A Kansas woman finished with the best time in the 62nd annual International Pancake Race, comprised of separate heats in Kansas and England.

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Nicole Schowengerdt, 28, ran the Liberal, Kan., course while flipping a pancake in a frying pan Tuesday in a time of 63 seconds, beating the top finisher in the Olney, England, race, which was held about 6 hours earlier, by 9 seconds, the High Plains (Kan.) Daily Leader reported Wednesday.

"I have seen a lot of the past races between us and Olney, and they're really close," said Schowengerdt, who was participating in the event for the first time. "I was hoping to beat that."

The pancake race is held yearly in Liberal and Olney to mark Pancake Day, which is celebrated on Shrove Tuesday to allow Christians to use up their fatty foods before the start of Lent, Britain's The Daily Telegraph reported. Olney residents said variations of the pancake race, which requires participants to flip pancakes in frying pans while running, can be traced back as far as 1445.