Race Across the Sky: Mckendree Hickory Seizes the F30-39 Crown

• Hickory wins in 19:28:15 — the fastest F30-39 finish at 11:41/mi, posting the fastest women's split on the 64.2M→72.8M stretch as she made her decisive move to the front.
• Emma Wood runs 20:21:07 for 2nd, owning the fastest women's split on the 45.6M→52.3M segment — but couldn't hold off Hickory's late surge.
• Raven Johnson storms home in 22:23:31, running the 2nd-fastest women's split on the final 89.2M→Finish leg to climb from 6th to 3rd among women — one of the biggest late charges in the field.
• All 20 listed finishers earned a Leadville belt buckle, crossing well under the 30-hour cutoff — from Hickory's 19:28 down to Emily Olsen's 27:31.

Mckendree Hickory of Steamboat Springs had the kind of race that announces itself late. She was sitting 6th among women at the first checkpoint, and the mid-race picture kept her hovering between 2nd and 4th — never quite at the front. Then came the 64.2M→72.8M stretch, where she posted the fastest women's split of the entire field on that segment. That was the move. By the time the course returned toward Leadville, she had climbed to 1st among women and held it to the finish line in 19:28:15, averaging 11:41 per mile across 100 miles at altitude. On a course that ranges up to 12,566 feet and crosses Hope Pass twice, that is a performance worth every syllable.

Emma Wood, racing in her home town of Leadville, was the day's early aggressor. She owned the fastest women's split between 45.6M and 52.3M — a segment where she was moving through the field with real authority, sitting as high as 2nd among women. But the back half of this race has a way of reshuffling the order, and Wood ultimately finished 2nd in F30-39 in 20:21:07 — still a commanding result, nearly a full hour clear of 3rd place.

That 3rd place belongs to Raven Johnson of Weaverville, NC, who ran one of the most compelling arcs in the field. She was 24th among women early on, worked steadily through the middle miles, and then uncorked the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 89.2M→Finish leg to surge from 6th to 3rd among women, finishing in 22:23:31. Just 8 minutes and 48 seconds behind her came Rachael Banton (4th, 22:32:19), who had been the more consistent presence all day — posting the 4th-fastest women's split on the 20.5M→26.0M segment and running a measured race from start to finish. Lauren Schmidt rounds out the top five in 22:57:38, having climbed from 41st among women at one checkpoint all the way to 8th — a jaw-dropping recovery anchored by the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 72.8M→78.7M leg.