In a men’s race that seemed over before it started, Sage Canaday dominated from start to finish the 11,000 odd feet of 2014 Speedgoat 50k climbing, high altitude, and competition to win for the second year in a row. In contrast, in the women’s race, Anna Frost and Kasie Enman ran close all day before Anna Frost turned it on in the final six miles to become the 2014 Speedgoat 50k champ, her second win of this race.
We’ve interviewed both the women’s and men’s podium finishers following the race. You can now watch our interviews with Anna Frost, Sage Canaday, Kasie Enman, Paul Hamilton, Ellie Greenwood, and Alex Nichols.
In addition to this article, you can find our full play-by-play of the race as well as a collection of our pre-race interviews and preview on our Speedgoat 50k Live Coverage page.
As usual, we’ll be updating this article with additional results as well as links to Speedgoat 50k-related articles, photo galleries, and race reports.
Thanks to Hoka One One for sponsoring iRunFar’s coverage of the race.
Ps. To get all the latest ultra news from iRunFar.com, subscribe via RSS or email.
2014 Speedgoat 50k Men’s Race
Today was the Sage Canaday show, start to finish, with him leading commandingly and the only exception to that being early in the first climb where he shared the lead for a little while. By the top of the first climb at Hidden Peak, mile 8.3, Sage held a three-minute lead over second place and a six-minute lead over third place. At each subsequent checkpoint, Sage extended his lead by a couple more minutes. When our team saw him during the race, he seemed quiet, calm, collected, but putting in a big effort. Longtime Speedgoat volunteers and afficionados said Sage was running sections of climbs they’d never seen people running before, like the digger climb up Mount Baldy which comes after the mile 19.4 aid station. Sage finished with a 19-plus-minute lead on the rest of the field, taking home a $5,000 check for his first-climb prime, his winner’s prize money, and his course-record prime. (The course was changed a bit from last year to this year–made a little harder–so Race Director Karl Meltzer set the course-record prime at 5:15, some six-plus minutes faster than Sage’s 5:08 and change course record from last year. Sage got under that magic 5:15 number.)
Sage Canaday, 2014 Speedgoat 50k Champion. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The race for the rest of the podium was an exciting one between eventual second place Paul Hamilton and third place Alex Nichols. Early in the race, Paul and Alex mixed it up with a couple guys who would later fall back in the rankings. By mile 14.8 at the Pacific Mine Aid Station, Alex and Paul showed up second and third, with a small gap behind them to the rest of the field. The pair quickly separated themselves from the rest of the field and begin a duel that would continue to the finish. Alex led Paul by a couple minutes through the mile 22.3 aid station, but then Paul ate away at that such that he was only 15 seconds behind atop the final climb of the day, at the Hidden Peak 2 Aid Station, mile 26. On the final, five-mile downhill, Paul made the pass and finished second by just over two minutes over Alex. What a race within a race!
Paul Hamilton finishing second. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Alex Nichols working it on the first climb on his way to third place. Photo: iRunFar/Nate Smith
Fourth place Rickey Gates played it cool all day, rolling through the early aid stations in the back half of the top 10 with a calm, collected look on his face. He then was 10th at mile 8.3 and just out of the top 10 at mile 14.8. And then the magic happened: sixth place at mile 19.4, fifth place at mile 26, and fourth place at the finish. I don’t know if it’s what he intended, but from the outside looking in, Rickey’s race seemed like a perfectly calculated, planned one.
Mike Wolfe’s fifth place was another smartly run outing. On the first climb to mile 8.3 at Hidden Peak, Mike was nowhere to be seen inside the top 10, letting all the eager bucks go ahead. But by the almost-halfway aid station at Pacific Mine, he’d crept inside the top 10 where he would only move up, looking stronger and more confident than the other guys around him.
Local Lars Kjerengtroen had a heckuva day, finishing sixth and improving massively upon his 11th place here last year. Like Rickey Gates and Mike Wolfe, he, too, lingered outside of the top 10 until the long climb out of the Pacific Mine Aid Station, the rough halfway point. We’re not sure what happened back there, but Lars catapulted himself from about 15th place to seventh place within miles. Once he found his way to that spot, he would stay and finish that way, representing the Wasatch Front running community well.
The Arizona racing contingent told us to watch out for Catlow Shipek, and they were right. Again, in what seemed like a calculated race, Catlow started things off easy, found his way into the top 10 in the middle of the race, and ran strong to stay there. What a solid showing on the national stage for Catlow today in his seventh-place finish!
Eighth, ninth, and 10th places belong to Justin Yates, Galen Burrell, and Tom Goth.
