Treeline Journal

2021 Speedgoat 50k Recap | Newcomers Peterman and Brasovan Win!

by Chase Parnell — July 25th, 2021

When looking at the entrants before the race, I don’t think there was anyone who would’ve said Adam Peterman and Ashley Brasovan would take the wins. Both are obviously incredible athletes with resumes a mile long, but this was their first real foray into ultras. And the Speedgoat 50k is a hell of a course to try to take down the veterans of our sport when experience goes a long way. Huge congrats to both of them. What a way to launch the next chapter of their running careers. They are going to be ones to keep an eye on for sure!

Women’s Speedgoat 50k Play-by-Play

First of all, winner Ashley Brasovan can climb some mountains! She put four minutes on the closest competition by the top of the first climb at mile 9. That’s nearly 30 seconds per mile! And these were no slouches behind her; Michelle Hummel and Kristina Trygstad-Saari are both proven mountain runners with a lot of impressive wins under their belts. Taylor Nowlin and Amanda Basham were just a few more minutes back and looking good, running every step up the Road to Provo. Really impressive considering an elevation of 11,000 feet.

From there the runners descend all the way down off the backside of the ski area, way down to 7,600 feet before climbing back up to 11,000 once again, passing by the summit where we’d see them at mile 23. If I’m being honest, I was a little surprised to see Brasovan still leading. I thought she might pay for that hot early pace but in fact, she’d added to her lead and was now up by 10 minutes over second place Michelle Hummel. The only real shake-up was that Kristina Trygstad-Saari was nowhere to be found. This is complete hearsay but the buzz on the course was that she had to drop because she was, “vomiting like crazy.” Hope she’s okay!

So at mile 23, Brasovan had a 10 minute lead over Hummel, 14 minutes over Nowlin, and 29 minutes on Basham. This course is relentless and despite being just 8 miles from the finish, the runners still had some pitchy climbs and one meaty 1,500 foot climb before a screamer descent to the finish. Somewhere along the way Taylor Nowlin went on a tear, passing Michelle Hummel, and cut Brasovan’s lead down to 2 minutes by the finish! After the race Taylor said she ran mile 30 in 6m 52s so she clearly had some energy left in the tank! Hummel was a couple minutes back from Nowlin and Amanda actually ended up closing the gap to the leader from 29 minutes down to 23 in the final miles as well. That’s a good sign as she continues to build up to CCC later this summer!

Despite perhaps fading a touch in the final miles, Ashley did what it took to hold onto the lead, winning her first ultra on one of the biggest stages and nabbing $2,000 in prize money as icing on the cake. Ashley’s ultrasignup is showing Lake Sonoma 50 miler in September so she’s bumping up the distance once again!

Huge congrats to your 2021 Speedgoat 50k top-ten! The official results on ultrasignup are currently wrong as it doesn’t show Emily Caldwell, Amanda Basham, or Becca Bradley in their correct position or time so I tried to piece it together myself.

  1. Ashley Brasovan — 6:23:14
  2. Taylor Nowlin — 6:25:24
  3. Michelle Hummel — 6:30:14
  4. Amanda Basham — 6:46:51 (per Strava)
  5. Emily Caldwell — 7:04:07 (per Strava)
  6. Annie Hughes — 7:18:09
  7. Whitney Mickelsen — 7:36:11
  8. Becca Bradley — 7:38:19
  9. Sierra Castaneda — 7:54:00
  10. Madeline Fones — 8:00:29

Men’s Speedgoat 50k Play-by-Play

Adam Peterman also took the race out hot, leading at the summit (mile 9) by about two minutes over a hard charging Mike Sunseri (later dropped due to hamstring injury). The fun part about spectating this section was listening to everyone’s speculation about who was leading when they were way down the mountain and all you could see was a faint runner’s gait and shirt/hat colors. Half the people thought it was Tim Freriks in the lead, others thought Hazen, I thought it was actually Brian Whitfield for awhile. So many Hoka colors! But then, as the front runner finally arrived, it was like who is this guy?! I knew Peterman from research I had done for our preview article but I think for most he was a surprise. That said, Peterman’s fitness must have leaked because there was at least one person who knew Peterman was going to bring it on race day: the 2021 Canyons 100k champ, Anthony Costales. He nailed it when I solicited predictions on instagram before the race:

Sure enough, those two guys went 1-2! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nobody knows this sport better than the elites. They live and breath the competition side of things on a daily basis, poring over stats, numbers, rankings, splits, Strava, everything. Some more than others of course, but in general, if one of them makes a prediction, definitely listen to it!

