Two ultras in Texas are featured in this week’s roundup: the Big Bend Ultra and the Snowdrop 55-Hour Race.
Big Bend Ultra 50K
Molly Karp took on the desert conditions of West Texas when she competed in the Big Bend Ultra 50K on Sunday, Jan. 15, at Big Bend Ranch State Park, just north of the US-Mexico border.
Karp, 34, of Natick Mass., turned in a strong showing as she finished 12th overall out of 74 finishers and secured fourth-place female honors in a time of 5:21:50.
The course, which consisted mostly of dusty, rocky park roads through the dry desert, provided good footing for fast running and included just shy of 1,900 feet of vertical gain.
Dawn McElvain of Austin, Texas, was the women’s champion and seventh overall in 4:41:20. Matthew Preslar, 43, of Cloudcroft, N.M., was the overall winner in 4:08:57.
Snowdrop 55-Hour
Will Bradley closed out 2016 and rang in 2017 with a 100-mile performance at the Snowdrop 55-Hour Race in Sugar Land, Texas.
The race began on Dec. 30 and concluded Jan. 1. Runners had 55 hours to cover as many miles as they could on a flat, fast, crushed-gravel loop course.
Connie Gardner, 53, of Medina, Ohio, and Joe Fejes, 51, of Columbia, S.C., shared the victory as they both completed 202.35 miles, easily outdistancing third-place finisher Iain Wallace, 50, of Houston, Texas, who ran 112 miles. Most runners stopped upon finishing 100 miles. In fact, of the 138 runners in the field, 101 completed at least 100 miles. That included Bradley of Westminster, Mass. Bradley, 30, finished 69th overall with 100.06 miles completed. He was the lone Bay State resident in the field.
Bradley also ran Snowdrop last year when he finished 100.1 miles.
*Editor’s Note: Results are found on a variety of sites, including ultrasignup.com, UltraRunning Magazine, and official race websites. We do the best we can to find as many results as possible to report on and recognize the local ultrarunning community.
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