F20-29: Emily Clarke Dominates Way Too Cool in 3:54:33

• Clarke wins by 40:45, finishing in 3:54:33 at a 7:33/mi pace — the largest margin at the top of the F20-29 group.
• Clarke held 1st among women through the first three checkpoints before settling to 2nd among women at the finish, while commanding the F20-29 group wire to wire.
• Rachel Lemcke's late charge: she ran the 4th-fastest women's split on the Quarry→ALT segment to climb from 6th to 4th among women, securing 2nd in F20-29 with a 4:35:18.
• A 3+ hour spread separates 1st from 12th in F20-29 — Clarke's 3:54:33 versus Georgia Anselmo's 7:11:24 — underscoring the range of the field.

Emily Clarke, 24, from Flagstaff, made the F20-29 race her own from the gun. She ran a 7:33/mi average across 31 miles on a clear, mild day in Cool — and backed it with the fastest women's split on the Fire Station→Quarry segment, one of the race's pivotal stretches. She led among women through the first three checkpoints before finishing 2nd among women overall, but within F20-29, she was never seriously challenged.

Behind her, Rachel Lemcke (29, Colorado Springs) put together the most interesting second-half story in the group. Sitting 6th among women through most of the race, she found another gear on the Quarry→ALT segment — posting the 4th-fastest women's split there — to finish 4th among women and 2nd in F20-29 at 4:35:18. Katelyn Kerins (27, Folsom) rounded out the podium in 4:44:24, herself posting the 4th-fastest women's split on Fire Station→Quarry to hold 5th among women throughout and claim 3rd.

Brandi Farrel and Megan Isom both showed life on specific segments — Farrel with the 8th-fastest women's split on ALT→HWY 49, Isom matching that rank on Fire Station→Quarry — but neither could sustain it across the full 50K, finishing 4th and 5th in F20-29 respectively. The back half of the field, from Shannon Perry through Georgia Anselmo, spread across a wide range from 5:57 to 7:11, a reminder of just how demanding Way Too Cool's terrain can be even on a cooperative March morning.