"The Silverton/Ouray area is very rugged. Unlike the friendly wasatch, the
San Juan peaks loom over you with jagged tops that cut the sky. The weather
is not predictable. It has the sweet and sour disposition of hot/cold,
wet/dry. Silverton appears to be more remote than Ouray or Telluride. It
does not prosper from the visiting beautiful people other than the periodic
day trip train passengers from Durango. As a result, the community welcomes
the longer staying runners and their crews with much enthusiasm. The morning
of the race there were two restaurants open at 4 am for breakfast; much
earlier than the first train arrival! Even though we were only pacing, we
were up with the rest of the runners trying to keep the nervous energy at
bay. The start was a beautiful beginning under the watch of the miners
memorial. After watching them cross the first stream just outside of town we
began the anxious wait.

Its good and bad being a pacer for the 100. Knowing your person has just
completed 40 miles or more without you should keep them at a manageable
trot, but believe it or not some pacers are left behind. We were worried.
Murray was consistently stronger than either of us. We had an idea when he
would be in to the aid station, but he could be faster. So there we were
ready 2 hours early....anxious.

He came in a little later than we thought, and he was soaking wet. Sounds
like several were caught in a terrible rain storm up Virginias. Knowing he
was going into night, he gathered more clothing and lighting and ate. He and
Roger left for the climb out of the low point on the course to Engineer's
peak. This is the peak with the blinking red light that can be seen forever
and ever! Their climb went fast. Upon reaching the top they were greeted
with soup and water...... and snow.

Unfortunately, the stronger runners appear to have less body fat than the
rest of us. Its a great feature when you need to get somewhere fast, but
beware of the bonking and cold. It was 12:30, they were over an hour late.
This is when the crew and pacer start to get concerned. We walked up the
road asking if they had seen him. NO. People coming in were no longer fresh
and excited. The night appeared to steal it away. Finally, at 1:00 they
arrived....walking. Poor Murray had the misfortune of getting very cold on
the way down. So cold that he didn't run anymore. The cold and the stress
did nothing for his stomach either and the critical food that was supposed
to go down, defied gravity. The crew reluctantly let him sleep for 15
minutes in the sleeping bag in the heated car. Then 15 more.... then 15
more..... His situation must have been common since 20 some dropped from the
race at that point. As the next pacer I was preparing for the disappointment
of not getting to go.

At this point I think the runner's decision is very personal. I can only
guess what would make a person go on. Knowing that you will not meet your
planned time, that you were passed by several you struggled to stay with and
that you may not even make the cut off times seems overwhelming. He opened
the door of the car and said lets go with 2 hours to spare.

The duties of the pacer vary. Being the second set of eyes for the markers
and providing conversation are easy. Being the cheerleader is sometimes not.
We were on our way up Handies peak and two steps forward and one back did
not make progress very rapid. Murray still needed to eat more; and my
suggestions were not going well. Finally, with the break of daylight and a
couple of pretzels the shell of a person started to come back to life and
the hope of increasing the distance from the cut off times was growing.

The next several miles were filled with awe. Having never been there, it was
an adventure to see what drainage or hill or peak was next. We saw an entire
crop of marmots springing up in the fields, a herd of elk and several sheep
(both kinds), waterfalls and so many mines I lost count. But best of all,
wild flowers. I've never seen the columbine with the blue outer petals.
Murray explained that's what happens when you don't get enough oxygen...you
turn blue. The humor was a good sign.

After that, it seemed our pace was a little faster and the epic trips to the
next aid stations were better. The only thing threatening was that weather.
We made it to base of the pole creek drainage when it started to get dreary.
We needed to go over the ridge and down .1 miles to the Maggie aid station.
Surely we can beat the thing. Well not exactly. It started with a few
sprinkles, and then it poured. Then it thundered and then it lightened. Its
a sick feeling the have your hair feel charged. Luckily Murray is taller
than me (just kidding). We ran all the way and what seemed more like 1.0
miles to the aid station tarps with red skin freshly blasted by the hail.
You are always grateful to have aid station volunteers, but they were
exceptional. They filled the water bottle with hot tea, pointed out the
ridge we climbed and sent us out.

That last ridge had another behind it. At first it was only a small
disappointment, but the next two really soured me. Its not good to have your
pacer ouchy. After I described the course to Murray with my special words he
responded with a laugh and that he'd not expected that out of me. I decided
I'd better get a new attitude. Only a couple of hours to go and we'd be at
the final aid station where Roger would have the pleasure of accompanying
him to the finish. 17.5 hours later we were there.

