Dipsea Crowns Youngest Champ In Over 50 Years

MILL VALLEY, CA — America’s oldest trail race on Sunday crowned its youngest champion in more than 50 years.

Eddie Owens, 28 of San Francisco, won the 111th Dipsea Race, topping a field of 1,500 as he ran the rugged 7.5-mile foot race from downtown Mill Valley to Stinson Beach in 48:35.

Owens who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended Princeton University, became the first Dipsea champion in their 20s since 25-year-old Carl Jensen won it in 1966.

Owens was given a one-minute head start in the Dipsea, a unique race in which each of the 1,500 runners are assigned head starts based on age and gender.

Owens was a Team USA member at the 2021 World Mountain and Trailrunning Championships.

“I’ve run races all over the country and all over the world, but there is nothing like the Dipsea,” Owens said.

“I look forward to coming back for many years and decades to come.”

With a two-minute head start Paddy O'Leary, a 34-year-old cancer researcher from San Francisco, finished second about two minutes behind Owens and Clara Peterson, a 38-year-old mother of four from Corte Madera who was a two-time All-American cross country runner at Duke University, was third.

Peterson started seven minutes in front of Owens’ starting group and posted the fastest time by a female in a race, finishing one spot ahead of Stephanie Howe of San Rafael, who was making her Dipsea debut.

Mark Tatum, the defending Dipsea champion from Colorado Springs, CO, placed eighth overall.

Tatum last year became the first non-Californian to win the Dipsea since Gail Scott of Durango, Colorado in 1986.

Tatum was the first male from outside the state to win the historic trail race since Joe Patterson of Queensland, Australia in 1975.