Broken Arrow Ascent M30-39: Pratt Conquers Tahoe's Thin Air

• Andrew Pratt wins in 44:49 (12:25/mi avg), topping an 89-man field by 18 seconds over Carter Shae's 45:07.
• Tightest battle of the day: Shae (45:07) and Andrew Bachman (46:00) were separated by 53 seconds for 2nd and 3rd — but the real drama was Pratt's gap to Bachman: just 1:11 across the whole course.
• Final push mattered: Pratt, Shae, and Bachman posted the three fastest KT 22→Finish splits in M30-39, running that closing stretch in lock-step order with their overall finish — no positions changed hands, but the pace on that final segment was where the race was decided.
• Tyler Dudley's double: 18th here in 54:06, Dudley also placed 7th among the men in the 11K — a genuine two-race weekend worth noting.

Andrew Pratt, 30, from Boulder, CO, took the M30-39 title in 44:49 across Palisades Tahoe's punishing terrain — a course that climbs from 6,257 to 8,845 feet, where thinner air at altitude can turn every uphill into a war of attrition. Running 12:25/mi average on that kind of grade, Pratt kept the pressure on throughout, ultimately finishing 18 seconds clear of Carter Shae of Leavenworth, WA, who crossed in 45:07.

Shae's 12:30/mi average was solid but never quite enough to close the gap. Behind him, Andrew Bachman (North Bend, WA) finished 3rd in 46:00 — running 12:45/mi — to complete a podium that was clean from the front. The top three were separated by just 1:11 total, and notably all three held their finishing positions on the KT 22→Finish segment, where Pratt posted the fastest closing split in the group, Shae the second, and Bachman the third. No drama in the order, but plenty in the margins.

The rest of the top ten was a battle of Colorado and California runners. Jonathan Heywood (Littleton, CO) took 4th in 47:23, with Justin Savaso (Bear Valley, CA) just 11 seconds back in 5th at 47:34 — the tightest gap in the entire top five. Kameron Harder (Flagstaff, AZ) rounded out the top six in 48:24, followed by Adam Pacheck (Somerville, MA) in 7th at 48:53. The field of 89 spread from Pratt's 44:49 down through the 20th finisher John Whiting (Reno, NV) at 54:47, with 69 more behind him — a deep and competitive M30-39 field on one of the more demanding short-course skyrace formats in the country.