The final moments waiting at the high school for them seemed long. Finally
they showed sprinting the last stretch to kiss the hard rock. It is
emotional. It is a rare gift to see someone persevere and reach a difficult
goal. This will not be Murray's fastest race, but it should be one he is
very proud of. He could have easily said this wasn't his day way back at 50
miles. He didn't. I admire his determination to continue and finish without
recovering to full-strength.

Thanks Murray for the inspiration."

Jill Bohney
******************************************************************

1  Karl Meltzer, M, 34, UT           26:39
2  Hans Put, M, 41, NY                        28:42
3  Betsy Kalmeyer, 40, CO              29:58
4  Jan Fiala, M, 48, NM                       30:05
5  Jonathan Worswick, M, 38, NSW    30:12
6  Scott Gordon, M, 40, NM                30:27
7  Ruth Zollinger, F, 36, UT         30:40
8  Kirk Apt, M, 39, CO                       31:40
9  Tom Hayes, M, 51, MT                   31:59
10 Tyler Curiel, M, 45, TX                  32:41
11 Roch Horton, M, 44, CO                32:59
12 Tom Garrison, M, 43, NM              33:17
13 Blake Wood, M, 42, NM                33:30
14 Betsy Nye, 37, CA                     33:48
15 Tim Cannon, M, 39, CO                34:02
16 Scott Eppelman, M, 35, TX           34:59
17 Scott Mills, M, 50, VA                  35:14
18 John Robinson, M, 36, OR           35:28
19 Elizabeth McGoff, 41, MT        35:47
20 Randy Isler, M, 44, NM               35:51
21 Edward Boggess, M, 43, CO       35:55
22 Todd Salzer, M, 27, CO               36:36
23 Dan Tranel, M, 44, IA                 36:45
24 Charlie Thorn, M, 55, NM          37:42
25 Jeff Holdaway, M, 43, VA            37:43
26 John DeWalt, M, 65, PA              39:52
27 Thomas Knutson, M, 51, MN      39:56
28 Jeff Collins, M, 48, CA                40:00
29 Mike Farris, M, 46, MN              40:07
30 Mike Erlich, M, 38, CO              40:35
31 Joe Prusaitis, M, 47, TX             40:47
32 Mike Price, M, 51, UT         40:51
33 Carl Jess, M, 43, NM                 40:58
33 Keith Baker, M, 47, NM            40:58
33 Kristen Kern, M, 37, NM          40:58
36 Jerry Gray, M, 45, CO                41:04
37 Steve Pero, M, 50, MA               41:14
38 Reinhold Baues, M, 51, OR        41:37
39 Chuck Kroeger, M, 55, CO         42:13
40 Edward Strickland, M, 45, CO     42:42
41 Nigel Finney, M, 55, MN             42:59
42 Kirk Boisseree, M, 44, CA          43:05
43 Steve Pattillo, M, 51, NM            43:11
44 Mike Dobies, M, 40, MI              43:15
45 Don Platt, M, 47, CO                   43:48
46 Murray Schart, M, 42, UT   43:48
47 Kevin Traverner, M, 38, CO       44:27
48 Martin Miller, M, 49, MT           44:29
49 Rickie Redland, F, 47, WY          44:34
50 Dick Curtis, M, 56, CO                44:54
51 Matt Mahoney, M, 46, FL            45:00
52 Eric Hodges, M, 52, CA               45:17
53 Marc Witkes, M, 35, CO              45:21
54 Margaret Heaphy, 46, MT       45:33
54 Mark Heaphy, M, 39, MT           45:33
56 Leslie Trammell, 46, TN         45:40
57 Max Welker, M, 59, WA             45:47
58 Ulrich Kamm, M, 54, CO            46:06
59 Duane Nelson, M, 45, OR           46:21
59 Kerry Collings, M, 52, UT  46:21
61 David King, M, 55, NC               46:36
62 Todd Burgess, M, 32, CO          46:37
63 Rollin Perry, M, 62, IA              46:54
64 Jim Ballard, M, 51, OR              46:55
 

This page last altered on 7/15/01 by Blake P. Wood, bwood@lanl.gov

Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run
Drop List, as of 7 pm Saturday 7/14

