Broken Arrow Skyrace 23K — M50-59: Backholm Dominates, Pozzi Holds Off a Hard-Charging Field

• Ari Backholm, 51, wins in 2:23:14 — a 10:01/mi average that put more than 18 minutes of daylight between him and 2nd place across a course topping out near 8,834 ft.
• Andrea Pozzi surged mid-race, climbing from 120th to 90th among women by the High Camp checkpoint before fading to 102nd by the finish — still good enough for a clear 2nd in M50-59 at 2:41:17.
• Dan Stoll (5th, 3:01:50) was the field's biggest fader, dropping from 117th to 158th among women across the back half; Tav Streit (4th, 2:57:22) ran the opposite race, surging from 279th to 147th to nearly reel in Shawn Bearden (3rd, 2:49:27).
• Places 6–9 were a traffic jam: Greg Tew (3:02:23), Matthew Settle (3:03:03), Chris Lieto (3:03:45), and Scooter Lehmkuhl (3:04:58) all finished within two and a half minutes of each other.

Ari Backholm, 51, from Los Altos, CA, turned the M50-59 race into a solo time trial. His 10:01/mi average — sustained over a course that swings nearly 2,600 feet in elevation and sits well above 6,000 ft throughout — left the rest of the 91-finisher field in his wake. He moved steadily through the women's field from 94th at the start to 65th by the finish, closing with the 48th-fastest women's split on the High Camp–to-finish stretch. There was no drama at the front; Backholm simply ran away from everyone.

Behind him, Andrea Pozzi of Sunbury, OH made the early move, jumping 29 spots among women between the start and the KT 22 checkpoint. She held her position through Siberia to finish 2nd in 2:41:17 (11:17/mi), though she did concede some ground on the closing stretch, sliding from 90th to 102nd among women. Shawn Bearden of Pocatello, ID was steady and methodical, climbing from 164th to 129th among women to lock in 3rd at 2:49:27.

The real drama played out in the battle for 4th. Tav Streit of Truckee, CA started deep in the women's field — 279th — and ran one of the most aggressive progressive efforts in the M50-59 group, eventually finishing 4th in 2:57:22. He couldn't quite close the 8-minute gap to Bearden, but he did enough to hold off Dan Stoll, who ran the opposite trajectory: quick early (117th among women through the first checkpoint) and fading hard to 158th by the finish line, ultimately 5th in 3:01:50.

The back of the top ten was a genuine battle of attrition. Greg Tew (6th, 3:02:23), Matthew Settle (7th, 3:03:03), Chris Lieto (8th, 3:03:45), and Scooter Lehmkuhl (9th, 3:04:58) all crossed within 2:35 of each other — a tight cluster on a course where the thin Tahoe air has a way of compressing fields that started with far more separation. Jon de St Paer rounded out the top ten in 3:07:33.