After over eight hours of running, Nelson’s Jazmine Lowther could see the woman she’d been chasing for nearly 80 kilometres.
Lowther was competing in her first race at that distance during the Sinister 7 Ultramarathon in Crowsnest Pass, Alta., which took place July 8 to 10.
She had planned to start slow behind Calgary’s Arden Young, and then overtook her at around the 20-km mark. But Lowther hit a wall 10km later and was passed by Young, who left her behind.
Over the next 40 km, however, Lowther started cutting back into the deficit, and with 16 km left spectators started telling her she was gaining on Young.
With just 300 metres left, Lowther spotted Young ahead. Both runners went into a sprint for the last 50 metres, and Lowther ended up finishing just 14 seconds behind in second place.
Her final time was eight hours, 39 minutes, 27 seconds — or one hour, 20 minutes ahead of the third-place time.
“I’m super happy and ecstatic that that was the outcome,” she said. “I was in complete disbelief that there was no one else there.”
Nelson’s Jennifer Schaub meanwhile finished just over two hours behind in fifth place, while Nelson’s Carolyn Donnelly was 21st overall out of 78 finishers.
Nelson’s Dave Stevens dominated the men’s 80-km race, winning in 7:56:59.2. That time was 47 minutes faster than the runner-up finisher.
Rossland’s James Crossman finished sixth, Salmo’s Umberto Soda was 18th, and Nelson’s Tibo Kolmel followed in 24th out of 112 finishers.
Stevens, who also competes for the Canada’s long-distance team and coaches Nelson runners, said he used the Sinister 7 as training for a 160-kilometre race in Colorado in September.
“I just want to put Canada on the podium down there because it’s a really competitive race,” said Stevens.
Other Nelson participants included Jackson Buehler in the 160-km men’s race. Buehler was running his first race at that distance and was among the leading pack when he was forced to pull out after 140 km.
Long distance running returns to the Nelson area on Oct. 3 with Tackle the Toad, which offers 25- and 50-km races.
READ MORE: Ultra Marathon running: the highs, the lows, the pain
@tyler_harper | tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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