Curis Anderson
Duane Arter
Debbie Berner
Bob Boeder
Jim Butera
Joe Clapper
Charlie Dermody
Kathy Donofrio
Wayne Dorband
Rick Felton
Andrea Feucht
Jim Fisher
Susan Gardner
Jan Gnass
Nancy Halpin
Gordon Hardman
Brad Hatten
Lorie Hutchinson
Richard Hypio
Ken Jensen
Sue Johnston
Mich Justin
Ginny LaForme
Emily Loman
Mike Luther
Sherry Mahieu
Scott Mason
Jon MacManus
Ray Menzies
Dan Meyers
Jim Musselman
Chris Nute
Robb Reece
Jim Reed
Deb Reno
Lisa Richardson
William Rideg
Jennifer Roach
Eric Robinson
Bob Ross
Bob Smith
Harry Smith
William Stenzel
Steve Swanson
Kerry Trammell
Randy Wojno
Robert Youngren
*********************
 

Sandy Man's Record Rocks 100 Mile Race
Thursday, July 19, 2001

      BY JANET RAE BROOKS
      THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

          Let others worry about catatonia, hallucinations and leaky capillaries.
          Sandy resident Karl Meltzer lopped almost three hours off the course
      record in decisively winning last weekend's Hardrock Hundred Mile
      Endurance Run in Silverton, Colo. His time: 26 hours, 39 minutes.
          "The Hardrock is the toughest race there is, hands down," said Meltzer,
      who tends bar at Snowbird during ski season. "It's really the beast of all
      beasts. To break the record by three hours is just out of control."
          Hardrock runners climb 33,000 feet through the rugged San Juan
      Mountains of Southern Colorado, scaling five mountain passes over 13,000
      feet and a sixth, Handies Peak, that soars to 14,048 feet. The effort has
      reduced some to near catatonia, caused slower runners to conjure up
      fantasy images, and left others with puffy extremities as fluid from
      oxygen-starved capillaries pools in their hands and feet.
          This year, 65 of 100
      starters finished the
      10th edition of the
      race.
          Betsy Kalmeyer,
      40, of Steamboat
      Springs, Colo., turned
      in a record-setting
      women's performance
      to match Meltzer's.
      Kalmeyer clocked
      29:58, the first woman
      to crack the 30-hour
      mark. She was third
      overall. Salt Lake
      City's Ruth Zollinger,
      36, was the second
      female finisher and
      seventh overall, just 42
 minutes behind Kalmeyer.
          A two-time winner of Utah's Wasatch 100, Meltzer dropped out of the
      Hardrock two years ago at 92 miles. A back injury kept him out of last
      year's race. "Next year," he promised himself, "the Hardrock is mine."
          Meltzer, 33, spent three weeks acclimatizing in Colorado before the
      race, sleeping at night in his truck at 11,700 feet. After top finishes in six
      ultra-marathon events this year, Meltzer knew he was ready. "About two
      weeks before the race," he said, "I just felt like I had springs on my feet."
          Meltzer ran most of the first 56 miles of last week's race with Curt
      Anderson, a former Sandy resident, taking the uphills hard and the
      downhills easy. Hardrock runners are often plagued by hail, snow and
      lightning, but little snow lay on the ground for this year's event. Meltzer ran
      under cloud cover and encountered rain for just "five minutes" at mile 40.
          Anderson, of Evergreen, Colo., helped pull Meltzer over a pass at 48
      miles when the Utah runner was feeling poorly, Meltzer said. But at 56
      miles, Meltzer took the lead on the climb up Handies Peak and never
      looked back.
          "I felt my best from mile 65 to 100," he said. "I felt like I was on a
      training run. I just took off."
          During more than 26 hours of running, Meltzer spent a total of just 19
      minutes at the 11 aid stations on the course. "You don't want to sit down
      because you're just wasting time," he said.
          Instead, he took carbohydrate Goo every half hour and drank Succeed
      electrolyte drink. He splurged on a dozen $2 tubes of JogMate protein gel,
      eating one about every eight miles.
          "I honestly think that JogMate stuff is the ticket," he said. "It's a really
      good recovery product. I only use it in races, though. I'm just a poor
      bartender."
          In a race where practically everyone vomits, Meltzer had no gastric
      problems. "Everything just worked," he said. "My stomach never tweaked.
      I just had no problem with it the whole day."
          Meltzer produced as close to even splits as anyone could expect of a
      100-miler. He ran the first 50 miles in 12:45 and the second half in 13:55.
          Sports Illustrated, National Geographic's Adventure magazine and six
      cameras were waiting for him at the finish line at Silverton High School on
      Saturday morning. Meltzer hung around to watch other finishers, then
      stayed up the entire day. Sunday, he said, his body was "a little sore."
          Kirk Apt of Crested Butte, Colo., who set last year's record of 29:35,
      finished eighth in 31:40.
          Meltzer plans to compete in the Wasatch 100 on Sept. 8. He's the
      course record-holder. "That's the next big dance," he said. And, he said, he
      will definitely be back for next year's Hardrock, held the Friday after the
      Fourth of July. In fact, he plans to make the Hardrock a regular habit. And
      it's not the tough course that attracts him.
          "I'll be back to the Hardrock for the rest of my life," Meltzer said. "That
      course is unbelievable. The wildflowers are beautiful. It's like a 100-mile
      run through the wildflowers."
***************************************************************
 From:  "Blake P. Wood" <bwood@lanl.gov>
 To: <ultra@listserv.dartmouth.edu>
 Date:  7/16/01 5:51PM
 Subject:  Meltzer at Hardrock