Okay, back to the action. By the time the men hit mile 23 Peterman had completely broken the race open. It was OVER. No way anyone was catching him. Sinclair was 13 minutes back and Sunseri was 25. Next was Tim Freriks and Jared Hazen within a few minutes of each other, then Adam Loomis, Cody Reed, and Brian Whitfield all clumped pretty close together. The race for 3rd-8th was still very much up in the air.

Before we head to the finish, I have to gush once more about Peterman. Before the race I said in the preview article that the race would be decided on the climb from mile 16-20, called the Miller Hill Climb on Strava, where the runners ascend from the low point of the course (7,600 feet) all the way back up to almost 11,000 feet. At this point they have a lot of miles and vert in their legs so any deficiency in fitness would surely rise to the surface at that point in the race. Check out what Peterman did on that climb:

He crushed it! Ran it a minute and thirteen seconds faster than Jim on his previous course record setting day. What makes this even more impressive for me is that Peterman lives in Missoula, which sits at 3,200 feet elevation. The guy can climb at high elevations no problem.

Okay, Peterman kept his foot on the gas all the way, finishing in 1st place in course record time of 5:04:31, just 24 seconds faster than Jim’s prior record. (Note: this year’s course was apparently a little shorter and had slightly less vert than in some prior years, but that said, this year’s course had its own unique difficulties. For that reason, Adam will be credited with the CR, but the courses and efforts by Peterman and Walmsley weren’t completely apples to apples. This isn’t track and field, we’ll never really be able to standardize performances, and that’s why races, head-to-head action, will always be the best way to compare. Maybe the stars will align and we’ll get to see Peterman and Walmsley toe the same starting line soon! Whew, that’d be fun.)

David Sinclair also had a great day out there, finishing 2nd in the 10th fastest time ever. Freriks got a pleasant podium surprise after Sunseri dropped. Reed finished strong with the second fastest time on the day for the final descent. Huge congrats to the remainder of the top-ten as well! Here’s how all these guys landed after the final climbs and that gnarly descent back down to the base of Snowbird Resort. (Again, ultrasignup has some inaccuracies right now so I pieced it together the best I could).

  1. Adam Peterman — 5:04:31
  2. David Sinclair — 5:18:57
  3. Tim Freriks — 5:32:27
  4. Cody Reed — 5:36:24 (per Strava)
  5. Adam Loomis — 5:37:56 (per Strava)
  6. Jared Hazen — 5:38:47 (per Strava)
  7. Cole Watson — 5:47:19
  8. Brian Whitfield — 5:48:22
  9. Caleb Olson — 5:52:15
  10. Zachary Garner — 6:12:47

That’s a Wrap!

First of all, the mountains here are something else. Freaking rugged! Nikki and I were blown away by the vertical, the prominence, the granite, the wildlife, everything; I mean, there’s no questioning why Salt Lake City is producing some of the best mountain runners in the country right now! You can get 5,000+ feet of vert from town or drive 20 minutes up the road to Snowbird and run in some of the most beautiful terrain anywhere. And there’s so much there!

With respect to the race, we really enjoyed the experience. Such a nice touch to have a free tram for spectators. We could see the runners snaking up trails and we even saw a HUGE bull moose from the tram. Sets a nice vibe for the day. And then of course the mountains from the top of the tram in early morning light. Wow. Highly recommend getting out there to run, race, spectate, crew, volunteer, anything.

There were many inspiring performances as well. Really excited to see where Brasovan and Peterman go from here. Speedgoat is often a launching pad to big things so hopefully these two roll this high into another great block of training and cap off the summer with a follow up performance to cement their newfound success in ultrarunning.

Shout-out to race director Speedgoat Karl himself for another successful event. He’s been doing this every July for over a decade now and it continues to be one of the premier proving grounds for those that love a tough one in the mountains. In fact, I heard a guy cross the line and say, “That was harder than some of the 100s I’ve done!”

Hope you all enjoyed our 2021 Speedgoat 50k coverage! We had a blast, our kids survived, we’re tired but inspired. If you’d like to support us in what we’re doing here, consider becoming a Patron through Patreon for as little as $2 a month. Every little bit goes a long way in keeping this thing afloat!

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