Murilla Sprints to Finish in Calydon Fossa
Stage 2 of the Women’s Pathfinder Marathon wrapped up today at 18:42—runners have been out on the field for over 11 hours and will be taking a well-deserved break before the Marathon continues.
Runners sprint towards the finish line of Stage 2.
Murilla takes back the lead and finishes first in a breakneck dash for the finish line!
She attacked aggressively in the last 5km of the race and was able to hold on to her three-second lead all the way to the end. The 24 year old Mars native was born and raised in Europa, and the settlement could not be prouder.
She said, “The last 3 kilometers was crazy for me! I knew I had a half a kilometer burst of full-out sprinting left in me and I just used that to get the lead. I just attacked with everything. After that focused all my energy into keeping it. That’s the only thing I had on my mind.”
Strong winds battered challengers as they approached the mouth of the valley, reducing visibility at times as clouds of dust were kicked up. San Olympus challenger Lauren Maikini lost her position as in second place and dropped to sixth.
Otar Anderson of Amrita crept up from fourth place and came in second, a few seconds after Murilla. Third place went to Jaslene Gardner, the 46 year old challenger from Mareotis.
Stage 2 of the Women’s Pathfinder Marathon wrapped up today at 18:42—runners have been out on the field for over 11 hours and will be taking a well-deserved break before the Marathon continues.
Women's Stage 2 Runs Today
Stage 2 of the Women’s Marathon started out strong on a clear Solis morning. The route takes runners in a seemingly straightforward path through the Calydon Fossa. But as evidenced but the men’s race two days prior, injuries await the careless in this rubble-filled terrain
07:00 And we're off to the races!
Stage 2 of the Women’s Marathon started out strong on a clear Solis morning. The route takes runners in a seemingly straightforward path through the Calydon Fossa. But as evidenced but the men’s race two days prior, injuries await the careless in this rubble-filled terrain
With runners closely packed, positions change quickly and constantly in this first leg. But Luisa Murilla of Europa has established a clear lead early on in this race. Murilla had placed in the bottom half of runners for Stage 1 and seems determined to redeem her performance with an impressive sprint out of the starting gate.
Tight on the heels of the 24 year old Murilla is San Olympus challenger, Lauren Maikini. Jen Kang of Chariton trails only a few seconds behind Maikini.
Kang is the sole challenger from the remote mining facility of Chariton. She seems as scrappy as the small but quickly growing settlement and is definitely out to prove something.
Despite some early troubles with her running blade, Katarina Sundqvist was able to quickly make up for lost time and by mid-morning had caught up with the leading pack and is currently running in sixth place.
13:30 Half Day Check-In
Noon finds the runners have fallen into a line as the forerunners maintain their lead. Endurance is the name of the game now as challengers have long hit their stride and are just focused on maintaining their position.
Maikini (San Olympus) and Murilla (Europa) are neck and neck now as they lead the pack with only a third of the course left to finish.
Meanwhile, Ze Xian Zhou of Tiangong has covered tremendous ground in the last 2 hours and has moved from her starting positions of 16th to be in the top 10. Winner of stage 1, Elaine Nguyen had a slow start in the Calydon Fossa, but has steadily made her way to the top ten as well.
Mechanical issues have plagued the challengers and Sundqvist and Cordeiro have dropped from the top 10 to the latter half of the group. A malfunctioning helmet lock-seal forced a third challenger, Julie Ferreira of San Olympus to drop out of the race half-way.
“Am I disappointed? Or course!” said Ferreira,”I know I could have gone so much further. But in a race like this, a runner is only as good as her equipment.”
The terrain has taken its toll as well. 3 challengers have dropped out so far and have been shuttled back to Marineris to recuperate.
Men's Stage 2 - Calydon Fossa
Heavy winds delayed yesterday's start for the men's Stage 2 race. Runners waited impatiently in a staging vehicle before the winds died down and officials were able to give the all-clear to race at Calydon Fossa.
Aquarius 22, 2077, m24
Heavy winds delayed yesterday's start for the men's Stage 2 race. Runners waited impatiently in a staging vehicle before the winds died down and officials were able to give the all-clear to race at Calydon Fossa.
The course: a 250 km track along the long shallow depression, ending with a climb up the plateau to the middle of Lus Chasma. Though it is a much smoother terrain with a designated path, wind and inconsistent surface conditions increased the difficulty of this otherwise straightforward stage.
All 45 runners dawned their blades for the challenge and made a clean, fast start from the gate at 10:30.
Based on pre-race trials, Thomas Pederson (Tiangong), Evan Silva (Marineris), Samual Gates (Eurpoa), and Hakim Ramsey (Marineris) rank as the strongest endurance runners, but fresh off the momentum of Noctis Labyrinthus, Pachehra (Europa), Shannon (HDX) and El-Morad (Al'amal) took the early lead.
Shortly after checkpoint 3 at 75 km, Daniel Kwan (Marineris) lost balance from a gust of wind and crashed into fellow Marineris runner, Clayton Mitchell. The two tumbled to the ground as others quickly manoeuvred around or over them. Both men were uninjured, but a frustrated Mitchell walked off and did not return to the race. Kwan did resume running, however, after 1 km, he too withdrew from the race, claiming he had hit the wall.
El-Morad (Al'amal), Pederson (Tiangong), Pylpoovych (KHM) and Zhuan (Haucheng) gained distance from the main pack. Zhuan held a narrow lead in 1st position at checkpoint 5.
On multiple occasions, strong headwinds forced runners to stop. For some, this was a welcome unscheduled break.
By the halfway point, Evan Silva had taken the lead and Stage 1 winner, Pandehra (Europa) was able to manoeuvre into 2nd position.
Rura Misra (San Olympus) withdrew at the 157 km mark suffering from cramps.
Jason Zhuan of Haucheng takes Stage 2.
In the final 25 km of the race, Zhaun had a second wind, fighting back from 4th potion to take Stage 2 a time of 8 hours, 8 minutes.
Panderha held on for second with Rafeeq Afzal (Al'amal) at his heals crossing the line just 15 seconds after. Afzal, who came in last on the Noctis Labyrinthus course expressed surprise at his own performance.
"This is an incredible result for me," Afzal said, "It's hard to gauge your chances when you barely survive the first round, so this is a huge confidence-builder for Stage 3."
The last stretch heading into Lus Chasma claimed the most casualties on the course, including frontrunner Evan Silva who collapsed from exhaustion midway through his ascent. Thomas Pedersen who was in the top 10 for much of the race also had to withdraw when one of his blades broke at the 228 km mark. A total of 9 runners were scratched when all was said and done, leaving 38 competitors for Stage 3.
