2021 Canyons 100k Recap | The Stage is Set for Western States!
by Chase Parnell — April 25th, 2021 — 📸: Eric Schranz
I’d like to begin this recap with a passage from my preview, *clears throat*, “If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Yiou Wang, Audrey Tanguy, Max King, and Anthony Costales.” So maybe I blew the women’s selections but how about the men! If you haven’t heard already, the top two guys earning golden tickets to Western States were none other than Anthony Costales and Max King. Excuse me while I take my victory lap. That said, I totally missed the boat on the women’s winner Beth Pascall (UK). Not sure why. I guess I thought that she didn’t quite have the turn-over to hang with some of the speedier Americans. Turns out she’s got it all: speed, climbing chops, go for broke mentality. Don’t want to get too carried away, but wow, you have to include her in the discussion now as one of the favorites at Western States!
How the Races Played Out
On the men’s side, a group of four took it out hot: Max King, Noah Brautigam, Anthony Costales, and Preston Cates separated from the field, establishing an early break-away pack that would remain fairly unchanged for much of the race. Cole Watson would surge forward and David Laney ran an excellent 2nd half but both of them started out a little more conservative than the front four.
By Foresthill at about the half-way point, Anthony Costales put a 30 second gap into the other frontrunners. With Max and Cole Watson together at this point, it looked like it was a three man race! Anthony off the front and a battle between Max and Cole for the second golden ticket. But by the next update we received (shout out to Eric Schranz from UltraRunnerPodcast for coming in clutch on the Twitter: his daughter Sunny even dropped a tweet at one point!), we learned that Max and Cole had slipped into 4th and 5th after an apparent wrong turn, which allowed Noah Brautigam to leap-frog them. (Disclaimer: this is what was coming in through social media from people on the course so take it with a grain of salt.) Once back on track, Max began to rally, separating from Cole. By Devil’s Thumb at mile 50ish, Max was still a handful of minutes behind Noah in 2nd place and he was running out of real estate to reel him in. Would love to be a fly on the wall for the self-talk that must have gone down after the wrong turn; talk about a rare form of composure.
In the end, Anthony Costales kept hammering away and won his 100k debut pretty decisively. With 2:13 marathon speed and now some high-quality experience on the States course, he’ll be playing for keeps in June! With Anthony across the line, there was only one spot remaining. As we all waited, refreshing the feeds, everyone rooting for their hometown heroes, 2nd place finally came in. BOOM. Max freaking King pulled it off, surpassing Noah Brautigam in the final miles to regain his position and punch his ticket to Western States! Max finished 4th at Western in 2014 after leading the race most of the way. You have to think that with some adjustments and a handful of more years of experience, he might be able to pull off something special. What a race that’ll be.
Top Ten Male Finishers:
- Anthony Costales — 9:11:40.
- Max King — 9:23:12.
- Noah Brautigam — 9:25:14.
- David Laney — 9:33:37.
- Cole Watson — 9:42:00.
- Preston Cates — 9:46:17.
- Bryan Kerl — 9:53:02.
- Steve Nagayama — 9:54:10.
- Paddy O’Leary — 9:55:34.
- Peter Van Der Zon — 9:57:38.
On the women’s side, Beth Pascall pulled a Pau Capell from the 2019 UTMB, running lights out from the gun, immediately taking the lead and never letting it go. If you want to see what it takes to do what she did, check out her Strava and look at all the work. Nearly 1,400 miles already this year with close to 200,000 feet of vert. She earned this one for sure! Throughout the race, her gap on the rest of the field just grew and grew and grew. She never took the foot off the gas and rode the wave all the way to the finish; 1st place in an amazing time of 10:01:55. Nearly going sub-10 hours on a 100k course with 14,000 feet of climbing is out of this world fast. Congrats!
Abby Hall of Boulder, Colorado chose a different but also very effective strategy. She ran a smidge more conservative early on and moved up through the field, riding that forward momentum. By Foresthill (mile 33), Abby had overtaken Emily Hawgood and eventually even passed Audrey Tanguy of France who had been in 2nd the entire day. Abby has had some great results over the years but this feels like a bit of a breakthrough. Finishing as the top American in this field is an extremely impressive accomplishment.
And then, perhaps the story of the day on the women’s side was the Zimbabwean, Emily Hawgood. This was Emily’s third golden ticket race of the year! She finished 3rd at Bandera 100k, narrowly missing a golden ticket there, and then followed that up with a 7th place at Black Canyon. In a final hail mary, she toed the line once again, her third 100k in three months, and pulled it off! Because Beth and Audrey both already had spots in Western States, Emily slid into the second golden ticket position and finally obtained the fabled entry into Western States. What a testament to grit and determination and never giving up.
Top Ten Women Finishers:
- Beth Pascall — 10:01:55.
- Abby Hall — 10:34:39.
- Audrey Tanguy — 10:35:52.
- Emily Hawgood — 10:37:14.
- Rebecca Windell — 11:04:25.
- Leah Yingling — 11:04:40.
- Scarlett Graham — 11:05:25.
- Taylor Nowlin — 11:10:03.
- Tessa Chesser — 11:35:02.
- Nicole Monette — 11:37:54.
Wrap-up and What’s Next
Okay, I hope you enjoyed this recap. The Western States field is now officially set in stone and the race is only nine weeks out! Maybe you need a minute after all the Canyons hype or maybe it’s time you start perusing the entrants list for Western and begin formulating your podium picks. There’s no let up over here, we’ve got another preview for you coming out in a couple days! Another weekend, another race. Which race you might ask? The Cocodona 250! That’s right, all the crazies are coming together for a 250 mile point-to-point jaunt through the mountains of Arizona and I couldn’t be more stoked to see what Aravaipa Running has cooked up this time. Make sure to sign up for our weekly Rise & Grind newsletter and if you’re really happy about what we’re doing at Treeline, consider becoming a patron for as little as $2 a month. Thank you so much for your support!
Is Yiou Wang ok? Did she finish?
Unfortunately she had to drop.
awesome write up!! stoked for States!!
Thanks Anthony! Clearly, we are too!
What an amazing race.
Beth Pascall definitely has the turn over, she ran a not too shabby 2.48 marathon last year.
Nice work all runners.
Amazing work by Emily!! Bringing the Zimbabwean grind💪🏾