Molly Seidel, the Tokyo Olympic marathon bronze medallist, broke the course record at the Bandera 50K in her debut ultramarathon over the weekend. She clocked in at 4:09:39 to win by six minutes and 10 seconds over second-place finisher Benjamin Melisi, the men’s winner.
The 31-year-old Seidel took on the challenging looped course aggressively. The route is fairly technical and situated at an elevation of 1005 metres in what is known as the Texas Hill Country.
The second female runner was Courtney Rouse in 4:36:12. Third was Mira Rai, who rolled in at 4:46:20.
The men’s podium was rounded out by Collin Bohne in 4:38:59, followed by Landon King in 4:45:05. King is a junior U20 runner.
Seidel is transitioning her career into ultrarunning.
Bandera, Texas, is just outside of San Antonio.
