Broken Arrow Skyrace 3.5K Ascent: Charlene Liebes Owns the F70+ Field

• Sole finisher, outright winner: Charlene Liebes, 74, of Lincoln, CA, crossed in 1:29:56 — the only athlete to complete the F70+ ascent.
• Course conditions: Racers climbed through elevations ranging from 6,298 to nearly 8,000 ft, with a 17 mph wind and just 19% humidity adding to the thin-air challenge.
• Consistent women's field position: Liebes held 159th among the women from the Snow King checkpoint all the way to the finish line.

There is only one way to win a race outright: show up and go the distance. Charlene Liebes did exactly that on a demanding high-altitude ascent through Palisades, Tahoe, finishing in 1:29:56 at an average pace of 41:21 per mile — numbers that reflect the brutal vertical grind of this course, where thin air above 7,000 feet turns every step into a negotiation.

At 74 years old, Liebes was the sole representative of the F70+ field, which makes her result both a win and something rarer: an uncontested claim on a course that chews up athletes of any age. The Snow King to finish segment told a steady story — she held her position among the women's field without wavering, a sign of controlled, deliberate effort rather than a race that got away from her.

The conditions didn't offer much mercy either. A 17 mph wind and single-digit-feel humidity at elevation can sap energy and dry out effort quickly. Liebes navigated all of it and finished. In a field where no one else even toed the line in her category, that's the whole story — and it's enough of one.