Lots of of runners toed the road on the 2023 Bandera 100k on Saturday, January 7, all vying for 4 complete Golden Tickets to the 2023 Western States 100.
The highest two women and men within the Texas race certified for the seminal Western States 100 run. When the mud settled in Bandera right now, Jeff Colt and JP Giblin eked out a one-two on the boys’s facet and Courtney Dauwalter ran away with the ladies’s race, setting a brand new course document.
Early rain turned the Bandera course into sludge, then afternoon sunshine cooked it into a tough, hoof-printed jigsaw puzzle. The Bandera course is famously punishing: “All the pieces cuts, stings, or bites,” as race organizers say, and technical rock gardens proliferate. Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy sadly landed within the DNF bucket resulting from a rumored Achilles damage sustained in that rock.
The beginning of the 2023 Bandera 100k. All images: Jesse Ellis/@letswanderphotography
2023 Bandera 100k Ladies’s Race
Courtney Dauwalter not solely dismantled the remainder of the ladies’s area, but in addition ran the quickest Bandera 100k in ladies’s historical past. Stephanie Violett set the earlier document in 2017 at 9:08; Dauwalter shattered it with an 8:59 end. The Leadville, Colorado, legend didn’t falter down the stretch, operating a robust closing lap to seal the win and the document.
Within the end corral, the famously candid Dauwalter requested Aravaipa Working livestream’s interviewer, “How are you?” Then she requested for a chair and a beer.
An overjoyed Nicole Bitter adopted in second and eagerly claimed her Golden Ticket. Dauwalter additionally claimed her spot on the beginning line of the Western States 100.
Careth Arnold rounded out the ladies’s podium in 10:13. Amanda Basham produced a dash end to carry onto fourth place in 10:20, 43 seconds away from Katherine Brief in fifth.
Courtney Dauwalter, the 2023 Bandera 100k ladies’s winner.
2023 Bandera 100k Ladies’s Outcomes
- Courtney Dauwalter – 8:59
- Nicole Bitter – 10:04
- Careth Arnold – 10:13
- Amanda Basham – 10:20
- Katherine Brief – 10:21
2023 Bandera 100k Males’s Race
For Jeff Colt, the win in 8:23 was particularly welcome. He’d taken third in two earlier Bandera 100k’s however by no means topped the rostrum earlier than Saturday. Colt additionally earned his method again to the Western States 100 after a disappointing consequence in 2022 — he took eleventh at that race — however on the time of writing, he was nonetheless undecided about whether or not or to not settle for the Golden Ticket.
JP Giblin adopted, a robust second in 8:29, and accepted his Golden Ticket with no indecision. Twenty-nine-year-old Canyon Woodward crossed the road in third. Woodward didn’t begin the 2023 Bandera 100k as a favourite by any means, however led a considerable quantity of the race and hung with the general leaders all through.
Elsewhere, 26-year-old Chris Myers took fourth in his first-ever official 100k. Myers sat poised for a podium late within the sport, however Woodward gained treasured seconds on him with simply a number of miles to go, and didn’t give them up. Ryan Atkins of impediment course racing fame has put his stamp on American ultrarunning along with his fifth place.
Jeff Colt celebrates successful the 2023 Bandera 100k males’s race.
2023 Bandera 100k Males’s Outcomes
- Jeff Colt – 8:23
- JP Giblin – 8:29
- Canyon Woodward – 8:35
- Chris Myers – 8:37
- Ryan Atkins – 8:55
Two U.S. Golden Ticket races stay on the calendar earlier than the Western States 100 — Arizona’s Black Canyon 100k runs on February 18, and the Canyons by UTMB 100k in Auburn, California, on April 28. However earlier than each of these, the Tarawera by UTMB 100k will run in New Zealand on February 11.
