Broken Arrow 18K F50-59: Tj Plew-Hearne Holds Off a Hard-Charging Sekel at Palisades Tahoe

• Plew-Hearne wins in 2:49:12 (15:08/mi), the only F50-59 finisher under 2:50 on a course climbing to nearly 8,820 feet.
• 62 seconds separated 1st and 2nd — Shawn Sekel crossed in 2:50:14, making for the tightest gap on the podium by a wide margin.
• Sekel's finishing kick was the sharpest at the top — her High Camp→Finish split ranked 18th among all women, edging Plew-Hearne's 23rd on the same segment.
• Sarah McMahan held 3rd despite fading through the back half, dropping from 27th to 44th among all women after the Snow King→KT 22 segment before ultimately finishing 3rd in F50-59 in 2:55:05.

Racing at altitude between 6,200 and 8,820 feet above sea level, 31 women in the F50-59 field took on one of Palisades Tahoe's most demanding courses — and Tj Plew-Hearne of King City, CA made it look controlled. She moved steadily through the women's field all day, climbing from 49th to 32nd among women by the finish, and her 2:49:12 at a 15:08/mi average was enough to claim the win with a cushion that nearly wasn't.

Nearly, because Shawn Sekel of Pleasant Hill, CA was coming. Sekel's trajectory was even more aggressive — moving from 58th to 34th among women — and on the High Camp→Finish segment she was the stronger runner, posting the 18th-fastest women's split on that stretch to Plew-Hearne's 23rd. The gap at the line was just 62 seconds. Had the final climb been a few miles longer, the result might have flipped.

Sarah McMahan of Incline Village, NV — racing on home turf — rounded out the podium in 2:55:05, though her race told a different story. She was running in 27th among women through Snow King, but the back half cost her ground; she slid to 44th among women by the finish. Her 3rd-place finish in F50-59 was secure, but Jennifer Anderson of Seward, AK closed strongly to finish 4th in 2:58:45, moving from 68th to 48th among women across the full race.

Behind the top four, a significant gap opened. Danelle Hall of Scottsdale, AZ took 5th in 3:07:33, and the remaining 26 finishers spread across a range stretching past four hours — a reminder of just how much this course, at this elevation, can separate a field of 31.