Emperor’s Challenge Race Results 2026 (MMXXVI) WMNS

2026 marked 26 years for the Emperor’s Challenge. That’s no small feat, considering that 2025 was supposed to be the last year for the race.

But with support from Conuma, and a brand new race committee filled with a lot of familiar faces, the 2026 was successfully completed.

As usual, the race was won by Kristopher Swanson, a former Tumbler Ridge resident who joined in on the first run and has participated every year, even though he has since moved down to Victoria. Swanson crossed the finish line in a time of 1:31.47. That’s even faster than last year’s pace, when he crossed the line in 1:32.11. It’s hard to compare his pace to previous year’s races as the route shifted last year, changing the actual distance run. He crossed the finish line fully 18 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor, Harvey Toews. Notably, Swanson is now in the Masters Category (for runners aged 35–49; Swanson himself is now 45), while Toews competes in the under 18 category.

The third runner across the line was Conrad Rowlands, with a time of 1:50.04.

The first female across the finish was Holly Strebchuck, at 2:07.43.

In total, 408 runners crossed the finish line in the alloted five hours (technically, the final person across the line came in at 5:01.40).

In the kids 2 km race, the first runner across the line was Beau Giesbrecht, in a time of 11:44. The first female across the line was Amy Slovik, with a time of 12:46.

There were 36 kids under the age of nine who ran the 2 km race in two categories.

Meanwhile, 22 runners completed the 4 km race. The first one across the line was Arlo Toews, in a time of 20:50. The female with the fastest time was Cecilia Brooks, with a time of 25:37.

Note that this issue is typically our Emperor’s Challenge results issue, where we would typically share all the results for all the runners, including the 20 km race, the 4 km race and the 2 km race. This year, however, there’s been a lot of news happening in the last few weeks, so this issue we focused on the actual news with the race details linked as our web page feature.

Congratulations to all 408 of you who rose to the challenge this year; hope to see you on the mountain in 2027.

Please also see official results at: https://results.raceroster.com/EmperorsChallengeMMXXVI2026

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Trent Ernst

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Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.

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