Pathfinder Closing Ceremonies

Marineris - Kumbha 1, 2077, m249

Elaine Nguyen (KMH) and Gunvir Pachehra (Europa) take the women's and men's overall title for Pathfinder Marathon 2077.

10 days racing across Valles Marineris came to an end yesterday as the final runners in the women's program comleted Stage 5 and crossed the threshold into Marineris colony.

In a very short period of competition, Pathfinder Marathon has become an interplanetary phenomenon, rivalling the popularity of the Martian Aero Football League among Earth fans.  Virtual sim portals, such as SportzUmbark have lit up with dozens of game titles paying homage to the Martian survival marathon.

Even before the final runners crossed the finish line, signature sponsors Drinqium, Reprogus and AAA Capital Bank had already inked a new deal that would see the expansion of the sporting event.  This led to yesterday's announcement of Pathfinder Sport Athletics Committee  (PSAC).  This newly formed group will not only be responsible for Pathfinder Marathon, but to expand the program.  Aigar Masing, of MAFL fame, has joined the board of directors, adding the marathon to his Mars sport portfolio.

"Pathfinder is another example of how Mars is blossoming,", said Masing, "For decades, Mars has been perceived as a science experiment and strip mine for natural resources, so we are all proud to be evolving beyond those stereotypes; defining our own culture."

Indeed, the marathon has sparked tremendous pride across all the settlements.  Combined with MAFL activities, Marineris was absolutely bursting with excitement and revelry. Pathfinder's Parade of Colonies marched through the colony bringing the festive affair to the thousands of local residents and visitors.

Later that evening, the winners were finally officially recognized, first with awards for individual stage victors.

This was followed by the prestigious Overall Titles.  The overall winners are tabulated on a point system that weighs each stage by difficulty against each challenger's performance (time). A perfect score, winning all 5 stages would result in 10,000 points.

The overall title for women's went to Elaine Nguyen of KMH with a score of 7,032.  Though Geneva Liu and Luisa Murilla took 2 stages each, both had poor results on other stages.  Nguyen's win in Stage 1, the highest difficulty course (accounting for 3000 points), along with strong performances in the other 4, helped her capture the title.  Liu and Murilla ranked 4th and 8th respectively in scoring.

An engineer for the KMH operation by day, Nguyen, downplayed her win, "I still can't believe it.  It's just an honour to be among these brave men and women. Everyone who made the attempt is a hero in my eyes.  Trust me, only 19 of us made it through the entire program."

The men's overall was awarded to Gunvir Pachehra with a total score of 6,343.  A well deserved victory for the 40 year old from Europa who won two critical stages (Noctis Labyrinthus and Melas Chasma) and fought through multiple injuries to avoid disqualification.  

"This has been one of the greatest experiences," said the father of two, "And  tonight, I've been invited to meet with Europa United scouts!"

The momentum from this Pathfinder Marathon 2077 is sure to build as the mantle passes from Marineris.  PSAC closed the ceremonies with an invitation for proposals as they seek the next hosting colony for the next games, to be held in the second half of m249.  Though this may seem like a long time through the lens of a spectator, a half Martian year leaves little preparation time for the next round of hopeful runners.

According to PSAC, "Planning Pathfinder Marathon 2078 started last week."

The Final Stretch

The fifth and final stage of the Pathfinder Marathon starts with a vertical climb out of the Marineris Valley—that’s 13,610 m of pure elevation for our racers. Today, 14 of the original 40 women are left to take on the final stretch. The ascent is treacherous and gruelling for the racers that have spent the last 8 days pushing themselves to the absolute limits physically, mentally and emotionally. 

The climb is led by Geneva Liu (winner of stage 4) followed closely by Elaine Nguyen of KMH.

Halfway up the sheer cliffs of the Melas Chasma, Sara Hampton of San Olympus took a DNF after needing multiple rest breaks on the way. As the distance increased between her position and the main group of runners, the exhausted 35 year-old made the decision to tap out.

A broken ledge near the peak caused Arivalagi to lose her footing. and fracture her wrist as she broke her fall. The 23 year old decided to continue racing after being patched up by a medic drone. “The rest of the course is just straight running. I didn’t come this far just to give up now—I just need to pace myself,” said Arivalagi. 

Racers make the ascent up the cliffs of Melas Chasma.

Luisa Murilla, the winner of Stage 2 and 3, is still hurting from her fall in stage 4. She made her way slowly up the side of the Melas Chasma and pulled herself over the peak triumphantly despite being at the very back of the group. 

Stage 5 continues along the along the edge of the Melas Chasma towards Marineris where racers will cross the finish line. The final stretch of the course offers breathtaking panoramas of the terrain the has been covered in the last week.

Murilla can’t catch a break in this stage as a collision with fellow Europa racer, Reyhan Naghiyeva, left cracks in both of their faceplates. The two women were forced to stop running in order for their helmets to be patched and evaluated. Both were deemed safe to continue by race officials.

