Women's Ultra 100K: Imboden Storms the Final Miles to Claim the Win

• Kate Imboden wins in 12:18:05 (11:53/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the Waterfall→Finish leg to overturn a four-place deficit and take the title.
• Rebecca Anderson's mid-race surge is the race's defining move — she entered the Kick Ash→Snow Valley Peak segment ranked 82nd among women and exited it 3rd, posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on that stretch on her way to a 13:14:23 runner-up finish.
• Bree Lambert-Sanders, 58, finishes 4th in 14:07:20, running the 4th-fastest women's split on the closing Waterfall→Finish leg — a remarkable result in a high-altitude 100K.
• Rosie Scharf and Amara Brook finish 7th and 8th, separated by just 16 seconds (15:34:20 vs. 15:34:36) after more than 15 hours on course.

For most of the race, Kate Imboden was a patient hunter. She ran in 3rd among women through the early checkpoints, slipped to 4th by mid-race, and held that position through five consecutive splits — not fading, but not yet making her move. Then came the Waterfall→Finish leg, where she posted the fastest women's split of anyone in the field and swept from 4th to 1st, crossing in 12:18:05. That's a decisive late surge at an elevation that ranges up to 9,000 feet — conditions that punish anyone who hasn't paced the early miles with discipline.

The most dramatic journey through the women's field belonged to Rebecca Anderson, 48, of Truckee. She was buried deep in the field — 88th among women at the first checkpoint, 82nd at the second — before unleashing one of the race's great mid-race charges. Her 2nd-fastest women's split on the Kick Ash→Snow Valley Peak segment rocketed her to 3rd, and she held on from there, finishing 2nd in 13:14:23. Julie Kheyfets rounded out the podium in 13:22:38, closing with the 3rd-fastest women's split on the Waterfall→Finish leg — meaning the top three finishers all made their most decisive moves on that same closing stretch.

Morgan Hawkins (5th, 14:13:32) ran the 3rd-fastest women's split on Snow Valley Peak→Hobart but couldn't hold her early positioning — she ran 2nd through the opening checkpoints before gradually slipping to 5th by the finish. Sydney Lambert finished 6th in 14:37:11, rounding out a top six that covered just under two and a half hours across 76 finishers. And Kelly Ridgway, 68, of Santa Rosa, deserves her own mention: 17th in 17:15:01 on a course that climbs to over 9,000 feet.