Caitriona Jennings placed second in the women's race in the JFK 50 Mile Ultramarathon Saturday Nov. 19th.
Her time of 6:28:53 was the 8th fastest on the course ever for a woman, and a new masters (40 and over) record.
Still, there was a gap of over 20 minutes between her and Sarah Biehl, the first-place finisher for women. Biehl's time of 6:05:42 smashed the previous record of 6:12:00 (set by Ellie Greenwood in 2012) and earned her 11th place overall in what race director Mike Spinnler said "may be the greatest performance in JFK history." Her time was also more than 16 minutes faster than her second place finish last year.
"I struggled from the start, pretty much", said Jennings.
"It just wasn't my day. But fair play to Sarah, she had an absolute stormer. Wow, so impressive, amazing. It's a lovely course, I was hoping I would enjoy it more... It was a harder race than I expected. I've had two tough races, but I'm not making excuses. I was beaten fair and square. Maybe I expected too much of myself today. But you win some, you lose some. That's what sport is. It just makes the good days all the better."
Jennings took 3rd at the 100k World Championships in August and 1st in the European 50k championships last month.
Winner Sarah Biehl said after the race "I'm ecstatic right now. I'm a little in shock, to be honest."
Shea Aquilano placed third with a time of 6:40:40.
