus 2016 when they failed to finish enough runners to score.
GoPro Mountain Games – Vail, Colorado
Gone is the Vail Pass Half Marathon, but the Spring Runoff 10k remains a big part of the all-things-mountain festival. A $1,200 first-place prize ensures that this one is quick, but both the men’s and women’s field perhaps lacked some of the depth of past years.
Men
For the men, when was the last time Joe Gray lost a trail race in the U.S.? It didn’t happen here and Gray was a repeat winner on the steep course. This year’s 46:47 was almost two minutes back of last year’s time, but Gray was comfortably in front of second-place Sage Canaday.
Finishing in 48:04, Canaday is holding onto some impressive speed while training for UTMB. Third-place Morgan Elliott went for 49:00 on the black-diamond trails.
Women
The women’s race was a clash between the last two U.S. Mountain Running Champions. Morgan Arritola won the 2015 championships and Addie Bracy won in 2016 and 2017. Arritola was racing for the first time in a long time, and Bracy was racing for the third time in as many weeks.
Arritola proved to be the greater titan on this day, and Anna Mae Flynn crashed the party by slipping in front of Bracy. Arritola was out front in 54:50 and Flynn, who presently is listed among the male results, was second in a time not yet clear. Bracy was third in 56:44.
Flynn and Arritola both doubled back to compete in the first-year Pepi’s Face Off race. The two went up and down a ski slope for 30 minutes straight, and here Flynn came out on top. She collected $1,000 for the win.
Spring Runoff 10k results and Pepi’s Face Off results.
Other Races
Scenic Trail K113
The 2017 Skyrunner World Series rolled on with the Scenic Trail K113 near Tesserete, Switzerland this weekend. German friends Stephan Hugenschmidt and Matthias Dippacher finished together in 15:40 after running with each other for much of the race. Francesa Canepa of Italy won the women’s race in 19:12 ahead of Yulia Baykova, a Russian living in Italy, who finished in 19:43.
San Diego 100 Mile
Kris Brown‘s winning 16:59 ranks fifth all time at the San Diego 100 Mile. Brown trailed eventual second-place finisher Michael Carson through mile 55, but would put over an hour on Carson before the Lake Cuyamaca finish. Teresa Kaiser won the women’s race in 22:22. Full results.
The North Face Endurance Challenge Series – Massachusetts
It was year one for The North Face Endurance Challenge Series – Massachusetts race at the Wachusett Mountain Ski Area. Over 50 miles, race victors were David Stango and Kassandra Marin in 9:06 and 11:08, and Mathieu Dubé (Canada) and Holly Reiland won the 50k in 5:01 and 7:01, respectively. Paddy O’Leary and Beth Blendell won the marathon in 4:34 and 5:32. Full results.
Green Jewel 50k
In northeastern Ohio, Paul Krupa kicked to a slim 21-second win in 3:41 at the Green Jewel 50k. Women’s winner Brooke Lindner clocked 4:49. Full results.
Trail Rail Run
On a rails-to-trails system in St. Regis, Montana, Greg Liebl and Madison Hart won the Trail Rail Run 50-mile in 6:36 and 7:25. Full results.
NCAA Track & Field Championships
It’s been a while since Mount Marathon star and former World Mountain Running Junior Champion Allie Ostrander has raced trails. Now oft injured while running collegiately, she hit a home run at the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Oregon. Ostrander ran 9:41 for a full five-second win in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (a 9-second PR and only her fourth ever steeplechase). Exactly 81 minutes later, Ostrander doubled back in the 5,000 meters, finishing fourth in 15:46. Full results.
Geiranger Frå Fjord til Fjell
Kilian Jornet races on roads, too… at least on a rare occasion. At Norway’s Geiranger frå fjord til fjell race, an event translated as “fjord to summit,” you can either run or bike 1,500 meters up Mount Dalsnibba over 21k in distance. Jornet ran 1:30 for a 12-minute win. For a loose benchmark on that run, Colorado’s Mt. Evans Ascent climbs 1,150 meters over 14.5 miles at altitude and Matt Carpenter‘s course record stands at 1:37.
Annie Bersagel won the women’s race in 1:44 ahead of Emilie Forsberg, who ran 1:55. [Women’s winner info added thanks to reader Rolf!] Full results (when available).
Race to the Tower
Retired Ironman triathlete Chrissie Wellington made her ultra debut at the Race to the Tower double-marathon event in the U.K. Wellington was second overall, first female, in 8:35. Tom Evans, who made a name for himself by taking third at the 2017 Marathon des Sables earlier this year, won the men’s race in 7:30. Full results.
Dipsea Race
The long-time–107 years!–Dipsea Race in the San Francisco Bay Area is best known for its quirks, which include both age- and gender-grading. This year’s overall winner was Chris Lundy, a 46-year-old woman who previously ran on the U.S. Mountain Running Team. Lundy was a three-time runner-up of the 7.4-mile race. Alex Varner was second and, when ignoring the handicaps, had the race’s fastest run time. Full results.
Chris Lundy, 2017 Dipsea Race Champion. Photo: Dipsea Race
Dirty Half Marathon
An upset? Jared Bassett ran 1:16 to finish nearly two minutes ahead of Max King at Oregon’s Dirty Half Marathon. Women’s winner Mika Shu ran 1:29. Full results.
