Tahoe Rim Trail 100K, F30-39: Imboden Closes Like a Storm

• Kate Imboden, 12:18:05 — won the F30-39 field and climbed from 4th among women to 1st on the final Waterfall→Finish leg, posting the fastest women's split on that segment.
• Julie Kheyfets, 13:22:38 — finished 2nd in F30-39 with the 3rd-fastest women's split on Waterfall→Finish, closing hard to finish 1:04:33 behind Imboden.
• Morgan Hawkins, 14:13:32 — 3rd in F30-39, backed by the 3rd-fastest women's split on Snow Valley Peak→Hobart, but faded from 2nd among women at the early checkpoints to 5th by the finish.
• Rosie Scharf, 15:34:20 — the field's biggest mover: entered the women's standings 20th, and worked all the way up to 7th by the finish, posting the 7th-fastest women's split on Tunnel Creek 2→Hobart 2.

Kate Imboden ran a patient, calculated race across the high ridgelines of the Tahoe Rim Trail — sitting 4th among women through the middle stretches — and then detonated on the final Waterfall→Finish leg. That closing split was the fastest among all women on that segment, and it was enough to vault her from 4th to 1st in the women's field and take the F30-39 title in 12:18:05 at a 11:53/mi average. On a course that climbs to over 9,000 feet and never truly relents, that kind of finishing move is earned, not given.

Julie Kheyfets made her own late charge. The New Yorker moved from 8th among women at mid-race all the way to 3rd by the finish, posting the 3rd-fastest women's split on that same Waterfall→Finish stretch. She crossed in 13:22:38 to take 2nd in F30-39, more than an hour back of Imboden but well clear of the rest. Morgan Hawkins of Reno had looked like a podium threat for much of the race — she was 2nd among women through the early checkpoints — but faded through the back half, finishing 3rd in F30-39 in 14:13:32. Her 3rd-fastest women's split on Snow Valley Peak→Hobart showed she still had real pop on that climb; the latter miles just cost her.

Sydney Lambert rounded out the top four in 14:37:11, logging the 5th-fastest women's split on Kick Ash→Snow Valley Peak along the way. Behind her, Rosie Scharf delivered the most relentless climb of anyone in the field: she was 20th among women early on and ground her way to 7th by the tape, finishing in 15:34:20. Kacy Nowak was 6th in F30-39 at 15:38:01 — just 3:41 behind Scharf — with 28 women ultimately finishing across this demanding stretch of Nevada high country.