Ultra Weekend Recap — March 10

Friday, March 8, was the celebration of International Women’s Day, so we kick off this week’s Ultra Weekend Recap by checking in on the Lululemon FURTHER event, where 10 amazing women are seeing just how far they can go over six days of running. Taking place in La Quinta, California, the event kicked off on Wednesday, March 6 and ends Tuesday, March 12. Each woman is going after her own goals, while helping to collect data on women’s endurance performance. At the time of this writing, Camille Herron leads the way with an incredible 458 miles run over 99 hours on the 2.6-mile loop course. She’s already racked up multiple records, including in the 300-mile, 400-mile, 500k and 600k distances as she sets her sights on the six-day world record. You can track all the women’s performances here.

Also in California, the Marin Ultra Challenge races (50-miles and 50k) took place Saturday on the beautiful trails around the Marin Headlands and Muir Woods. In the 50-mile race, Kevin Stewart cruised to victory in 7:05:31, Hugo Robas took second (7:23:28) and Croom Beatty finished third (7:27:27). In the women’s field, Natalie Chirgwin (8:45:01) edged out Madeline Hirschfeld (8:47:12) for the win, with Sonia Ahuja (9:25:51) taking third.

In the 50k distance, a tightly contested battle saw the top three women all finishing within 3 minutes of each other. Lindsay Allison won in 4:16:11, Nora Pizzella finished second (4:17:33) and Katie D’Ambrosia claimed third (4:18:50). In the men’s race, Patrick Rabuzzi secured the victory in 3:51:45, Eric Neill took second (4:03:01) and Mack Robertson placed third (4:04:06). Full results here.

Staying out west, we head to the desert where ideal weather greeted runners at the Mesquite Canyon 50-mile and 50k races in Waddell, Arizona. In the 50-miler, Zuzana Trnovcova crushed the previous course record, winning in 8:46:18 and finishing fourth overall. Second place went to Cindy Shepard, who also went under the previous CR in 8:59:15 (fifth overall). Ashley Durstine (10:37:52) placed third. In the men’s race, Nick Coury (7:47:27) edged out Jeff Browning (7:51:27) for the win, with Barry Weickert taking third in 8:16:16.

In the 50k distance, Jordan Bramblett took home the win in 4:18:28, Pedro Gomes placed second (4:46:56) and Nathan Renn rounded out the podium in 4:48:58. On the women’s side, Ailsa Macdonald ran the second-fastest time in course history (4:27:53), securing victory and finishing second overall. Madison Lerum finished second in 6:19:28, and Diane Datz (6:40:32) placed third. Full results here.

Next, we head to Alcoa, Tennessee, for the Pistol Ultra Run, “an urban ultra run to start the spring with a bang!” Because the Pistol Ultra Run features four ultra distances (100-miles, 100k, 50 miles and 50k), I’m only going to list the winners of each race, but you can find the full results of every event here. In the 100-mile race, Chris Stayman set a new Tennessee state record in a blistering time of 14:01.32, with Whitney Richman winning the women’s race in 18:37:09. In the 100k, Francesca Muccini took the overall win in 10:16:25, with Zach Bihlman taking top honors for the men (11:19:46). In the 50-mile race, Owen Thorton set a new course record winning in 6:15:53, with Shelby Singleton winning for the women (8:36:53). In the 50k race, another course record was broken by Audrey Carter, winning in a time of 3:52:19 (second overall). Hector Falcon claimed victory for the men (3:22:39).

Congratulations to everyone who raced this weekend! Be sure to check the UltraRunning Magazine results page as more results roll in.