Woman Wins Ultramarathon, Gets Two Trophies

The Green Lakes Endurance Run 50K (GLER) took place on August 10. Officials were ready with a first place plaque and another for the first woman to cross the finish line. Ellie Pell won both awards, finishing in 3:58:37. There was no trophy for the first man to cross the finish line, because it never occurred to the race organizers that the overall winner could be a woman.  

“It was great, but also an awkward situation,” [race director Tim] Hardy said. “Obviously there’s a lot of great women runners, but you don’t see them winning ultras outright a lot. When it happens, they get two awards.”

“I ended up taking both awards—the overall winner and the first place female,” Pell said. “I felt bad that the first place man didn’t have one, so I tried to convince them to blot out the ‘fe’ on ‘female,’ but they said to just keep both trophies. It was pretty funny.”

Hardy ordered another plaque to be given to Richard Ellsworth, who finished second but was the first man to finish the race. In the future, awards will be given to the top six runners, regardless of sex. Read about the race at Runner's World.  -via Boing Boing


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