Conor Deal racing the 50K. Photo by David Berg.
With the largest ultramarathon race in the world on their minds, Anchorage’s Chad Trammell and Julianne Dickerson posted top-5 results on Saturday in a 100-kilometer footrace in Southern California.
Trammell placed fourth overall in 10 hours, 34 minutes and 52 seconds while Dickerson was fifth among women in 12:41:53 at the Kodiak Ultramarathons by UTMB at Big Bear Lake, Calif.
Trammell’s solid effort came with a tinge of disappointment as he was hoping to automatically qualify for the 2024 UTMB flagship 100k race in Chamonix, France. He’d like another crack at that race after dropping out in 2022.
“I know that top 3 would have qualified, so getting 4th was a little bittersweet,” Trammell said Sunday by text. “But I was happy overall with the race, especially given that most of the race was between 7000 and 9000 feet (elevation) and I missed quite a bit of training with some minor injuries this summer.”
Trammell said he enjoyed the course, which included more than 10,000 feet of elevation gain.
“(There was) lots of fun, winding singletrack in the ponderosa pines and high desert,” Trammell said. “It was especially fun having such a big crew of Alaskans down here.”
Trammell ran much of the first half with Anchorage’s Galen Hecht, who placed 7th among 157 men in 10:58:59. Hecht struggled with stomach issues and nausea for much of the last 30 miles.
“Despite that, I was very happy to hang on to a top 10 spot,” Hecht said.
Trever Kingsbury of Anchorage was 21st in 13:05 while Daryll Vispo was 84th in 17:28.
In the women’s race, Dickerson impressed while making her debut at the 100K (62.1 miles) distance.
Dickerson started conservatively and was in 13th place after 13 miles before gradually working her way into the Top 5.
With the race now a UTMB qualifier, the level of competition ratcheted up this year.
“Last year’s winning time for women was 12:51,” said Dickerson, who ran 10 minutes faster than that this year but finished 97 minutes behind winner Amanda Basham of Boulder, Colo.
The Alaska contingent. Photo courtesy of Julianne Dickerson.
While temperatures rose into the 60s throughout the day, the race started at a brisk 29 degrees.
“It seemed like a lot of racers were cold (at the start). I felt comfortable though,” she said.
Dickerson would eventually like to race UTMB in Chamonix, the best-known and most competitive series of ultras in the world.
“I’ll definitely put in the for the lottery for France,” she said. “I’m not in a hurry to get there but wanted to jump on the opportunity to race with a solid Alaskan crew.”
Some of the Alaskans stayed a house owned by former Eagle River native and ultrarunner Evan Hone at the resort area east of Los Angeles.
Alaskans also represented well in the 50-kilometer event.
For the women, Abby Jahn of Juneau placed 7th in 5:04, Heather Arneson took 13th in 5:27 and Kianna Wikka ranked 18th in 5:46.
In the men’s race, Corbyn Jahn of Anchorage was 11th in 4:52 and Conor Deal placed 14th among 311 starters in 5:05.
Lars Arneson, winner of many trail and mountain races in Alaska, experienced the disappointment of disqualification for not completing the full course. Arneson said he was running in seventh place but missed a short out-and-back section just a few miles from the finish.
“It was frustrating to spend the time, money and energy to go to a race only to have your 4-hour effort disqualified because of confusing marking,” Arneson said by text. “This was one of two out and back sections that could have been much clearer if they had been staffed.”
Early in the race, Arneson even helped get wayward top runners back on course.
“Within the first 3 miles of the race, the entire elite men’s field started wandering up a mountain off course and I was able to redirect everyone only because I had been there before and had previewed that specific section,” Arneson said.
Meanwhile, a pair of Alaskans continue to chug along at the Moab 240-mile race in Utah.
On Monday morning, after 3 full days on the course, Dean Denter of Eagle River had covered 181.8 miles of the looped course. According to his tracker, Denter had been moving for all but 21 hours and 40 minutes of that time.
Natalie Bickers of Palmer was less than a marathon behind Denter at Mile 159. In 2021, Bickers received acclaim for finishing the Moab 240 just two seconds before the cutoff time of 113 hours.