Grand Slam of ULTRAUNNING

Grand Slam of Ultrarunning - Stan Jensen web page sorted by year
Cumulative times - fastest to slowest (Wasatch Front 100 web page)
     * * *  The four fastest times of the 100 mile runs  that were eligible during the years 1986 to 2009;  The Old Domion Memorial was an allowable  substitute in 2002.
The Old Dominion 100 & Memorial are not allowable 100's  after 2002; and Arkansas 100 was an allowable substitute for Western States in 2008 .  When finish times were submitted with hours and  minutes, but no seconds, the difference was split and 30 seconds was added to each result  for total time calculations. --> inn, 9/2009

      Tom Green from Maryland was the first person to to run the Grand Slam in 1986 with a cumulative time of 96 hours, 26 minutes and 28 seconds. Tom held this record for two years since the times posted in 1987 by John Bandur,WA, (98:20:02) and Herb Tanimoto,CA, (105:58:26) were slower. In 1988, Wendell Robison, WY, broke that initial record with a 93:42:24.  Less than 10 minutes later at the concluding Wasatch Front 100 Mile Race, however, Martyn Greaves from England  posted  the first cumulative time under 90 hours with a new record time of 89:54:00.  That lasted a year until Marshall Urich, CO, lowered the cumulative time to 86:53:29.  Also, in 1989, Suzi Thibeault,CA, became the first female to do the Grand Slam and finished with a cumulative time of 115:41:43.  Like Tom Green, Suzi held this record for two years. In 1991,  Joe Schlereth, CA, finished the final race at the Wasatch Front 100 and took the men's record down to 85:37:40.  Similar to what happened in 1988, this time less than 16 minutes later, Steve Mahieu,NM, picked up final honors for the men with a time of 85:21:56.  For the women in 1991, Linda Elam,CA, lowered the cumulative record down to 110:40:42 and would hold this record three years.  A year later after loosing the men's record  Joe Schlereth,CA, took back the record in 1992 for the men with the first cumulative time under 80 hours with a 79:52:56 and would hold this record for 6 years.  In 1994, Cindie Grunt, OR, dropped the women's record down to 108:20:35.   In 1995, Diane Ridgeway,CO, claimed the women's record with a 103:22:54 which lasted two years until 1998 when Martha Swatt,WY, took the time under 100 hours posting a 95:23:21.   1998 turned out to be very memorable for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning.   If it had not been for Dan Barger,CA, running legend Ann Trason,CA, would have knock-out punched the cumulative record for both men and women with a time of 79:23:21!   But Dan finished 40 minutes ahead of Ann at Wasatch even though she set a women's course record at Wasatch, which still stands.  Ann had amazingly beat Dan's time at the Western States 100 by an hour.  Dan set a new men's record of 78:46:11 and Dan held that for 4 years.  Ann Trason is still the current women's record holder after 11 years and still has the 5th overall best time averaging 19:50:50 for all four 100's.  In 2002, Ian Torrence who lived in Utah at the time, dropped the cumulative time down to 78:22:47 and held it one year only as the current record holder, Joe Kulak,CO, came in at the end of the Wasatch 100 in 2003 with an astounding cumulative time of 75:07:00.  Scott Jurek,WA, gave Joe's record a brief scare in 2004 with a cumulative time of 77:40:12 for the 2nd best men's time.  Scott looked like he might break the record but half way through the Wasatch 100, took a long time to recover after struggling with the difficult course and ended up with a slower time than hoped for.  He was averaging 16:46:17 per 100 miler up to that point (Kulek's first 3 average was 17:44:37).  Joe ended up averaging 18:46:45 for his four 100's and Scott had to settle for an average of 19:25:03.
     In the athletic endeavors of the entire world, finishing the Grand Slam is regarded as one of the greatest achievements of all.  Ultrarunners respect and admire those who take on this challenge.  Similar to finishing any 100 miler, there is a very noticeable appreciation for each other's accomplishment from the very slowest to the fastest cumulative time by our brothers and sisters in the Ultrarunning community.  While finishing faster adds a bit of luster to a runners credentials and is greatly admired, the struggle to just finish when the struggle is so very hard  rings loudly in our souls.  Our hats are off to all the Grand Slammers.