Broken Arrow Skyrace IFC — F60-69: Whitchelo Stands Alone at the Top

• Melaine Whitchelo, 63, wins F60-69 in 2:14:25, averaging 26:53 per mile across a course topping out above 7,000 feet.
• Jan Nishikawa, 66, finishes 2nd in 4:22:33 — a gap of just over two hours between the only two finishers in the field.
• Two women, two completions — in a race that demands serious mountain legs and tolerance for thin air, finishing is the first victory.

Melaine Whitchelo of Davenport, Iowa made the trip to Palisades Tahoe and made it count. Running at elevations ranging from 6,200 to over 7,100 feet — conditions that can punish athletes who live and train closer to sea level — she covered the IFC course in 2:14:25 at a 26:53-per-mile average, a controlled, purposeful effort through terrain that doesn't negotiate. With only two finishers in the F60-69 field, every step was a statement.

Jan Nishikawa, 66, of Gold River, California — with home turf in the Sierra Nevada foothills — crossed the line in 4:22:33, completing the course in her own right. The two-hour-plus gap between the women reflects the brutal honesty of mountain racing at this altitude: the course separates athletes not just by fitness but by how their bodies absorb the climb, the footing, and the thinner air. Nishikawa's finish, at 52:31 per mile, is its own hard-won result.

In a field of two, there's no hiding and no pacing off a crowd — just the mountain, the clock, and whatever you brought that morning. Both women answered the call.