Canada’s Ellie Greenwood sets record at U.S. ultra

Canadian ultrarunning star Ellie Greenwood added to her accomplishments on Saturday, setting the record at the JFK 50 mile in Maryland. Greenwood, who lives in North Vancouver, completed the 50.2 mile course in 6:11:59.

“This is big,” Greenwood told the Herald-Mail. “To get the course record — and it was a solid course record — I knew I’d have to have a good day.”

Emily Harrison, 26, of Front Royal, Va., also went under the old record of 6:29:21, finishing second in 6:17:16.

Max King of Bend, Ore., won the men’s race, averaging 6:42 per mile for the race, completing the course in 5:34:58.

Harrison, a 2:32 marathoner, pushed Greenwood hard in the middle of the race, even taking the lead at 21 miles. But after falling about 80 seconds behind, Greenwood regained the lead for good at 31 miles.

“I was not going to get pulled into running too fast, knowing there were still so many miles to go,” Greenwood said. “I just had to run my race and my pace and wait it out a little.”

Factoring in the men’s results, Greenwood was 10th overall.