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It was a historic day of racing at the 2024 JFK 50 Mile, a historic American ultramarathon, where Rachel Drake and David Sinclair set huge new women’s and men’s course records.
On Saturday, November 23, at 6:30 a.m. local time, runners took off from downtown Boonsboro, Maryland, for the race’s 62nd edition. It’s one of the U.S.’s oldest ultras, and fast athletes have tested themselves for over a half-century on its unchanging course. This history tends to draw elite runners looking for 50-mile PRs, podium places, and if possible, course records.
Leaving downtown Boonsboro under the cover of near-darkness, runners got a quick 2.5 miles of road before joining the rocky and rooty Appalachian Trail for 13 miles. Emerging from the trail and with the technical difficulties behind them, the course follows 26.2 miles along the mostly flat C&O Canal towpath before taking country roads with a few rolling hills for the final eight miles to the finish. The course is steeped in history, passing by Civil War battlefields and using the canal system that brought trade and commerce west in the early 1800s.
Aside from the first section on the Appalachian Trail, this is one of the fastest ultra courses around, and the times reflect that.
Started in 1963, the initial event was part of a series started by President John F. Kennedy to improve the fitness of his military officers and Americans in general. More than 50 years earlier, President Theodore Roosevelt had required that his military officers be able to cover 50 miles on foot in 20 hours, and Kennedy wanted to revive the standard. The current JFK 50 Mile is the only race of Kennedy’s series to continue. In addition to celebrating all runners, including elites, it strongly emphasizes its military roots.
Speaking of elite runners, after just 5:08:26 of racing, Sinclair came away with the men’s win, shattering the previous course record of 5:18:40 by more than 10 minutes. The prior record was set by Hayden Hawks in 2020.
Drake did the same in the women’s event, finishing in 5:57:32, leading line to line, and setting a new course record by over eight minutes. She bested Sarah Biehl’s time of 6:05:42, which was set in 2022.
Read on for more race details.
2024 JFK 50 Mile Women’s Race
With more than 1,200 runners leaving downtown Boonsboro together in the dark, the women’s field split up nearly immediately. Rachel Drake led the charge from the gun, reaching the Weverton checkpoint at the end of the difficult Appalachian Trail segment at mile 15.1 in 1:57:50. Mary Denholm followed just over a minute back.
Robyn Lesh’s timing chip didn’t register here, so we don’t have her exact split, but she came through in a solid third place. Valérie Arsenault (Canada), who placed third at this race last year, was about eight minutes behind in fourth. Britta Clark was about 14 minutes off the lead in fifth. With the slowest part of the course behind them, it would now come down to flat and fast speed.
Showing that she can run flatter and faster terrain in addition to technical trail, Drake, who placed eighth at the Western States 100 this year, continued to lead at Antietam at mile 27.1 with 3:18:53 elapsed. Denholm was a mere two minutes behind and well within striking distance with the race only a bit more than half over in terms of distance. Arsenault trailed by 11 minutes to round out the top three.
Drake was still at the front of the women’s field at Taylor’s Landing at mile 38.4 with 4:35:51 elapsed, with Denholm now just under nine minutes behind. At this point, it was clear that Drake was on pace for a big course record. Arsenault was running steadily in third, 15 minutes back from the leader. Lesh ran in fourth here, around 22 minutes off the lead. Lindsay Prescott made a move to move up into fifth, 35 minutes back.
Drake continued to lead at the dam at the end of the canal section, mile 41.8, in 5:00:32 with more than a seven-minute gap on second-place Denholm, and a 15-minute gap on Arsenault. Lesh stayed in fourth, now 19 minutes off the lead, and Prescott remained in fifth, about 38 minutes back. It was just over eight miles to go for Drake to nab a new record, and Denholm hung in the balance of running under the prior record, too.
In the end, Rachel Drake set a new women’s course record by over eight minutes with a finishing time of 5:57:32, which also placed her 10th overall in the field.
Mary Denholm took a ridiculously strong second in 6:04:15, also under the prior course record. Valérie Arsenault repeated her third-place performance in 6:15:59, beating her previous time by nearly 20 minutes. In the end, four women would finish in under 6:30, a time that only 10 women in the race’s six-plus decades of history had achieved before.
2024 JFK 50 Mile Women’s Results
- Rachel Drake – 5:57:32
- Mary Denholm – 6:04:15
- Valérie Arsenault (Canada) – 6:15:59
- Robyn Lesh – 6:21:55
- Britta Clark – 6:44:25
- Lindsay Prescott – 6:47:18
- Emily Harrison Torrence – 6:49:03
- Mindy Kaufman – 6:54:51
- Karin Strickland – 6:59:22
- Porter Burgess – 7:09:43
2024 JFK 50 Mile Men’s Race
Leaving downtown Boonsboro under streetlights, the men’s field didn’t waste any time setting a fast pace. While the lead group was still huge as they approached the Appalachian Trail 2.5 miles in, a group of five, consisting of David Sinclair, Eli Hemming, Ryan Sullivan, Matthew Seidel, and Tracen Knopp had emerged by the end of the trail, the more technical section of the course, 15.1 miles in at the Weverton checkpoint. Sinclair led the charge here in 1:43:58, and the rest of the top five were within 90 seconds before some bigger gaps opened to the rest of the field.
Hemming, winner of this year’s OCC, and Sinclair, winner of the 2024 and 2022 Speedgoat 50k, pulled away from the rest of the field along the C&O Canal towpath, reaching the Antietam checkpoint at mile 27.1 together in 2:53:05. Seidel, fourth place in the race in 2022, followed in third, three and a half minutes back. Sullivan and Knopp trailed the leaders by just under six and seven minutes, respectively.
Sinclair was ultimately the master of the canal section, reaching Taylor’s Landing aid station at mile 38.4 first in 4:00:36. Hemming was five minutes behind, and Seidel was a further four minutes in arrears. Sullivan and Knopp kept themselves in contention, 12 and 14 minutes behind the leader.
By the dam at the end of the canal section, three and a half miles later at mile 41.8, Sinclair’s lead over Hemming was nearly seven minutes, while the rest of the gaps between second and fifth stayed nearly the same. From here, Hemming would fade before ultimately finishing fifth.
It was clear early on that Sinclair would have a shot at the course record if he could maintain his pace, and as the race reached its final real estate he continued to make time on the record. With a final time of 5:08:26, David Sinclair cut nearly 10 minutes off the prior record.
After quite a gap, Ryan Sullivan came in next to take second with a finish time of 5:27:40. Matt Seidel was third, just two minutes back in 5:29:34.
2024 JFK 50 Mile Men’s Results
- David Sinclair – 5:08:26
- Ryan Sullivan – 5:27:40
- Matthew Seidel – 5:29:34
- Tracen Knopp – 5:31:15
- Eli Hemming – 5:33:09
- Ferdinand-Clovis Airault – 5:35:37
- Josh Park – 5:45:12
- Ryan Clifford – 5:56:38
- Benjamin Linne – 5:56:49
- Andrew Simpson – 5:57:38
2024 JFK 50 Mile Results: Rachel Drake and David Sinclair Set Massive Course Records by Eszter Horanyi.
