F20-29: Saunders and Williams Own the Women's Field, Then Go Head-to-Head

• Charlotte Saunders (26, Running Springs, CA) won the F20-29 field in 26:03:41 (15:38/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the Kick Ash→Snow Valley Peak segment.
• Kajsa Williams (25, Malibu, CA) finished 2nd in 26:30:53 (15:55/mi) — 27:12 back — and ran the 2nd-fastest women's split on the Hobart 3→Waterfall leg.
• Audrey Landis (23, Salt Lake City, UT) rounded out the three-finisher F20-29 field in 31:22:04 (18:49/mi), claiming the fastest women's split on the Tunnel Creek 3→Hobart 3 segment.
• All three finishers completed 100 miles at elevations ranging up to 9,003 feet — cool conditions at 61°F helped, but the thin air at altitude was a constant companion across the course.

The F20-29 field produced two of the strongest women's performances of the day. Saunders and Williams ran in lockstep through the women's standings for virtually the entire race — both moved from the back half of the women's field into the top three early and held those positions from the second checkpoint all the way to the finish. But "lockstep in place" masks a real gap on the clock: Saunders ran a 15:38/mi average across 100 miles of high-altitude terrain, and Williams came in at 15:55/mi — a meaningful difference that compounded over the course of the day into that 27-minute margin at the line.

Saunders' decisive edge came on the Kick Ash→Snow Valley Peak segment, where she posted the fastest split among all women. That stretch — one of the course's most demanding climbs — is where she separated herself, and she never relinquished 2nd place in the women's field after the opening leg. Williams, for her part, was no passenger: her 2nd-fastest women's split on the Hobart 3→Waterfall leg shows she was pushing hard through the back half of the course. The finish times differ; the competitiveness was genuine.

Landis ran a different kind of race — patient and methodical, climbing from 20th in the women's field all the way to 10th, and delivering the fastest women's split on the Tunnel Creek 3→Hobart 3 leg along the way. Her 31:22:04 finish at 18:49/mi reflects the full weight of the distance and altitude, but that segment split tells you she still had something to give late in the race.