When the 2024 Black Canyon 100k was mentioned and executed, Hayden Hawks set a brand new males’s course report, Rachel Drake took the win within the ladies’s race, six women and men took residence Western States 100 Golden Ticket entries, and all of the occasion’s contributors weathered some extremely distinctive winter circumstances within the Arizona desert. All in all, it was an enormous day for American path ultrarunning.
The 2024 Black Canyon 100k came about on Saturday, February 10. After a number of climate delays, the race began at 9:30 a.m. native time.
The Black Canyon 100k is a point-to-point race that takes in 5,578 ft (1,700 meters) of elevation achieve and seven,703 ft (2,348 meters) of descent. The race is held on the Black Canyon Path, which is made up of singletrack, jeep roads, and an outdated stagecoach route.
The Black Canyon 100k is a part of the newly fashioned World Path Majors sequence and, importantly, an opportunity for elite runners to get their Golden Ticket entry to the Western States 100. Three males’s and three ladies’s Golden Tickets have been up for grabs at this 12 months’s race among the many high finishers, so there was rather a lot to battle for.
Earlier than the race had even begun, there was drama. As a consequence of snowfall in a single day, transport to the race was delayed, due to this fact the race was postponed. The race was additionally lowered from three to 2 waves to get all the pieces underway as rapidly as attainable.
This might have impeded the athlete’s dietary methods, and the disruption might have had a psychological influence on some. However what magnificence there was to see snow within the desert, a uncommon incidence!
Learn on for the complete race story.
A cold begin to the 2024 Black Canyon 100k. All pictures: Jesse Ellis/Let’s Wander Pictures
2024 Black Canyon 100k Males’s Race
It was an extremely fast begin to the race, with the boys’s high 20 sticking aspect by aspect up till the primary assist station at Antelope Mesa, 7.6 miles in. Matthew Seidel took the lead, passing by the checkpoint at 49:28, adopted by Hayden Hawks, Bobby Peavey, and Hans Troyer.
The highest 10 males got here by inside 11 seconds of one another, so it was tight.
This continued by checkpoint three at Bumble Bee, 19.2 miles into the race, the place Seidel, Troyer, and Hawks all handed by the checkpoint inside one minute of one another.
It was at checkpoint 4, Gloriana Mine round mile 24, that issues began to warmth up within the males’s race. Hawks and Troyer have been forward, and each reached the checkpoint in 2:35, one minute in entrance of the remainder of the competitors.
Hayden Hawks on his strategy to successful the 2024 Black Canyon 100k.
Troyer, recent out of school, managed to stick with veteran Hawks till Cottonwood Gulch the place he dropped again and ultimately went to fifth place by Desk Mesa, simply over 50 miles in. Within the meantime, Hawks managed to carry pole place while Chris Myers and Jupiter Carera Casas (Mexico) moved as much as fill the remaining podium positions.
Because the race got here to a detailed, it was much less about who was going to win the race, however whether or not Hawks was going to set a brand new course report. Passing by Doe Springs with a bit of over three miles to go, he was going 34 seconds quicker than the earlier course report, 7:32:50, set by Anthony Costales in 2023.
After getting back from knee surgical procedure six months earlier, and struggling a DNF eventually 12 months’s Western States 100, not solely did Hawks end in first place, however he additionally managed to bag a course report at 7:30:18.
He was adopted by Jupiter Carera Casas in 7:39:56 for second, and Chris Myers in third place in 7:43:02, with the highest three males accepting their Golden Ticket entries to the 2024 Western States 100.
Some later drama within the males’s race occurred between ninth and tenth place, when Nate Jewkes pipped Hans Troyer to the put up with a dash end.
2024 Black Canyon 100k Males’s Outcomes
- Hayden Hawks – 7:30:18
- Jupiter Carera Casas (Mexico) – 7:39:56
- Chris Myers – 7:43:02
- Craig Hunt – 7:46:39
- Stephen Kersh – 7:47:33
- Tracen Knopp – 7:48:04
- Eric LiPuma – 7:48:48
- Gabriel Kline – 7:51:28
- Nate Jewkes – 8:03:55
- Hans Troyer – 8:03:58
2024 Black Canyon 100k Girls’s Race
The ladies’s race was a sport of technique and began with Heather Jackson main the pack by one minute at checkpoint one, 7.6 miles in, coming in at 54:06. Rachel Drake and Anna McKenna (Australia) adopted shortly behind.
Because the race went on, Jackson continued to widen the hole between her and her opponents. By the 12.8-mile mark, there was greater than a two-minute hole between her after which second-place Sarah Biehl. The ladies in positions two to 6 have been all shut to at least one one other.
Jackson held the lead by Black Canyon Metropolis, 37.7 miles in, however within the lower than 9 miles that adopted to Cottonwood Gulch, Becca Windell and Drake had closed the hole and moved 16 minutes away from Jackson, with Windell narrowly main Drake by the checkpoint.
From right here, Jackson dropped again, while Drake and Windell went head-to-head for the remaining miles. Windell had an unbelievable race, attacking from fifth place all the way in which as much as third, then battling it out with Drake throughout the second half of the 100k.
However, the second that Drake took the race was on the ultimate river crossing. Each athletes have been operating collectively till this level, and it was solely once they have been exiting the river that Drake took the chance to drive forward and take the lead. From there, it was her race.
Rachel Drake on her strategy to successful the 2024 Black Canyon 100k.
Rachel Drake went on to take first place and crossed the end line in 8:47:23. Coming in shortly after was Becca Windell in 8:52:46. Each ladies managed to finish the race below the nine-hour mark. Third place was taken by Lauren Puretz, who accomplished the race in 9:06:58.
On the end, all three podium ladies accepted their Western States 100 Golden Tickets.
2024 Black Canyon 100k Girls’s Outcomes
- Rachel Drake – 8:47:23
- Becca Windell – 8:52:46
- Lauren Puretz – 9:06:58
- Jenna Bensko – 9:11:18
- Kathryn Drew – 9:15:20
- Geneviève Asselin-Demers (Canada) – 9:17:38
- Tara Dower – 9:19:25
- Anna McKenna (Australia) – 9:28:24
- Riley Brady – 9:33:53
- Marci Klimek – 9:41:02
Riley Brady identifies as non-binary, however competes within the ladies’s race.
