Broken Arrow 18K F70+: Carrie Dion Owns the Field

• Sole finisher and champion: Carrie Dion, 72, crossed in 3:42:40 at a 19:55/mi average across a course ranging from 6,200 to 8,000 feet of elevation.
• Best split: Her strongest segment came on the KT 22→Siberia stretch, where she posted the 174th-fastest women's split in the field.
• Gender standing: Dion moved fluidly through the women's field across checkpoints — sitting as high as 177th among women at one point before settling to 182nd by the finish.

There was no competition to chase and no one chasing her — Carrie Dion was the F70+ field, and she ran it like she owned every foot of it. At 72 years old, she took on a course that climbs through thin Sierra Nevada air between roughly 6,200 and 8,000 feet, where even well-acclimatized athletes feel the altitude's bite. A 3:42:40 finish at 19:55 per mile on terrain this demanding isn't a number to explain away — it's a number to respect.

Her movement through the women's field tells a small story of its own. She tracked as high as 177th among women through the middle stages before the final push to the finish brought her back to 182nd — a natural rhythm of effort and terrain rather than any fade. On the KT 22→Siberia segment specifically, she turned in the 174th-fastest women's split in the field, a marker that she was moving with genuine purpose on one of the race's more exposed stretches.

In a field of one, the result is automatic — but the performance is entirely real. Dion showed up, toed the line at altitude in dry, breezy conditions, and ran 16.8 kilometers of Palisades Tahoe skyrace terrain to the finish. That's the whole story, and it's enough of one.