Tahoe Rim Trail 50K: Lyndsey Taylor Surges Home to Win F40-49

• Lyndsey Taylor, 43, wins in 7:14:37 (13:59/mi), posting the 4th-fastest women's split on the second half to close out the F40-49 field decisively.
• Ellie Martin finishes 2nd in 7:22:38, an 8-minute gap back, anchored by the 4th-fastest women's split on the Waterfall→Finish stretch — a strong closing kick that secured the runner-up spot.
• Emily Mcginty's first-half surge — the 2nd-fastest women's split on the first half — vaulted her as high as 2nd among women mid-race, but she faded to finish 3rd in 7:30:54.
• Kristy Bednar, 4th in 7:54:36, rallied on the back half with the 12th-fastest women's second-half split to hold off the rest of the field by a comfortable margin.

Lyndsey Taylor of Tahoe City didn't need a blazing start to win this one — she needed a finish. Running through the thin Sierra Nevada air that tops out near 9,000 feet, Taylor moved steadily through the women's field, climbing from 21st among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 6th by the finish. Her 13:59/mi average across 31 miles at altitude tells the story of a controlled, relentless effort, and her 4th-fastest women's split on the second half confirms she was still accelerating when others were fading.

The early drama belonged to Emily Mcginty of Incline Village. She posted the 2nd-fastest women's first-half split in the entire field, surging to 2nd among women by the halfway point. But the back half of the Tahoe Rim Trail is unforgiving, and Mcginty slipped from 2nd to 11th among women over the final stretch before settling into 3rd in F40-49 at 7:30:54. It's a testament to how punishing this course can be — a brilliant first half is no guarantee of anything on these trails.

Ellie Martin, 47, of Bozeman ran the opposite kind of race. She sat mid-pack through much of the course before uncorking the 4th-fastest women's Waterfall→Finish split to lock up 2nd place in 7:22:38. Monica Madsen and Ann Hamel rounded out the top six, finishing 8:24:11 and 8:35:37 respectively, with Sarah Schutzberger just a minute behind Hamel in 7th at 8:37:00. All 19 finishers in the F40-49 field crossed the line — no small feat on a course that climbs, descends, and thins the air for every one of those miles.