Broken Arrow 46K — F40-49: Vanzandt Runs Down the Field

• Marie Vanzandt won the F40-49 race in 5:59:25 (12:34/mi), the only finisher in the group to break six hours across 46K of high-elevation terrain.
• Vanzandt advanced from 34th to 18th among women during the race, a gain of 16 places in the women's field — the most dramatic upward move on the leaderboard among the top finishers here.
• Amber Weibel and Rebecca Anderson, both 48, filled the podium — separated by 10:54 at the line, with Weibel's 17th- and Anderson's 14th-fastest women's splits on the Olympic Valley East 2→Snow King 2 segment telling a tale of two strong closing legs.
• Brittany Rezowalli posted the 3rd-fastest women's split on the Village→Olympic Valley East 2 segment — the best on that stretch among anyone in the F40-49 field — yet still finished 5th, a reminder of how much racing remained after that surge.

Marie Vanzandt (41, Escondido, CA) put together the most complete performance of the day in the F40-49 field, averaging 12:34 per mile across a course that climbs and descends between 6,205 and 8,833 feet — conditions that can punish anyone underestimating the thin air. She began the race sitting 34th among women and steadily, methodically moved through the field, reaching 18th by the finish. Her 14th-fastest women's split on the Siberia 2→High Camp 2 segment was the engine of that charge, and she never relinquished her F40-49 lead once she'd built it.

Amber Weibel (48, South Lake Tahoe, CA) made the podium in 6:02:53 — just 3:28 behind the winner — and her local knowledge of these mountains may have been an asset on a day when the course demands respect. Rebecca Anderson (48, Truckee, CA) was another Lake Tahoe-area runner who found her legs late; her 14th-fastest women's split on Olympic Valley East 2→Snow King 2 lifted her from 28th to 22nd among women in the final stretch, securing 3rd in 6:13:47.

Fourth-place Marny Scalard (43, Colorado Springs, CO) crossed in 6:44:00, and the racing behind her was remarkably tight: Rezowalli, Kono, and Ursem — 5th through 7th — finished within two minutes of each other (6:50:59, 6:52:46, 6:52:59), a three-way cluster that underscores just how competitive the middle of this field was on a brutally demanding mountain course.