Three more racers were unable to finish the race and took DNF’s with Marineris in sight. “I can’t believe I was so close to the finish line, but it’s not worth killing yourself over.” said Mahawal, “Oh well, there’s always next year!” she adds hopefully.

Liu maintained her strong lead throughout the entire stage to arrive first in Marineris amongst thunderous applause with the time of 8h 3m. Nguyen followed 46 minutes after to take second place for Stage 5.

Although Liu has taken the stage, it doesn’t mean she’s won the race. Judges will be evaluating the racers and awarding points for each stage based on their finish times. We’ll find out when the judges hand out the prizes at the awards ceremony—it’s been a thrilling week! Stay tuned.

Liu Steals the Lead in Thrilling Women's Stage 4

Melas Chasma is wide open terrain with little shelter from the harsh wind storms that can blow up at any minute. But today is a beautiful day on Mars—with low winds and great visibility.

Geneva Liu took advantage of that and powered through the Melas Chasma to dominate Stage 4.

The 35 year old had done moderately well thus far and run consistently in the middle of the pack. But today she blazed past all other racers to finish the stage with a 90 minute lead! This has got to be a new record for the Pathfinder Marathon.

Liu celebrates after crossing the finish line.

“This marathon is about strategy as well as physical strength,” said Liu, “You can’t forget that it’s about the long game. it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a single stage and overlook the big picture.” 

Gardner and Naghiyeva clocked in after Liu at 11h 56m and 12h 23m respectively.

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No stage is without its casualties. And today, marathon front-runner Luisa Murilla took a huge hit.

Murilla underestimated the height of a deceptively small drop-off and a bad landing left her with scrapes and bruises along her left leg and elbows. “The injuries are mostly surface cuts and don’t affect my running. But I lost a lot of time. And you get rattled after a fall like that.” the 24 year old said after a quick checkover by the medic-drones. 

She continued on doggedly, but at a more cautious pace. 

Murilla was able to make her back up the ranks with some well-timed attacks, but was unable to regain top 5.

fatigue hits runners as they toil their way through the melas chasma

Meanwhile Sadhana Adwani of Marineris and Helia Aluwalli of San Olympus both took DNF’s early into Stage 4. Both racers suffered from severe cramps and had to tap out after just 30 km into the course.

Things looked a little touch-and-go for Myriam Snyder of KMH for a while when her running blades cracked. The resourceful 23 year-old was able to repair the blade with supplies she had on hand. “Growing up in a small settlement means you have to be make do with whatever you get,” said Snyder.

The end of Stage 4 leaves us with 14 racers to continue in the fifth and final stage of the 2077 Pathfinder Marathon. 

Murilla Triumphs Through the Chaos

24 year old Luisa Murilla holds onto her lead as she heads the pack towards the finish line through the Chaos! 

Day 4 of the Women’s Pathfinder Marathon challenges racers with a steep descent down the Tithonium Chasma and through the canyon systems of the Candor Chasma. The 200 km course takes place over the course of a single day. Athletes will need to navigate their way through unpredictable and cracked terrain appropriately named the Candor Chaos.

Stage 3 marks the halfway point of the entire marathon and racers are starting to run ragged.

Murilla and Kang battled it out at the start of the course as they jostled for first. However, a risky gamble by Kang to jump a rocky gully sent her stumbling. It cost her precious seconds, and the lead. Not only was she unable to regain her position, Kang was quickly overtaken by fellow racers and finished in 11th place.

Sangeeta Mahawal of Amrita gave an impressive performance as the 30 year old came in second. Mahawal had a rocky start—a stretch of loose rubble along her chosen route forced her to forego her running blades. But by the afternoon, Mahawal had caught up to the rest of the racers. "I knew  had to be really aggressive to make up for lost time," she said.

Anya Pande of Europa regained her position in the top 5 after a disappointing run in the Calydon Fossa of stage 2

The Canyon Takes its Toll

Nine racers were eliminated from the running.

Despite running in the top 5 for this stage, Otar Anderson dropped out halfway through the race after a misplaced step sent her careening down the side of a cliff. While she sustained no injuries, the visibly shaken 27 year old decided not to continue the marathon. She said, “I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished in these 4 days—it was an once in a lifetime opportunity for me. And I wish all the other challengers the best of luck!”

A careless step sent Marineris runner Ida Horn crashing to the ground and irreparably cracked her life support pack. Support drones were able to quickly pick her up before she suffered from prolonged exposure to the Martian atmosphere.

Other racers were unable to complete the course due to sheer exhaustion and the end of the day saw 20 challengers left of the original 40.

Murilla Sprints to Finish in Calydon Fossa

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

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.

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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.

Day-2 Women - KMH Takes the Stage!

Aquarius 21, 2077, m249

Elaine NGuyen of KMH final approach to the Stage 1 finish line.

The rugged and unforgiving terrain of Noctis Labyrinthus is a daunting, high difficultly stage.  The landscape is heavily fractured with variable elevations, rubble, and steep-walled valleys that force runners to stay alert at all times.  Another challenge is the course has no pre-determined routes; the rules forbid navigational assist from all forms of mGPS, auto-compass, or aerial feed from drones, so runners are left to their own devices to make their way out of the labyrinth.

