Perfect blue skies and fall foliage exploded in the first Elephant’s Perch Legends Never Die trail run, the newest addition to the local run.
With 44 participants in total competing in the marathon (26.2 miles) and half marathon (13.1 miles), the runners traced the Oregon Gulch north of Ketchum on Saturday, October 2.
The marathon winners were Jakub Galczynski of Ketchum and Virginia McConnell of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Galczynski’s time of 3 hours, 52 minutes, 20 seconds was the fastest of the day while McConnell, who lived in Ketchum for five years, was the only woman to compete in the marathon at 6:14:45. McConnell also finished fourth overall in the race.
Jake Renz of Ketchum was second with a time of 4:05:45. Douglas Hart of Eagle (6:07:00) took third and Aaron Kindall of Meridian (6:18:00) took fifth.
“The event was amazing to watch,” Legends Never Die Race Director Thomas Smiley said in a statement. “Some local legends were vying for $ 1,000 prizes from sponsors.”
The region’s top male and female runners competed at Oregon Gulch.
The event was sold out with 39 half marathon runners and five full marathon runners competing.
The top finishers in the half marathon were Taylor Sundali of Ketchum (1:40:41) for the men and Sophie Curl of Ketchum (2:01:51) for the women.
This event was truly an Idaho based event. In total, there were 41 Idahoans participating in the very first Legends Never Die, including 30 residents of Blaine County.
Runners reached an elevation of 7,600 feet with a vertical climb of 2,322 feet for the half marathon and a vertical climb of 4,644 feet for the marathon runners.
Recent Baldy Hill Climb champion and local fitness guru Miles Fink-Debray was second in the half marathon, which clocked a time of 1:46:13.
Shoshone’s Ishmael Anguiano took third place overall with 1:52:36.
Erin Blackadar of Boise completed the top female runners in the half marathon, who clocked a time of 2:11:50. Hailey’s Ashley Fassbender took third place with 2:14:00.
