Women's Race: Warnke Grinds Out the Win Across 200 Miles of Cascades

• Aimee Warnke, 61:18:35 — winner at 18:23/mi avg, posting the fastest women's split on the Spencer→Lewis River segment after leading a see-saw battle through eight checkpoints.
• Elle Jones surged from 10th to 2nd, finishing in 65:39:09 with the fastest women's split on Quartz→Chain of Lakes — a relentless late charge that netted her the runner-up spot by nearly 3 hours over third.
• Jessica Schiller, 3rd in 68:33:10, posted the 2nd-fastest women's split on Owens→Finish — a closing kick across 200 volcanic miles that edged out Carrie Clendaniel (4th, 68:47:53) by just 14 minutes and 43 seconds.
• Heather Whitlock, 49, finished 5th in 69:49:53, logging the 4th-fastest women's split on Elk→Road 9327 — the oldest athlete in the top five and one of two 50-and-older women in the top ten.

Aimee Warnke's path to the win was anything but clean. She bounced between 2nd and 3rd through the early checkpoints, dropped back to 3rd, climbed back to 2nd, and didn't take the lead for good until the seventh checkpoint. What ultimately separated her was raw speed where it counted: the fastest women's split on Spencer→Lewis River sealed her 61:18:35 finish — a mark that sits well clear of Jessica Schiller's 2024 winning time of 56:34:52 and Ashley Paulson's 2025 win of 57:00:08, reflecting just how grueling this year's crossing of 44,082 feet of gain through the Cascades proved to be.

Elle Jones told the most dramatic positional story in the women's field. Starting 10th and still 8th at the second checkpoint, she picked off competitors one by one across the back half of the course. Her fastest women's split on Quartz→Chain of Lakes was the engine of that charge, and she crossed in 65:39:09 — 4 hours and 20 minutes behind Warnke, but comfortably clear of the chasing pack. Speaking of which: Ashley Paulson, the 2025 champion, returned to the field at age 45 and finished 7th in 71:06:41, a reminder of what she accomplished 12 months earlier.

The battle for the final podium spot was the tensest sub-plot of the race. Jessica Schiller — the 2024 winner — spent much of the race outside the top five, sitting as low as 7th at the fifth checkpoint. She clawed her way back with the 2nd-fastest women's closing split on Owens→Finish to land 3rd in 68:33:10. Carrie Clendaniel pushed her every step of the way: she had been as high as 2nd early on, posted the fastest women's split on Chain of Lakes→Klickitat, but faded to 4th in 68:47:53 — separated from the podium by under 15 minutes across a 200-mile course. Heather Whitlock rounded out the top five in 69:49:53, and Tina Ormuz (8th, 72:23:06) and Jennie Chisholm (9th, 72:43:19) added two more 50-plus finishers to a top ten that underscored just how deep this women's field ran across 42 finishers.