Canyon wins The Canyons: Canyon Woodward and Elena Horton win 100-mile races

Over the course of Friday and Saturday, more than 2,500 runners were out on the trails in the Auburn area as part of The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB. Auburn, the birthplace of ultrarunning, was the final destination for these runners with the race serving as the UTMB World Series Americas Major, providing finishers with more opportunities to qualify for the UTMB World Series Finals held at Mont-Blanc in France. The rain and muddy trails made things more challenging for the 100-mile runners on Friday. Canyon Woodward was the first runner to cross the finish line in Auburn at 3:54 a.m. Saturday, finishing his 100-mile journey in 18 hours, 54 minutes and 32 seconds. Woodward was the leader for most of the race. Nicholas Lightbody finished second at 19:14, while Nick Orr rounded out the top three at 19:55:51. Elena Horton won the women's 100-mile leg, finishing in 21 hours, 35 minutes and 56 seconds. Jacquie Manhard (22:35:52) and Sonja Ahuja (23:11:53) rounded out the top three. The most significant event of the weekend was the 100K race, which began Saturday morning at China Wall. Rod Farvard took the lead early in the race and never relinquished it, arriving in Auburn with a final time of 8:44:30. "I ran a little more aggressively than I thought I would. I didn't want to be in front, but I found myself in the lead after Devils Thumb a little bit," said Farvard, who earned a golden ticket to the Western States Endurance Run. "(I) noticed I was really strong on the climbs, so I just needed to capitalize on that." Asked if he would accept his golden ticket and run in Western States in June, Farvard said, "Heck yeah, I'm going to States!" Drew Holmen (8:51:09) and Petter Engdahl (8:55:31) rounded out the top three men's finishers. Holmen earned the golden ticket to Western States as well but chose not to compete this year and offered it to Engdahl, who graciously accepted. The women's 100K was won by Katie Schide, who dominated the field and finished sixth overall at 9 hours, 10 minutes and 10 seconds. Schide said everything went smooth on the course, helping contribute to her convincing win. "I think in general everything just went pretty smoothly which, yeah, is why I don't have much to say, which I think is saying the most actually," Schide said. "Clicked off the aid station and just followed how I was feeling, tried to latch onto some guys when I had a chance and not doing anything stupid. Someone said to me, 'Oh, this is great (Western) States training.' I was like, this is not what I want to think about right now. I'm so tired. I can't imagine doing another 60K." With Schide already qualified for Western States, 100k women's runner-up EmKay Sullivan (10:01:26) and third-place Anna Kacius (10:24:37) earned golden tickets. Eli Hemming and Dani Moreno were the men's and women's winners in the 50K, while Talon Hull and Bailey Cossentine were the tops in the 25K. All finishers of the Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB collected Running Stones that can be applied to the UTMB Mont-Blanc draw.