"It just came from a lot of hard work this last year." - Kari Pearce

Kari Pearce finishes Murph in first for her first career event win. This is an improvement over her fifth place finish from last year. She also managed to beat Sam Briggs time considerably with a time of 36:42. Last year Briggs finished in 39:10.

As we saw last year, the first athlete out the gate didn't necessarily finish the event first. Former US Marine, Candice Wagner started out hot and kept ahead on the run, but it wasn't long before Sam Briggs took the lead. She held on to the lead for most of the event, but it was Carleen Mathews, Katrin Davidsdottir, and Kari Pearce who passed her up in the final round. She finished fourth.

The top five finishers for Murph were Kari Pearce, Katrin Davidsdottir, Carleen Mathews, Sam Briggs, and Kristin Holte. In 2015, Davidsdottir finished 12th, Mathews finished fourth, Briggs first, and Holte had finished third.

The event was a mental win for some of the athletes more than anything else, Kara Webb and Annie Thorisdottir amongst them. Kara Webb caught up to the front of the pack in the fourth round, and even passed Sam Briggs on the start of the final run up the stadium stairs. She finished (with a smile on her face) in eighth place. Annie Thorisdottir also appeared much less fatigued than last year. She finished 24th, an improvement over her 33rd place finish last year. Undoubtedly having the event taking place in the morning rather than the afternoon worked in favor of the athletes. However, their bodies are also likely feeling more beat up than they did during the event last year, having already gone through a full day and a swim event before Murph today.

Jen Smith had hurt her foot in the 7k trail run Wednesday, but put up a fight through Murph. She shuffled along through her first mile, worked her way through all five rounds of pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats, and back to the final run. While she didn't finish within the time cap, she made her way back, showing all smiles, to a full stadium of applause.

Overall leader going into the day, Tia-Clair Toomey finished 18th.

Leaderboard (Women):

1. (378) Samantha Briggs
2. (362) Tia-Clair Toomey
3. (350) Tennil Reed
4. (348) Ragnheiður Sara Sigmundsdottir
5. (320) Katrin Tanja Davidsdottir
6. (306) Kristi Eramo
7. (298) Annie Thorisdottir
8. (276) Kara Webb
9. (274) Brooke Wells
10. (274) Margaux Alvarez
11. (264) Kari Pearce
12. (264) Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault
13. (260) Kristin Holte
14. (260) Alessandra Pichelli
15. (254) Lauren Fisher
16. (252) Anna Tunnicliffe
17. (234) Chyna Cho
18. (224) Thuridur Erla Helgadottir
19. (216) Candice Wagner
20. (206) Emily Abbott
21. (198) Carleen Mathews
22. (188) Stacie Tovar
23. (180) Emily Bridgers
24. (178) Michele Letendre
25. (178) Christy Adkins
26. (170) Camille Leblanc-Bazinet
27. (164) Whitney Cappellucci
28. (156) Sheila Barden
29. (154) Rebecca Voigt
30. (152) Jamie Hagiya
31. (146) Christina Seeley
32. (144) Tasia Percevecz
33. (128) Alethea Boon
34. (116) Jennifer Smith
35. (114) Alexis Johnson
36. (110) Meg Reardon
37. (96) Alea Helmick
38. (86) Justine Beath
39. (66) Carly Fuhrer
40. (62) Madeline Sturt

Continue to Event 6 Recap (Women)
Continue to Event 6 Recap (Men)

Photo Credit: Kari Pearce Instagram (@pumpedlikepearce)