Working her way to the 12 hours of Dirt Sweat & Gears in Fayetteville, Tennessee, Pua Sawicki set a course record of 7:44:00…a full 50 minutes better than the old record and 58 minutes in front of her nearest competitor.

This past weekends’ Cohutta 100 race in Tennessee was also the first stage of the NUE series (National Ultra Endurance Series). Over 250 racers showed up for the 100 mile race and another 200+ riders showed up for the shorter 65 & 35 mile races. The weather turned bad the night before with ran almost all night long and through the first 2 hours of the race, soaking the course and helping to cause many crashes on various wooden bridges over stream crossings.

Pua Started the race by jumping up front on the 3 mile paved hill start and making her way into the single track already well out of sight of the chasing women. Pua worked her way into the top 15 men and less than an hour into the race she noticed her rear tire was losing air. She decided to race on it to the first check point, this slowed her down and she dropped back to around 30th position but still in the female lead. Ellsworth-powered Team Mata switched out the wheel and within the next hour she made her way back to the top 15 men. By 45 miles into the race she already had around an hour lead over the second place female. Pua was able to slow the pace for the second half and still set a new course record by 50 minutes with a time of 7:44:00.

source: Rich Carr, CRME