Broken Arrow Skyrace IFC — F50-59: Rashid Dominates, Velasquez Edges a Tight Finish

• Nancy Rashid (Davis, CA, age 54) won the F50-59 race in 1:43:48 — a full 16 minutes and 2 seconds clear of second place.
• Tina Lynch (Gabriola, BC, age 50) claimed second in 1:59:59, the only other finisher under two hours.
• Third through fifth were separated by just 11 minutes and 3 seconds across a span of over an hour behind the leaders — Christine Velasquez (3:12:20), Gail Shrive (3:16:24), and Mona Patel (3:23:23).
• Five women finished the IFC course at elevation ranging up to 7,191 ft — a demanding day by any standard.

Nancy Rashid set the tone from the gun and never let up. Her 1:43:48 and 20:46/mi average pace — run on a high-altitude course in 70°F heat — was a performance in a class of its own among the five F50-59 finishers. Tina Lynch gave chase and held her own, crossing in 1:59:50 at 23:58/mi to lock down second place. The gap between them — over 16 minutes — tells the real story: Rashid simply ran a different race.

Then came a long pause before the rest of the field arrived, and when they did, the racing got close. Christine Velasquez of Sunnyvale crossed third in 3:12:20, with Gail Shrive of Tracy just 4 minutes and 4 seconds back in 3:16:24. Mona Patel of Venice rounded out the five in 3:23:23 — another 6 minutes and 59 seconds behind Shrive. Those three ran at paces between 38:28 and 40:41 per mile, a reminder that the back half of this field was grinding through a genuinely tough mountain course, where the thin air above 6,700 feet can turn a manageable effort into a battle of attrition for athletes not fully acclimatized.

Rashid's victory was commanding, Lynch's runner-up finish was solid, and the three-way cluster that followed gave the F50-59 race a genuinely competitive closing chapter worth celebrating.