Kasie Enman: The Super Skyracer
When she isn’t helping at her daughter’s school or running her family’s maple sugaring business, Kasie Enman is off and running around the world. Literally. The 35-year-old mother of two from Huntington has been the surprise standout on the international Sky Racing Circuit. For the past two years, she has been beating some of Europe’s top talent in this series of ultramarathons at elevations of 2,000 feet or more. In 2014, Enman tied for second in the Skyrunning World Series Ultra category, even though it was only her second season of racing ultramarathons.
In 2015, Enman continued to succeed on both the national and international levels, despite plaguing injuries that have disrupted her training schedule. In February, she competed at the MSIG Sai Kung 50k in Hong Kong, a grueling race with countless steep ascents and descents, as well as a long and exposed ridge trail. The heat was punishing, but she was able to power through to a third-place finish.
Back on home turf in May at Burlington’s Vermont City Marathon, Enman was the overall women’s champion with a time of 2:49:04. However, she describes this second VCM win as “bittersweet” since she was six minutes shy of her goal time of 2:43, the standard qualification for the Olympic Trials Marathon. In the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon she finished 11th.
The Middlebury College grad rounded out her summer successes in July with a silver medal at the U.S Mountain Running Championships in Oregon, which was good enough to land her a spot on the U.S.A World Mountain Running Team for the second time. Although she was injured for most of September, Enman still pulled off an 11th place finish at the World Mountain Running Championships in Wales and was part of the U.S silver medal team.
Given her impressive results this year, it is difficult to believe that Enman is not at the top of her game. But she seems determined to not let her injuries impact her outlook. “I haven’t really been able to perform at my best in a while,” she said. “But I am confident that I still have a few PRs and great races left in me once I catch a break.”
In addition to training, Enman and her sister-in-law, Molly Peters, have been involved in a movement to make race distances equal for men and women in both mountain running championships as well as in the NCAA. If anyone has doubts about women being capable of racing the same distances as men, all they have to do is take a look at Enman’s career.
