F60-64 at UTMB: Töytäri Grinds Out a Commanding Win on the Road to Chamonix

• Marja Töytäri won F60-64 in 12:26:53 (20:02/mi), finishing nearly 17 minutes ahead of 3rd-place Gill Fullen's 12:36:00.
• Gill Fullen (3rd, 12:36:00) posted the 136th-fastest women's split on the Champex-Lac segment, but her early charge faded — she entered the women's field at 115th and slid to 272nd by the finish.
• Dorthe Kjær (5th, 14:37:22), Véronique Desbiez (7th, 14:37:26), and Laurence Rupp Nadel (6th, 14:37:44) finished within 22 seconds of each other across three places — the tightest cluster of the race.
• Abeer Alomar, at 64 the eldest in the F60-64 field, crossed in 14:55:57 to claim 11th — completing 60 kilometers and 3,500 meters of climbing inside the 14h 30min time limit.

Marja Töytäri, 61, ran a patient and increasingly powerful race across 60 kilometers from Orsières to Chamonix. She entered the women's field in the 350s and steadily climbed, reaching 260th among all women by the finish — a progression that tells the story of a runner who got stronger as others faded. Her 20:02/mi average on a course that tops out above 7,500 feet is a genuine statement of controlled effort, and her 228th-fastest women's split on the second half confirms she was still moving well when many around her were not.

Monica Bedin, 60, took 2nd in 12:44:03, but her route there was anything but straightforward. She drifted backward through the women's field across the middle sections — sliding from 292nd to 311th — before rallying to 282nd by the finish, posting the 222nd-fastest women's split on the Argentière-to-finish stretch. That closing surge was real, but it wasn't enough to close the 17-minute gap to Töytäri. Gill Fullen's race told the opposite story: she was flying early, sitting 115th among all women through the first two checkpoints, but the course eventually had its say, and she settled for 3rd in 12:36:00 — still a strong result, and just 8 minutes behind Bedin.

The race's most dramatic footnote came deep in the field, where Kjær, Desbiez, and Rupp Nadel converged for places 5 through 7. Desbiez (14:37:26) edged Rupp Nadel (14:37:44) by 18 seconds for 7th, while Kjær (14:37:22) slipped between them in the standings despite finishing 4 seconds ahead of Desbiez — a 22-second window across three finishers after more than 14 hours of racing on the mountains above Chamonix.