The post-pandemic Reckless Raven Yukon 50 Mile Ultra and Relay race set three new records this past Sunday in Whitehorse.

The weather was great, a little bit cooler than last year but still quite buggy.

A number of comments were heard on the trail going over Haeckel Hill, including “Brutal”, “They never told us to bring gaters.” and “A bit of a bushwack.”

Graham Nishikawa, Yukon’s retired Olympic skier and guide, came in second in the full ultra.

The Star reached the race director, John Carson, after the race.

“The event overall went really, really well. We had fantastic weather and enthusiastic participants and a gruelling course ... it was a great day.”

Carson described the course.

“A mix of ski trails, open alpine quad trails starting and finishing at the Mount Mac ski club. Within that course, there’s about 2,800 metres of vertical, which is more than 7,500 feet.

“Up in the alpine, a lot of those trails aren’t used at all, so it’s really tough footing and we have two stretches of alpine that are particularly challenging.”

“We had about 130 participants and half of those were team runners, so there was a two-person relay. And then we had about 35 solo runners ... people who would go the whole distance.

“The final runner crossed the finish line in just over 15 and a half hours,” recalled Carson.

Of course, there were the records.

“People have been dying to compete in person since the pandemic, so the male solo record went to an Alaskan named Cody Priest and so, that was a fantastic time,” said Carson.

“There may be a four minute timing bonus – for some reason our clock wasn’t quite synched to the times that our timers produced so I think there may be an adjustment to come ... but it’ll only get quicker. So it’ll be a four minute quicker adjustment.”

“The (team) female and the mixed team relay times were also record times by quite a significant amount, so that was really fun to see,” he added.

Amy Kenny and Britt Pearson-Smith set the Team Female record in nine hours and 49 minutes.

Vincent Larochelle and Callie McKenzie set the Team Mixed record in eight hours and 32 minutes.

Carson said Larochelle and McKenzie’s time was “pretty smokin. Callie had a really fast second half, I think in four (hours) 15 (minutes) ... really, that was a great time.”

“We’re not positive of the male (record). We think the male may be a record, but we don’t have access to the 2017 stats right now, so we’re not gonna say that until we know for sure.”

Carson added “We had a number of participants from out of the territory, which is fantastic, and runners from down south, Montreal, so I think now that the travel restrictions have opened up a bit, I think there’s a great opportunity for the Raven to be a destination event, where people can come here, take part in our event and then enjoy a holiday in the Yukon, so moving forward, we might look to promote it far and wide.”

Here are the podium finishes:

Solo Female:

1st Denise McHale (10 h,44 min)
2nd Adrienne Dunbar (10 h, 46 min)
3rd Nicole Calame (10 h, 54 min)

Solo Male:

1st Cody Priest (8 h,13 min) - NEW COURSE RECORD
2nd Graham Nishikawa (9 h, 11 min)
3rd Luke Robin (9 h, 57 min)

Team Mixed:

1st Vincent Larochelle & Callie McKenzie (8 h, 32 min) - NEW COURSE RECORD
2nd Gemma & Matt Hosford (9 h, 34 min)
3rd Etienne Lavigne and Loreena Dobson (10 h, 03 min)

Team Female:

1st Amy Kenny & Britt Pearson-Smith (9 h, 49 min)
2nd Illiana Stehelin & Josephine Storey (10 h, 54 min)
3rd Jen Kless & Victoria Ryan (11 h, 14 min)

Team Male:

1st Geoff Dunback & Olivier Roy-Gauvin (8 h, 11 min) - NEW COURSE RECORD)
2nd Steven Cudbertson & Stephen Pitman (10 h, 03 min)
3rd Ron Billingsley & Gaetan Guery (10 h, 34 min)