M30-39: Andrew Pratt Runs Away with the Tahoe High Country

• Andrew Pratt, 4:30:51 (9:29/mi): Wins M30-39 by nearly 15 minutes, finishing 11th among men overall — and posted the 6th-fastest split in the men's field on the High Camp 1→Village descent.
• Jared Hazen to Mino Giunta, 2nd to 3rd: Just 4:43 separates them (4:45:34 vs. 4:50:17), with Hazen running the 12th-fastest KT 2→Siberia 2 split among men and Giunta answering with the 13th-fastest Olympic Valley East 2→Snow King 2 leg.
• Kameron Harder's charge: Starting 62nd among men, Harder climbed all the way to 26th by the finish — the most dramatic surge in the top-5, crossing in 5:02:14.
• 118 finishers completed the M30-39 race across a course ranging from 6,205 to 8,833 feet, with the top 20 alone spanning a 1:28:54 window.

Andrew Pratt came to Palisades Tahoe and made the M30-39 race look almost straightforward — almost. Running 9:29/mi across 46 kilometers of high-altitude Tahoe terrain, the Boulder athlete held 18th among men through the early checkpoints, then steadily cut through the field, reaching 11th by the finish. The decisive stamp came on the High Camp 1→Village segment, where he posted the 6th-fastest split among all men — a clear signal that while others were managing the mountain, Pratt was racing it.

Behind him, the battle for 2nd and 3rd was a genuine contest of contrasting strengths. Jared Hazen of Flagstaff ran a sharp KT 2→Siberia 2 split — 12th-fastest among men on that leg — to build his cushion, while Mino Giunta of Hood River countered with the 13th-fastest Olympic Valley East 2→Snow King 2 split. The gap at the line: 4 minutes and 43 seconds in Hazen's favor, a hard-earned 2nd in 4:45:34 to Giunta's 4:50:17. Carter Shae rounded out the podium's extended top four in 4:53:17, posting the 18th-fastest KT 1→Siberia 1 split among men.

The subplot of the day belonged to Kameron Harder. The Flagstaff runner started deep in the men's field — 62nd — and spent the entire race clawing forward, ultimately landing 26th among men and 5th in M30-39 in 5:02:14. That kind of sustained forward momentum over nearly 29 miles of mountain running, at altitude, is its own kind of story. The thin air above 7,500 feet has a way of sorting out who paced it right from the start, and Harder's trajectory suggests he had it figured out.