Broken Arrow Skyrace Ascent — M70-79: Flanigan Leads from Front to Finish

• James Flanigan, 76, wins in 1:25:59 — nearly 17 minutes clear of second place, running a 23:49/mi average across a course that climbs to nearly 9,000 feet.
• Daniel Perrot (1:43:04) and David Hochschartner (1:53:49) claim second and third, separated by just over 10 minutes.
• Brian Bartlett, 78, finishes fourth in 1:55:29 — the eldest man in this six-person field, finishing within two minutes of the 73-year-old Hochschartner.
• Six finishers completed the Ascent in the M70-79 field, ranging from 1:25:59 to 2:21:32.

Six men in their seventies lined up for the Broken Arrow Skyrace Ascent — a course that tops out near 8,845 feet above sea level, where the air is thin and the legs know it. James Flanigan, at 76, was not interested in making this a race. He ran away from the field and never looked back, crossing in 1:25:59 at a 23:49/mi average — a pace that, at altitude, on this terrain, in this age group, simply stood alone.

The battle for the podium behind him was its own story. Daniel Perrot of Rocklin, CA finished second in 1:43:04, while David Hochschartner — the man from Lake Placid, NY — came in third at 1:53:49. Those two were separated by more than 10 minutes, but Hochschartner found himself in a much tighter fight with fourth-place Brian Bartlett. Bartlett, 78, the oldest man in the field, finished in 1:55:29 — just 1 minute and 40 seconds behind Hochschartner. On the final KT 22-to-finish segment, Bartlett posted the 324th-fastest split to Hochschartner's 326th, meaning Bartlett was actually gaining ground at the end, though not quite enough to close the gap.

Dave Tennant (fifth, 2:10:02) and Richard May (sixth, 2:21:32) rounded out the six, with May — a Mammoth Lakes local who arguably trains closer to this altitude than anyone else in the field — finishing in 2:21:32 at a 39:13/mi average. From Flanigan's winning time to May's finish, the spread across these six men spanned nearly 56 minutes — a reminder of just how wide the range of effort and outcome can be when you're racing uphill above 7,500 feet in your seventies.