Broken Arrow 23K: Carrie Dion Owns the F70+ Field

• Sole finisher and champion: Carrie Dion, 71, of Los Gatos, CA, crossed in 5:23:55 at 22:40/mi average.
• Moving through the women's field: Dion climbed from 233rd to 212th among women by the Siberia→High Camp segment before settling to 217th at the finish.
• Competitive split: Her Siberia→High Camp leg ranked 191st-fastest among all women in the race.

Carrie Dion is the F70+ champion at the 2024 Broken Arrow 23K — full stop. With no other finisher in the age group, the title is hers, but the number that gives it real weight is the course itself: a route threading between 6,228 and 8,894 feet above sea level, where the air is noticeably thinner and every climb carries an extra tax. At 71, completing 23 kilometers of Sierra Nevada skyrace terrain in 5:23:55 is a result worth reading twice.

The race unfolded as a steady forward march through the women's field. Dion entered the Siberia→High Camp segment ranked 233rd among women and had worked her way up to 212th by the time she cleared it — a net gain of 21 places through one of the course's most demanding stretches. Her split on that segment ranked 191st-fastest among all women, a mark that reflects genuine competitiveness, not just survival. She gave back a handful of those places on the final stretch, finishing 217th among women, but the trajectory through the hardest part of the course tells the real story.

Conditions on race day were cooperative — 57°F, light wind, low humidity — so the weather offered no excuse and needed none. What the altitude does not forgive is hesitation, and Dion showed none of it. In a field where most competitors were decades younger, she ran her own race at 22:40 per mile and came out the other side as the only person in F70+ to do so.