The 2024 Speedgoat by UTMB 50k kicked off at 6:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, July 20, high in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains at the famous Snowbird ski resort. Once all 32 miles (52 kilometers) and 11,000 feet (3,400 meters) of climbing were complete, David Sinclair had a new course record, while Canada’s Jazmine Lowther led the women’s race from wire to wire.
The weather was truly typical for a high-altitude summer day: fresh crispness in the morning, eventually yielding to a full sun whose heat always feels stronger at altitude.
Sinclair’s no-contest treatment of both the course and the men’s field showed that he was far-and-away the best men’s runner of the day. Samuel Hendry’s (Canada) performance for second place, while holding that position for basically the whole race, was also dominant.
And for Lowther, though the women’s race ran more closely, she, too, showed strength to stay ahead of a big chasing field, including significant pressure from second place by Mali Noyes, who made her presence known in the second half of the race.
Read on for more of this year’s Speedgoat 50k story.
The start of the 2024 Speedgoat by UTMB 50k. Photo: Nils Nilsen
2024 Speedgoat 50k Men’s Race
It was a tight start to the men’s race, but that didn’t last long. Through the first checkpoint at mile four, a group of eight men rolled through within a minute of each other. Then, at about mile nine and the top of the first major climb, the summit of 11,000-plus-foot Hidden Peak, two men, David Sinclair and Samuel Hendry (Canada), who would ultimately go one-two at the finish, passed through together, with more than two minutes on the rest of the field.
Sinclair is familiar with this race, having finished it three times and won it twice before, as recently as 2022. Hendry, an elite cross-country skier and skilled shorter-distance trail runner, looked to be moving up in distance with this race.
Behind them at mile nine, the top-10 men had strung out to within seven minutes of the lead. Among that group and pushing the pace was Adam Peterman, a prior Speedgoat 50k champion and the then course record holder, and Scott Patterson, a two-time Olympian in cross-country skiing and a mountain runner.
From here on, though, it was the Sinclair show, as at each checkpoint, his gap on Hendry — as well as the rest of the field — increased. By mile 20 at the Mineral Basin checkpoint, on the backside of Snowbird ski resort, Sinclair’s lead was just shy of nine minutes, and it only extended from there.
For the race’s final third, it was only the clock that Sinclair raced. When he crossed the line, after summiting Hidden Peak a second time, racking up a boatload of vertical, and taking the fast-and-furious descent back to the base of the ski resort, David Sinclair won in 4:57:35. This broke the previous course record of 5:04:31 set by Peterman in 2021. Sinclair also shaved over 11 minutes off his previous time when he won the race in 2022.
David Sinclair on his way to winning and setting a course record at the 2024 Speedgoat 50k. Photo: Nils Nilsen
Onto the rest of the men’s race. For as dominant as Sinclair was in first place, so was Hendry in second. By mile 20, Hendry had built a four-minute lead over the rest of the field, which he would hold at each aid station until the finish. Samuel Hendry ultimately crossed the finish line comfortably in second place in 5:24:57, with more than seven minutes on the next chasing man.
At every single aid station, it was Patterson holding a strong third place. So when the Olympian Scott Patterson crossed the line in third with a time of 5:32:26, it should not have come as surprise ending.
David Hedges took fourth in 5:38:35 and Grant Barnette fifth in 5:45:56.
Early pace pusher Peterman ultimately found his way to the finish in sixth.
Scott Patterson crossing the 2024 Speedgoat 50k finish line in third place. Photo: Nils Nilsen
2024 Speedgoat 50k Men’s Results
- David Sinclair – 4:57:35
- Samuel Hendry (Canada) – 5:24:57
- Scott Patterson – 5:32:26
- David Hedges – 5:38:35
- Grant Barnette – 5:45:56
- Adam Peterman – 5:46:57
- Ryan Becker – 5:49:49
- Forrest Barton – 5:50:09
- Sage Canaday – 5:51:23
- Daniel Metzger – 5:57:37
2024 Speedgoat 50k Women’s Race
While the women’s race for the win ran much more closely than in the men’s, Canada’s Jazmine Lowther took the lead from the get-go, never gave in as women ran closely behind her, and put the hammer down to crush the final descent — and the rest of the women’s field. Lowther was coming to this race after recovering from a longer-term injury that followed a pretty incredible couple years of ultrarunning, which saw her win the 2022 Canyons by UTMB 100k and take second at the 2023 Transgrancanaria.
To look at Lowther’s lead over her closest chaser, as the race progressed, it bounced from about a minute at the first checkpoint at mile four and over Hidden Peak for the first time at mile nine, before growing to more than 3.5 minutes by mile 20. She gave back some of that time in the next five rough and verty miles, holding just an 80-second lead when she summited Hidden Peak for the second time at mile 25 and began the big descent to the finish.
Over those final seven-ish miles, Lowther put six minutes on second place. That cracking descent from Jazmine Lowther ensured her victory and she crossed the finish line in 6:15:05.
Jazmine Lowther, 2024 Speedgoat 50k champion. Photo: Nils Nilsen
The race for the rest of the women’s top five was highly dynamic, with women moving around for much of the race. The closest chasers at the first checkpoint at mile four were Emkay Sullivan and Martina Valmassoi (Italy), the former of whom would remain dominant all race and the latter of whom would need to drop due to physical issues.
After over 6,000 feet of climb since the start of the race, over the first summit of Hidden Peak at mile nine, Emily Caldwell also made her presence known, passing over Hidden Peak in second place, with Sullivan right there in third.
Over the next 11 miles, another runner presented herself a challenger, Mali Noyes, a prior two-time finisher who took second last year. The cross-country and downhill skier at least partially converted to trail running a few years ago, and has been racking up experience in American trail races. Noyes moved into second place for the women before mile 18 and then held it to the finish. Mali Noyes’s impressive climb up the leaderboard in the first half, before holding steady in the race’s second half, led her to finish in second place in 6:22:31.
Much like Noyes in second place moved into that position before mile 18, so did ultimate women’s third-place finisher Kodi Kleven. Kleven is a local runner, coach, and former collegiate runner who finished seventh at the 2022 Speedgoat 50k, so she was looking to move up this year.
And also like Noyes, Kleven’s gap on the rest of the field stayed fairly close and fluctuated. For Kleven, her breakaway from the rest of the field took place on the beefy climb back up to Hidden Peak for a second time at mile 25. There, Kleven had carved out a fairly comfortable seven-minute lead, which she extended to 11 minutes by the finish line. Kodi Kleven crossed the finish line in 6:24:12 for third place.
Emkay Sullivan ultimately finished fourth in 6:35:09. Lindsay Allison also moved up during the latter half of the race, finishing in fifth in 6:41:39.
Kodi Kleven finishing third at the 2024 Speedgoat 50k. Photo: Nils Nilsen
2024 Speedgoat 50k Women’s Results
- Jazmine Lowther (Canada) – 6:15:05
- Mali Noyes – 6:22:31
- Kodi Kleven – 6:24:12
- Emkay Sullivan – 6:35:09
- Lindsay Allison – 6:41:39
- Ruby Lindquist – 6:41:53
- Emily Caldwell – 6:48:02
- Alexis Crellin – 6:55:28
- Keelah Barger – 7:07:52
- Jennifer Yeaman – 7:12:39
