The Tunnel Hill 100 in Vienna, In poor health., has earned a fame for producing world-record performances, and 2025 could go down as its most historic yr but. On Sunday, Eire’s Catherine Jennings and Anne Flower of the U.S. set new ladies’s world information (to be ratified) on the 100- and 50-mile distances, every operating with outstanding management and consistency.
The Tunnel Hill 100 is a 50-mile loop course that runners full twice for the complete 100-mile race. In line with the race web sitethe character of the course has sparked loads of debate, because it is classed as each a street and a path; it’s sanctioned by USATF and IAU-certified and ratified as a street or open course. As a result of it’s unpaved, it’s additionally labeled as a path by the American Path Runners Affiliation and the Worldwide Path Runners Affiliation.
Jennings’s outstanding 100-mile debut
At 45, Jennings, of Donegal, Eire, was not solely making her 100-mile debut but in addition operating among the finest ultramarathon performances ever recorded. She lined the space in 12 hours, 37 minutes and 4 seconds, breaking the earlier world report of 12:42:40, set by Camille Herron on the identical course in 2017. Jennings completed fourth total, nearly 4 hours forward of the subsequent lady.
Averaging 4:42 per km throughout the 160.9-kilometre route, she ran a very evenly-paced race. “Phrases can’t describe this sense,” Jennings shared on Instagram afterward. “I’m actually honoured to take this report from a real champion.”
Jennings’s resume already boasts a listing of blistering quick performances: Irish information at 50K (3:16:33) and 100K (7:43:01), a win on the 2022 IAU 50K European Championships, a number of top-10 finishes at South Africa’s Comrades Marathon and a 2:36 marathon that took her to the London 2012 Olympics. The Tunnel Hill win provides a world report (and $7,500 bonus) to that listing.
Flower’s 50-mile breakthrough
Earlier within the day, Anne Flower of Colorado Springs crushed the ladies’s 50-mile report, clocking 5 hours, 18 minutes and 57 seconds to surpass Courtney Olsen’s 2024 mark of 5:31:56, which had changed the legendary Ann Plason’s report of seven:00:48, set in 1991. Flower averaged about 3:58 min/km mile and, like Jennings, stayed remarkably constant all through the race. Flower, an emergency doctor who as soon as raced the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, has rapidly made her mark on the extremely scene. Prior to now two years, she’s received the Leadville 100, Silver Rush 50 and Javelina 100 Ok.
The lads’s fields
On the boys’s aspect, quick occasions continued throughout each distances. This yr’s leaders had been once more close to the 12-hour mark over the 100-mile route, with U.S. runners Phil Younger, Reese Slobodianuk and Rob King hitting the rostrum in 12:03:27, 12:05:38 and 12:16:09, respectively. The 50-mile race additionally serves because the USATF championship, and the world report set by Charlie Lawrence in 2023 (4:48:21) nonetheless stands because the benchmark. Brogan Austin topped the rostrum in 5:02:54, adopted by Geoffrey Burns in 5:06:28 and John Donovan in 5:14:14.
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