Next Weekend – Broken Arrow Skyrace – Squaw Valley, California
Both the Broken Arrow Sky Ultra 52k and the Broken Arrow VK are Altra U.S. Skyrunner Series races, the first of the year. The 52k race winners will each earn $3,500, and the VK winners will collect $500. It’s more likely, though, that the wild course is what has collected such a competitive field. Though not part of the Skyrunner series, the event also includes a 26k race.
52k Men
- Noah Brautigam – 1st at 2017 Silver State 50k
- Guillaume Calmettes – 2nd at 2017 HURT 100 Mile
- Nick Elson – 1st at 2015 Squamish 50 Mile
- Tim Freriks – 1st at 2017 Transvulcania Ultramarathon
- Eric Ghelfi – 1st at 2016 Siskiyou Out Back 50k
- Ryan Ghelfi – 2nd at 2017 Canyons 50k
- Brian Gillis – 7th 2016 Tamalpa Headlands 50k
- Michele Graglia – 1st at 2016 San Diego 50 Mile
- Paul Hamilton – 1st at 2015 Power of Four 50k
- Drew Holmen – 5th at 2017 Way Too Cool 50k
- Brett Hornig – 5th at 2017 Sean O’Brien 100k
- Travis Morrison – 4th at 2017 Chuckanut 50k
- Paddy O’Leary – 6th at 2017 Way Too Cool 50k [Moved from 26k to 52k race, June 13]
- Patrick Parsel – 6th at 2016 Broken Arrow Skyrace 52k
- Tayte Pollman – 5th at 2016 Broken Arrow Skyrace 52k
- Erik Schulte – 1st at 2015 Angeles Crest 100 Mile
- Erik Sorenson – 1st at 2017 Marin Ultra Challenge 50k
- Benjamin Stout – 2nd at 2016 Flagline 50k
Chris Vargo – 5th at 2016 Transvulcania Ultramarathon- Stephen Wassather – 1st at 2016 Sean O’Brien 100k
Freriks had been mostly down up until the recent Transvulcania win. Another run like that and he should win here. Expect Vargo and perhaps Hamilton to keep it close, however.
52k Women
- Jen Benna – 1st at 2017 Silver State 50k
- Rory Bosio – 3rd at 2016 The North Face Endurance Challenge 50k – Utah
- Polina Carlson – 1st at 2016 XTERRA Trail Running World Championships
- Meredith Edwards – 6th at 2016 Broken Arrow Skyrace 52k
- Anna Mae Flynn – 3rd at 2017 Quad Rock 50 Mile
Keely Henninger – 75th at 2017 Trail Running World Championships- Amy Leedham – 3rd at 2017 Way Too Cool 50k
- Laura Kline – 2nd at 2017 UROC 100k
- Stevie Kremer – 1st at 2016 Sage Burner 25k
- Corrine Malcolm – 44th at 2017 Trail Running World Championships
- Sandi Nypaver – 6th at 2016 The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships – San Francisco
- Anita Ortiz – 43rd at 2017 Trail Running World Championships
- Sarah Woerner – 4th at 2016 Broken Arrow Skyrace 52k
- Kelly Wolf – 3rd at 2016 Moab Trail Marathon
- Alicia Woodside – 4th at 2017 Orcas Island 50k
Though she didn’t race that often in 2016 or in 2017 to date, Kremer gets the favorite nod among the women’s field. Bosio similarly has not recently raced often, and has not been in the same form of years ago when racing. She could, of course though, turn in a throwback performance. And then, will Henninger, Malcolm, and Ortiz all really double back from the Trail World Championships from this past weekend?
26k Men
- Max King – 1st at 2017 Chuckanut 50k
- David Laney – 6th at 2017 Chuckanut 50k
26k Women
- Morgan Arritola – 2nd at 2014 Pikes Peak Ascent
- Pam Smith – 1st at 2017 TrailFactor 50k
VK Men
- Noah Brautigam – 7th at 2016 Broken Arrow VK
- Cole Crosby – 5th at 2017 Cayuga Trails 50 Mile
- Paul Hamilton -1st at 2015 Power of Four 50k
- Max King – 1st at 2017 Chuckanut 50k
- Paddy O’Leary – 6th at 2017 Way Too Cool 50k
- Erik Schulte – 1st at 2015 Angeles Crest 100 Mile
- Ian Sharman – 1st at 2016 Leadville 100 Mile
VK Women
- Anna Mae Flynn – 3rd at 2017 Quad Rock 50 Mile
- Laura Kline – 2nd at 2017 UROC 100k
- Corrine Malcolm – 44th at 2017 Trail Running World Championships
- Anita Ortiz – 43rd at 2017 Trail Running World Championships
- Pam Smith – 1st at 2017 TrailFactor 50k
- Lenka Sterling – 1st at 2016 Broken Arrow VK
- Kelly Wolf – 3rd at 2016 Moab Trail Marathon
- Alicia Woodside – 4th at 2017 Orcas Island 50k
Next Weekend – Other Races
Wait there’s more! Also next week is the Ultra-Trail World Tour Mozart 100k in Austria, the Skyrunning World Series Livigno Skymarathon in Italy, and the “wild and scenic” Bighorn 100 Mile in Wyoming, USA.
Call for Comments
- We didn’t preview any of the other three big races for next weekend. What insight do readers have on the fields at either the UTWT, Skyrunning, or Bighorn events?
- What other races from this weekend can you mention in the comments field below? Please share race results with the community.
