2X Mixed: Cape Fear Bandits dominate Badwater Salton Sea from wire to wire

• Cape Fear Bandits (Small & Garber) won the 2X Mixed field in 17:34:30 — nearly 6 hours and 44 minutes ahead of the second-place team.
• Small & Garber posted the fastest women's-split on the 14M→35M segment, signaling where they truly put the race away.
• Dead Fish City Run Club (Lyons & Doulder) steadily climbed from 8th to 4th among women through the race's checkpoints before securing 2nd in the 2X Mixed in 24:18:00.
• Princess Leah & Darth Dean (Vincent & Dobberteen) rounded out the field in 3rd, finishing in 25:59:35 — 1:41:35 behind 2nd place.

Cape Fear Bandits — Erika Small (52, Oak Park, CA) and Andrew Garber (30, Lompoc, CA) — never relinquished control of this race. Small held the top women's position from the very first checkpoint through the finish, and the team's 13:01/mi average across 81 punishing miles — from 234 feet below sea level up to Palomar Mountain at 5,500 feet — tells the story of a pair running with total authority. Their fastest split on the 14M-to-35M stretch confirmed this wasn't a survival shuffle; they were genuinely racing. The finish line in 17:34:30 was theirs alone.

Dead Fish City Run Club — Emily Lyons (34, Castle Hayne, NC) and Eric Doulder (46, Buda, TX) — had the most eventful journey through the field, gradually working their way up from 8th place at the opening checkpoint to claim 2nd in 24:18:00. Lyons posted the 5th-fastest women's split on the second half of the course, showing the team had legs left when others were fading. It was a patient, well-executed climb through the standings over the course of a very long day and night on the road.

Princess Leah & Darth Dean — Leah Vincent (46, Norman, OK) and Dean Dobberteen (49, Bonita, CA) — made their own move in the back half, advancing from 18th among women at mid-race to 14th by the finish, and Vincent's 4th-fastest women's split on the 45M-to-50M segment shows there was a real surge in there somewhere. They completed the 81-mile traverse in 25:59:35, taking 3rd in the 2X Mixed and finishing every step of one of ultrarunning's most demanding point-to-point courses.