The inaugural
Tahoe 200 Endurance Run is closing in on it's 100-hour cutoff, and Australia's Ewan Horsburgh (61:32) and Oklahoma's Gia Madole (75:56, 10th overall) have emerged victorious after 78,000' of climbing and descent that circumvents the great Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada. Nearly 50 finishers made it through the brutal course, including a few like
Inside Trail Racing's Victor Ballesteros (2nd, 63:43) who never even slept! Simply amazing.
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| (Tahoe 200 elevation chart...wowza!) |
Horsburgh came all the way from Katoomba, New South Wales, to test his 100k and 24hr World Championship running skills against the Tahoe mountain course. He stayed in the Top 5 through most of the race, claiming the lead in the final 20 miles as a fading John Burton (3rd, 65:02), who led the race for 130+ miles, slipped back. Victor Ballesteros (63:43), no stranger to Tahoe after years of TRT100 finishes and FKT attempts, climbed steadily through the day from 19th to 2nd place.
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| (Horsburgh celebrates his record run) |
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| (Champagne and Oreos for female winner Gia Madole) |
Harrah, OK's Madole used the Ouchita Trail 50m (1st, 9:38) and Bryce 100m (3rd, 24:48) for her preparation this year, and made a strong second half charge to go from 25th to 10th place overall, with a fast closing Michelle Halsne from Mukilteo, WA, who finished 12th in 77:47. Canadian Claire Perks finished third woman in 81:16 for 22nd overall.
Bravo to the brave starters, finishers, and volunteers of the Tahoe 200! Simply amazing! Lots of great photos on the
Tahoe 200 FB page if you want to see more.
I was able to watch the first three runners as they finished. An incredible feat to witness. I believe Victor's wife said he slept only three minutes total, or something like that. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteYo Buddy, correction... Three minutes of closing my eyes, just to pretend I experienced something resembling sleep. ;-)
DeleteHaha. Even better!
DeleteRegistration was $892 - that is more epic than the race itself!
ReplyDeleteThat's not bad for a 4-day event, actually. Ironman charges that for a single day!
Delete5 days, 4 nights, actually. And if you saw the tremendous effort that Candice Burt and the 3 other Race Directors put in to this thing, you'd be amazed they charged only that amount.
DeleteThe boundaries just keep moving. Once upon a time a marathon was awe inspiring, then 50 milers became the outer limits. And now even the 100 miles I ran once has become 'just halfway'. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteSomeone corrected me that there were 90 that started, 60 that finished. Not a bad finish rate for a 200!
ReplyDeleteSuperHewan
ReplyDeleteWell done Ewan .. How does this rate with " What The F@#K" that we ran this time last year ? Long Live ALL C2Kers -- Rob Sutton
ReplyDelete