2014 Speedgoat 50k Men’s Results
- Sage Canaday (Hoka One One) – 5:12:30 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Paul Hamilton – 5:31:15 (post-race interview)
- Alex Nichols (Inov-8) – 5:33:30 (post-race interview)
- Rickey Gates (Salomon) – 5:46:36
- Mike Wolfe (The North Face) – 5:53:17
- Lars Kjerengtroen – 5:58:54
- Catlow Shipek – 6:04:27
- Justin Yates – 6:05:09
- Galen Burrell (San Francisco Running Company) – 6:17:56
- Tom Goth – 6:20:12
2014 Speedgoat 50k Women’s Race
Anna Frost ran away with the win today, but she clearly had to work for it. She took the first-climb $1,000 prime, arriving to Hidden Peak at mile 8.3 with a more-than-2.5-minute lead. She said that all the women were running easy on the climb, and so she decided to go for the cash.
Anna Frost, 2014 Speedgoat 50k Champion. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
On the long descent from mile 8.3 to mile 14.8, eventual second place Kasie Enman caught up to and passed Anna, where she then led into the Pacific Mine Aid Station by a small margin. On the next climb back up to Mineral Basin 2 Aid Station at mile 19.4 and onto the Tunnel Aid Station at mile 22.3, Kasie extended her lead to five and six minutes. For a little while there, it seemed like game over.
Kasie Enman tops out on the first climb, on her way to second place. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Then things changed again, about a mile from the top of the last climb of the day, to the Hidden Peak 2 Aid Station, mile 26. Anna passed Kasie on that climb and put two minutes on her by the top. The two of them looked like night and day at the summit, Anna strong and Kasie gassed. But it turns out Kasie was only gassed on the uphills. She didn’t lose any time to Anna in the final descent, with Anna finishing just shy of two minutes in the lead and Kasie completing her first ultramarathon.
Third place Ellie Greenwood had a rough start to her race. She arrived to the top of Hidden Peak, mile 8.3, having a hard time climbing at altitude. It wasn’t long into the descent that followed where she started to move up in the rankings. By the midway point, Ellie arrived in fifth place. And then, on the long climb back to the mile 19.4 aid station, she moved up into third position where she would stay for the rest of the race. She had to work for her position, however, given that there were a passel of women breathing down her neck the second half of the race, especially the eventual fourth-place woman.
Third place Ellie Greenwood at the finish with champ Anna Frost. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Fourth place Hillary Allen was marked as a dark horse going into the race and she proved her fans right. Early on, Hillary ran in the back half of the top 10, but by the mile 22.3 aid station, she had climbed up into fourth spot and just a couple minutes behind Ellie Greenwood. That’s how it would go for the balance of the race save for the last descent. There, Hillary got off course and lost about eight more minutes to Ellie, finishing some 10 minutes back.
Fifth place Kerrie Bruxvoort wins my award for the most calm woman all day long. It was hot, the altitude was high, there were lots of rocks and dust, and the climbing was brutal, but Kerrie just never looked fazed. She must really like the fifth position, because she spent much of her day there or in fourth place. Start to finish, a smart, chill race on Kerrie’s part.
First local lady Bethany Lewis finished sixth, a position a couple spots back from where she ran early in the race. After occupying third position for much of the race’s first half, she dropped into the back half of the top 10. Her crew said she was suffering a couple different ailments, but, despite this, she held onto sixth place and first local woman. Way to represent the Wasatch Mountains, Bethany!
Joelle Vaught, Emily Sullivan, Becky Wheeler, and Ashley Arnold rounded out the top-10 women.
2014 Speedgoat 50k Women’s Results
- Anna Frost (Salomon) – 6:42:00 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Kasie Enman (Salomon) – 6:43:48 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Ellie Greenwood (Montrail) – 6:53:04 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Hillary Allen (Runners Roost) – 7:03:57
- Kerrie Bruxvoort (Salomon) – 7:12:41
- Bethany Lewis – 7:18:21
- Joelle Vaught (Montrail) – 7:20:00
- Emily Sullivan – 7:31:07
- Becky Wheeler (Altra) – 7:35:50
- Ashley Arnold (The North Face) – 7:49:52
2014 Speedgoat 50k Articles, Race Reports, and More
Articles and Photo Galleries
- Jordi Saragossa’s beautiful photos
- iRunFar’s huge photo album
- Criss Furman’s photo album
- Paul Nelson’s Facebook gallery and full collection
- Myke Hermsmeyer’s Facebook galleries: General and Hammer Nutrition
- Jason Eichhorst’s photo gallery
Race Reports
- Sage Canaday (1st male)
- Ellie Greenwood (3rd female)
- Catlow Shipek (7th male)
- Michael Versteeg (15th male)
Thank You
iRunFar’s live race coverage comes to you with the help of many great volunteers. We’d like to thank the following people for their assistance in the field today: Jeff Parker, Dave Hunt, Nate Smith, Brandon Peterson, Parker Judd, Sam Winebaum, Stuart Trimbath, Jason Asleson, Kelly Agnew, Jo Agnew, Mike Place, Ernie Floyd, Christian Johnson, and Erik Storheim. It was truly an amazing effort by the Wasatch Front trail running community!
