In the end, nearly 11 minutes separated Kris Swanson from his closest competitor.
Swanson has now won the Emperor’s Challenge 23 out of 24 times the race has been held.
This year, he crossed the finish line in one hour and 31 minutes.
That’s a minute and nine seconds faster than he completed the race last year, and the fastest the race has been run on the new course layout.
Swanson, now 42, has aged out of the Open category and is now running in the Master’s Class, but despite a number of major injuries over the last decade (including breaking his collarbone and getting all cut up in a motocycle accident nine days before the 2015 race), he seems to be getting stronger and stronger.
It is a function of age, says Swanson. “Running downhill is tough for me as a runner, because it used to be my strength,” he says. “It’s what used to make me feel like an athlete, because when you’re a strong downhill runner, you feel more agile and athletic than when you’re running around an oval track. I lost that when I broke my ankle, and now it’s the exact opposite.”
Because of this, he says, he has had to become a better uphill runner.
Whatever he’s doing, it seems to be working, as it put him 10:58 ahead of Nathan Smith, who placed second overall and first in the Men’s Open category with a time of 1:41:58.
Third across the finish line (and second in the Men’s Open Category) was James Sader, at 1:8:17.
The first female runner across the line was Katherine Babcock. She had a time of 2:03:52 and was the number 12 runner overall. She was followed by Grace Delmotte, who crossed the finish line in 2:08:40.
Finally, at the other end, Darren and Meagan Gulliov crossed with times of 4:59:45 and 4:59:46 respectively, as finishers 426 and 427, just under the five hour cut-off time.
There was the usual crop of bruises, abrasions and sprained ankles, along with a number of people suffering from heat stroke, but once again, there were no major injuries or other issues.
We have the complete list of who finished the race inside.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
