This weekend marked the 2023 version of the Hardrock 100 in Colorado’s San Juan mountains, with deep snow and hovering temps to maintain issues attention-grabbing within the alpine.
With 102.5 “wild and hard” miles to finish within the course’s counter-clockwise path, which is taken into account by many to be the harder path due to the powerful ascent of Handies Peak (the onerous aspect!) round mile 32. Courtney Dauwalter, contemporary off a record-setting win on the Western States 100 on June 24, made it look surprisingly straightforward.
In her third go at Hardrock, after a DNF in 2021 and win (and course file, clockwise/general) in 2022, Dauwalter once more raised the bar for girls’s endurance operating with a 26:14:08 clocking and fourth-place general end. (effectively under Diana Finkel’s 2009 CR of 27:18:24), making her proprietor of each the counter-clockwise and clockwise data and shattering her personal general course file set in 2022 (26:44:36).
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Not solely did the 38-year-old Leadville, Colorado, runner full the notorious Western States-Hardrock Double (with two 100-mile races simply weeks aside), however she gained and set course data at each, one thing no different athlete has ever carried out. (The one different athlete to carry each CRs concurrently was Scott Jurek, who set a Western States course file in 2004 and nonetheless held it when he gained Hardrock in 2007). Dauwalter’s cumulative time for each occasions was 41:43:42. The earlier file for the double was held by Jeff Browning, (who completed fifth within the males’s discipline in 2023) with a time of 42:12:43.
Dauwalter battled with French Athlete Anne-Lise Rousset Seguret, leapfrogging by means of the Ouray Help station (mile 58), the place each athletes left inside a minute of one another on Saturday night, earlier than Dauwalter reclaimed a demanding lead within the night time, with a blazing quick descent into Telluride (mile 74) that may set up a spot that Dauwalter maintained all through the race. Dauwalter didn’t have a simple day, battling the warmth and residual fatigue of Western States in her legs, however was in a position to make up time on the again half of the course, regardless of traditionally snowy situations. Dauwalter was emotional as she embraced her crew, and knelt to kiss the rock that signifies a end.
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Rousset Seguret completed in second in a time of 27:29:55, with the fifth-fastest ladies’s time in historical past. Annie Hughes, one other Leadville-based runner, rounded out the ladies’s podium with a time of 32:13:03. Hughes, who struggled with respiration issues all through the night time, however was in a position to tempo a constant race, mentioned on the end, “That was actually onerous. That just about killed me.”
In an Instagram submit, Hughes mentioned, “I do know I can come throughout as all ‘sunshine and smiles’ however I spent a greater portion of this race in a darkish place, and was grateful to have the ability to end third feminine.”
Japan’s Kimino Myazaki completed in fourth in a time of 34:17:16 whereas France’s Claire Bannwarth was fifth in 34:51:48.
France’s Aurelien Dunand-Pallaz was first again to Silverton earlier than dawn on Saturday, after an early and dominant result in command the race, with an elapsed time of 23:00:07, the eighth-fastest in historical past. Dunand-Pallaz led from the gun, his crew greeting him at every support station with an enormous French flag. Fellow Frenchman Beñat Marmissolle claimed second within the males’s discipline with a time of 23:49 after a later within the race surge.
Spanish runner Javier Dominguez made a late transfer to move Dauwalter after chasing her for a number of miles within the remaining miles of the race, securing a third-place general end in a time of 26:12:01. In fourth place was Arlen Glick, who additionally did the WSER-HR100 double, and completed in a time of 26:43:05 after a powerful and constant run. Fifth place was Jeff Browning, the 2018 winner of the race, who completed for the sixth time in 27:17:02.
On the end line, many athletes commiserate over the brutal temperatures that scorched runners within the excessive nation.
“That was the toughest race of my profession,” mentioned Dylan Bowman, who completed ninth amongst males after a tough remaining 30 miles.
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“Undoubtedly the most well liked Hardrock I’ve carried out,” mentioned Browning.
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