When she hit the finish line in 8 days, 18 hours and 37 minutes, Ryan Gillikin won the female solo division and joined exclusive company as a five-time finisher of the longest annual paddle race in the country, the Great Alabama 650.

The 650-mile journey, which serves as the core of the original Alabama Scenic River Trail, started at Weiss Lake in Cherokee County and finished in Fort Morgan.

Elite company joined

Having also won the inaugural race in 2019 as a two-person tandem with Susan Jordan, Gillikin became just the third member of the 3250 Club as a five-time finisher when she came out of the water Monday morning and joined Bobby Johnson and Salli O’Donnell. The trophy Gillikin received for joining the club was partially made of clay from the Coosa River which serves as a section of the course.

Gillikin, who attended Daphne High School and is a current Bay Minette resident, also became just the second female solo champion in the sixth year of the annual competition after O’Donnell, who helped coach Gillikin this year, won the first five.

O’Donnell owns the division record at 4 days, 22 hours and 39 minutes set in 2021. The overall record was also set in 2021 by the two-person tandem of Paul Cox and Joe Mann at 4 days, 17 hours and 4 minutes.

In her post-race interview, Gillikin laid out her journey the way only an experienced veteran could.

“The first three days were hot and you had to push because I wanted to get to Jordan (Lake) and do the whitewater in the daylight so I pushed really hard the first three days and it really tore me down,” Gillikin told Race Director Greg Wingo Monday morning. “Then the middle of the race kind of builds you back up, then your bay crossing knocks you down again so you definitely couldn’t go Day 3 to your last day. You needed those middle days but had some good paddling, some beautiful sunrises, met some fun people and I made it.”

A record-breaking year

More history was made in 2024 as Trey Reaves of Florence became the first back-to-back solo winner when he hit the finish line in 7 days, 3 hours and 20 minutes. John Knippers from Oklahoma became the first two-time finisher to exclusively use a standup paddleboard when he arrived in Fort Morgan in 8 days, 19 hours and 3 minutes and Lindsey Tilton from Florida registered a time of 9 days, 19 hours and 35 minutes to mark the first female to complete the course exclusively on a standup paddleboard.

Other finishers included David Miller (8 days and 25 minutes) in second place of the male solo division, Mirko Pruefer (8 days, 5 hours and 38 minutes) in third place, Knippers in fourth place, Joseph Bolton (8 days, 22 hours and 47 minutes) in fifth place and Nathaniel Gueltzau (9 days, 20 hours and 7 minutes) in sixth place. Jessica Nance and Candi Hill won the tandem category in 8 days, 22 hours and 35 minutes.

The 10 total finishers made up less than half of this year’s entries which made selective company out of the finishers themselves.

“The toughness of the race is evident in the fact that only 47% of those who started made it to the Fort Morgan finish line,” it says in a Wednesday press release. “This statistic, however, is a testament to the resilience and determination of the participants, who faced the challenge head-on and emerged victorious.”