The Women's race resumed on schedule at 7:30 to a sluggish group.  Runners' sleep was disrupted by strong, howling winds that lasted much of the night.  This was harder on  those with soft inflatable habs versus those with integrated sleeping capsules in support vehicles, but either way, it took a tool on all of them.

Though it was a slower morning, the pace picked up by afternoon as competitors step up to push for the finish line.  Clearly, no one wanted to spend another night on the course.

Philips who fought her way to #1 position yesterday, was unable to maintain her lead slowly fell back as a new leading pack formed including Nguyen (KMH), Pande (Europa), Fan (Europa), and Gardner (Mareotis).

By Checkpoint 13, the leading pack was off the Men's pace by only 16 minutes.

Unlike the Men's run, where the track was untouched, many of the racers took advantage of the tracks left behind by prior runners, allowing the the trailing pack to close the gap with the leaders.  this resulted in a log jam at the final ascension and an exciting foot race to the finish line.

In a neck-and-neck running race at the final stretch, Elaine Nguyen of KMH and the two Europa runners, Anya Pande and Gui Ying Fan battled fatigue as they sprinted toward the finish line.

Nguyen crossed the line at 17:24 with an combined elapse time of 19:22:02.  This was 37 minutes behind Pachehra's time of 18:45:45.

Nguyen embraced her husband/coach, Gabriel Ilionescu, who was waiting with KMH flag in-hand.

"I want to thank all of my supporters," Nguyen said, "My family and KMH for making it possible for me to get the training hours in between work.  I know this is only the first course, but it is such a huge personal victory for me to win a stage.  Thank you so much."

Unlike the Men's race, there were no voluntary drop-outs, however, Hannah Chao (Haucheng) did not complete after an knee injury on Day-1 and the 10 hour Countdown disqualified Noor Panghal (Amrita) and Tanya Buchalska (San Olympus).

After the race, a disappointed Buchalska said, "I only had less than 7% of the course to go.  I'm not a strong climber, but I think what really cost me was lack of sleep."

Women's Stage 2 takes place on Aquarius 23rd where the remaining 37 will tackle the Calydon Fossa challenge, a 250 km running race.

Day-1 Women

Aquarius 20, 2077, m249

With the start lights and broadcast of the starting gun, the first official Women’s program began for the Pathfinder Marathon.

In the prior years with only 4 nomadic settlements participating, there were never more than 25 runners in the mixed gender race; and even then, the contest was dominantly men.

Though there has been controversy over the decision to have separate races, it was welcome news to many would-be runners.

“I’m proud to be running in the first Women’s challenge.”, Elaine Nguyen of KMH said, “I’ve raced in the last two Pathfinders and I don’t get the problem.  The rules are quite open for non-binary too; Adriana Wojick would have easily decided to compete in the Men’s program if she wanted.”

Pathfinder Officials have stated that there could be mixed challenges in the future, so this year is a bit of an experiment with respect to the mainstream promotion and Mars-Earth sponsorships.

“Our vision of Pathfinder is to branch out,” said Dr. Whyll Hokosan, chairman of the Pathfinder Marathon Organization (PMO), “Building on the tradition of Pathfinders of the past, we aim to showcase survival, track and field in an inclusive manner.  This is a new chapter for the sporting event and we will make this as big as significant as the MAFL or the Earth Olympics”

Based on the data, the start of the Women’s race had lower engagement than the Men’s, but by late afternoon, there was twice the audience; consistent for both Mars and Earth.

Day-1 Women's Stage 1

Sara Hampton (San Olympus) took an early lead straight out of the gate, but 40 minutes into the race, she took a terrible spill.  She lost the lead, but after calling in her drone for supplies and  taping up her left ankle, she pressed on.

Unlike the Men’s race, where the pack broke apart very early, the Women stayed together far longer.  It wasn’t until after the 3rd checkpoint when the terrain forced the group to split.

Hannah Chao (Huacheng) was the first casualty to Noctis Labryinthus.  Misjudging the distance of a chasm, her jump was shy and she clipped her leg sending her tumbling.  In addition to a badly bruised knee, her suit suffered enough damage to disqualify her.

Europa made another strong display in today's race.  Gui Ying Fan and Anya Pande stayed in close proximity to each other, often swapping between 3rd and 4th position.  

Elaine Nguyen  (KMH) was in good form and held 1st position through the late afternoon.  It wasn’t until she started to show signs of fatigue that Yasmina Philips (Marineris) made her move.  In the final two hours of race-time, Phillips had worked a 5 km lead.

By the ‘stand down’ announcement at 19:30, Phillips was just 18 km behind Marshall Shannon’s (HDX) position just two day before in the Men's run.

There are 74 km ahead of Phillips to the finish and 55 km between her and the last position runner, Jasinder Lutsenko (Novymir).  

The day closes with a strong pack ready to conquer Stage 1.