Bev Anderson-Abbs gets back to winning ways at California 50-miler

The California-based Canadian won the Jed Smith Ultra by more than an hour and a half

Photo by: Bev Anderson-Abbs/Facebook

Ben Snider-McGrath March 9, 2021

Bev Anderson-Abbs, a California-based but Canadian-born ultrarunner, recently won the Jed Smith 50-miler. The race is held in Anderson-Abbs’s adopted home of Sacramento, and this is her sixth time winning at the event in as many tries. Anderson-Abbs crossed the line in 7:07:57, more than an hour and a half ahead of the second-place woman.

Anderson-Abbs on her way to the Jed Smith 50 win. Photo: USA Track & Field Pacific Association/Facebook

Jed Smith 2021

Anderson-Abbs crushed the rest of the women’s field in the Jed Smith 50-miler, and she beat most of the men, too, finishing fifth overall. The top spot went to Rich Hannah, another Sacramento resident, who dominated to take the win in 5:50:52. Hannah finished almost half an hour ahead of the second-place runner.

In the 50K, Malcolm Richards (who is also from Sacramento) won the race in 2:51:49. This is a Jed Smith 50K course record, easily beating the previous best of 3:02:31. Second-place Chikara Omine also beat the course record, crossing the line in the second sub-three-hour result in race history and stopping the clock at 2:59:41. Oregon‘s Meghan Canfield won the women’s 50K, breaking the tape in just under four hours with her 3:59:28 run.

Six runs, six wins

Anderson-Abbs is no stranger to winning, and especially not at the Jed Smith Ultra. She first ran this race in 2014, when she set the women’s course record of 6:14:46 and finished as the first runner overall. She returned in 2015 and won the entire race once again, running 6:18:38 to secure the second-fastest result in race history.

Alan Abbs & Bev Anderson-Abbs after finishing Vol State 2019. Photo: Laz Lake

In 2016, she raced the 50K, winning the women’s race and finishing sixth overall. Unfortunately, she didn’t set any records that year. Anderson-Abbs’s next appearance on the Jed Smith course came in 2019, when she finished in second overall and won the women’s 50-miler. A year later, extended her Jed Smith win streak to five, winning the women’s 50-miler and finishing second overall once again. Her 6:31:34 run last year broke both the Canadian and American W55 50-mile records.

Anderson-Abbs has many other race wins to her name (over 100, according to her profile on ultrasignup.com), and it would take far too long to list them all. To see her full running resume, click here.