by Stephen Granger
Ultra-trail Cape Town Race Director, Stuart McConnachie completed his dream race to make the top thirty and beat the 20-hour mark, continuing the strong African tradition with the great American footrace, which saw a debutant taking overall honours for the first time in 36 years.
Founded in 1974 following earlier years as an endurance horse race, the Western States is regarded as the most sought-after title for a trail athlete to hold in his or her running CV. While the race is regarded as one of the more ‘runnable’ contests, it provides a stern test of both terrain and the elements, with the early kilometres run at high altitude, often in snow, and the latter stages in scorching heat. On Saturday the temperature reached 37 degrees Celsius, making it the 8th hottest in the history of the event.
Twenty-six year-old Adam Peterman from Montana, USA, raced clear of the strongly favoured Hayden Hawks to score a shock win his first-ever race over the distance in 15 hrs 13 min 47 sec, while New Zealand’s Ruth Croft lived up to widespread expectations, going one better than her runners-up place last year to win in 17:21:30 – the third-fastest time in the race history.
The tough entry criteria make it hard to reach the start-line of the Western States, particularly as an international athlete, but this year over 30% of the field of 385 runners, and notably the top five women, comprised athletes from abroad, giving the race a more cosmopolitan flavour than ever before.
Running a measured, controlled race, Peterman took the lead for the first time shortly before the well-known crossing of the Rucky Chucky River 78 miles into the race and went onto win by over 30 minutes. Although his time is over an hour off Jim Walmsley’s 2019 race record (and 10 minutes outside South African Ryan Sandes’ best time for the distance), it was the manner in which Peterman saw off the challenges of a group of vastly experienced elite ultra-marathoners which announced Peterman as a future super star.
With Peterman having blazed a trail of ultra-distance victories over 50km, 50 miles and 100km in the past 18 months since his relatively late introduction to the sport, comparisons with Walmsley have been inevitable. But although Peterman is not yet in the league of the world’s best ultra-distance athlete, he achieved what Walmsley could not and won the Western States at his first attempt.
Croft won at her second, having had to play second fiddle to an extraordinary performance by British athlete, Beth Pascall, last year. But having proved herself as a world-beater over the marathon distance the Kiwi, now part of Team Terrex at the adidas stable, has made the jump to ultra-distance with alacrity. And while the names Pascall and Dauwalter were absent from the start list in this year’s race, it is debatable the result would have been different had they not been, such was Croft’s complete performance.
Hawgood paid a price for having the courage to take on her Terrex teammate, running in the lead with Croft from Robinson Flats at Mile 30 and showing the determination and running talent which look set to bring her international honours in years to come.
Only from Mile 78 at River Chucky did Hawgood start to fatigue, which turned to exhaustion in the final stages, as the Zimbabwean cajouled her exhausted limbs to the finish at Placer High School in Auburn. Although overtaken by Canadian Marianne Hogan (second in last year’s Ultra-trail Cape Town) and Swiss athlete Luzia Buehler, Hawgood held on for a solid fifth place in 18:16:02 – an improvement of almost an hour, and two positions, on her performance last year.
While Hawgood could well have bagged second place with a more conservative running strategy, that was never her race plan. She was there to compete and compete she did in no uncertain terms, overhauling early leaders, Dominika Stelmach of Poland (and frequent visitor to South African road and trail race competition) and Hogan to take the lead with Croft shortly before Mile 30, at that stage inside record pace. And she savoured those moments.
“It was so special running with Ruth,” Hawgood said at her post-race interview. “Just before Robinson Flats I reached over and said ‘Ruth, this is a dream come true running with you’. Even if it had been for five minutes it would have been worth it.”
It was more than five minutes – a lot more. For almost two hours the Terrex teammates ran side by side in the race lead. “We kept on looking down to check our race bibs, as it felt just like a Saturday long training run,” Hawgood joked.
“The difference between this race and last year is that this time I never fell back into my comfort zone. From the start I was all in. The special moments with Ruth and the others were incredible and if given the choice I would do it the same way again.”
Croft acknowledged Hawgood’s performance. “I caught Emily just before Robinson Flats and we ran a lot together. It was awesome to run with a teammate – it felt like a long training run with a good mate. It was a lot of fun.” Croft reflected. “A hundred miles is an awful long way if you’re not having run!”
McConnachie had the beating of Hawgood (the 2018 Ultra-trail Cape Town 100km champion) in their last 100 miler at the Ultra-trail Mont Blanc last August, but the good-natured rivalry between the two ended one-all after Western States with McConnachie trailing Hawgood into the finish by over an hour. Nonetheless, McConnachie was delighted with his long day out as well as the strong support amongst elite athletes for Ultra-trail Cape Town.
“I’m sore but very happy,” commented McConnachie just eight hours after completing his quest. “We tried to find a hotel bed in Auburn, but they were all full, so we returned to the school track where I laid out in sleeping bag on a mattrass inside the track. It was good to shut my eyes but I didn’t really sleep. I’m still on a high. The sun’s up again and there are hundreds of people here in a celebration of trail running!
“My day went as planned – I started with a slow long climb up to the highest point at 2600m. The altitude for the first 40km was a lot harder than I imagined, but it was beautiful running in the high country. I was really struggling to absorb food all the way to the Last Chance aid station at 70km.”
But the triple ‘Canyons’, dreaded by most Western States participants due to the steep climbs and descents and increasing heat, proved McConnachie’s salvation. “The Canyons changed my race,” McConnachie admitted. “People dread them, but for me I found my legs on the big descent and it was a relief to bring an end to the long running along the relatively flat jeep track.
“And then at the end of the canyons, 100km into the race, my pacer Jack Davis (race director of the Karkloof 100 miler in KZN South Africa) joined me, which made a big difference. Running together, sometimes chatting and sometimes listening to music, put me back on track and approaching the Rucky Chucky River with a marathon to go I realized I had a chance to get under 20 hours.
“I said to Jack ‘I think I can run the last 42km in five hours’ and that became our focus. Although my feet were a mess of blisters and I was pretty spent, I was moving well and knew that if my body held out, I could make my target. We were steadily moving up the field, overtaking runners who had started faster and were now struggling. I don’t think any runner passed me from the start of the canyons.
“Running onto the track at the finish was a goose-bump experience, knowing the sub-20 hours was in the bag and living the dream in so many ways.”
And McConnachie had a word of admiration and encouragement for Hawgood. “What a great race she had. She’s young and courageous – she will have learnt from her race and how best to manage her pace in future.”
Apart from experiencing his ‘race of a life-time’, high on McConnachie’s agenda was to cement the already strong relationship between Western States and Ultra-trail Cape Town. Many of the top finishers in both the men’s and women’s competitions have raced in Cape Town and with the introduction for the first time of a UTCT 100-mile event , McConnachie is hoping to attract some of the world’s best to return to Table Mountain in late November, or to take on UTCT for the first time.
First prize would be to secure an exchange agreement whereby the winners of each of the two great races would gain automatic entry into the other. And with best-on-the-planet Jim Walmsley and Courtney Dauwalter the current UTCT champions, there would be no cheapening the very high standard of entry into the American event.
But for now, McConnachie is not thinking much beyond his American dream. “This is a relentless race. It grabbed me early on and just didn’t let me go.”
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