 I guess all the Hardrockers are still getting their wits back (I've been falling
 asleep in meetings all day), so I get to be the first to make note of what an
 incredible run Karl Meltzer had.  This has got to be the ultrarunning
 performance of the year!

 When Kirk Apt dropped 35 minutes off my own Hardrock record last year, that
 was a big jump (after all, I had dropped less than 2 minutes off Ricky Denesik's
 record).  Karl dropped nearly THREE HOURS off Kirk's time.  My own pre-run
 bet was that it would take a time in the high 28's to win (which, in fact, Hans
 Put ran to take second - 28:42).  Karl ran 26:39.

 Karl ran the course so fast that he started arriving in aid stations before they
 were open.  He ran so fast that he finished the last 9.6 miles from Cunningham
 20 minutes faster than ANYONE ran it when it was the FIRST leg of the race
 in 2000 (the course switches direction every year).

 The course had a couple significant changes this year, being somewhat
 shorter in Ouray to make up for the somewhat longer descent off Handies
 down Grizzly Gulch, but my opinion (and that of most other runners I talked to)
 was that the changes were a net wash in time, at least to first order.

 Congratulations, Karl!
**********************************************************

 From Runners World web site:  (they got Wasatch Front 100 Miler record incorrect, as usual) and they call Ultrarunners crazed and masochistic, which may be true but they think people who run 100 road marathons a year are not odd enough to call crazed/masochistic - go figure.  Irv

 2001 Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run boasts record times by Gabby Anstey
 On July 13, at 6 a.m. in Silverton, Colorado, over 100 physically fit and mentally determined individuals began the
 2001 Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run through the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado. By July 15th,  at 6 a.m., in the same spot, only 65 had crossed the finish line. The hundred mile course got the best of some but
 brought out the best in others as many new records were set this year.
      The Hardrock, now 10 years old, is one of the toughest and most challenging of 100-mile endurance runs. The
 course covers over 33,000 feet of climbing; hovers at an average elevation of 11,006 feet; and touches down in the
 historic alpine mining towns of Silverton, Ophir, Telluride, Ouray and Lake City. The race, held primarily on trails and jeep roads, is a tribute to the hardrock miners who once called the area home.
      Although runners have a total of 48 hours -- through two nights straight -- to complete the course, front runners
 usually finish in around 30 hours. This year a new record was set that crushed all former records. Karl Meltzer, 33, of Sandy, Utah completed the 100 miles in 26 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds, blasting the previous record of 29
 hours, 35 minutes, set last year by Kirk Apt, 39, of Crested Butte.
      "I don't even know what to say really," said Meltzer. "I don't think I could have had a day any better than this."
      Meltzer ran the Hardrock in 1999 but dropped out at mile 92. In 2000, he registered but couldn't compete due to a
 back injury. His strategy this year, learned from experience, was to conserve energy on the downhills and run the
 uphills as hard as possible. Meltzer is also the course record holder for Utah's Wasatch 100 at 20 hours, eight
 seconds, set in 1998.
      The women's field reached new heights at this year's Hardrock as Betsy Kalmeyer, 40, of Steamboat Springs
 finished in 29 hours, 58 minutes. No woman has ever completed the Hardrock course in under 30 hours. Kalmeyer
 was the first female finisher and third overall.
      "I never thought I'd be able to run the course this fast," said Kalmeyer. "No way." This was Kalmeyer's fourth
 Hardrock. She was the second female finisher last year and the first in 1996.
      Ultrarunners are a unique breed and the Hardrock attracts a special group of those slightly crazed and somewhat
 masochistic individuals. The event brings together a handful of men and women willing to sacrifice a night or two of
 sleep and grind their muscles into the ground in order to bask in the beauty of the San Juan mountains and celebrate
 the astounding capabilities of the human body. "This is a great race," said Kalmeyer. "It's definitely painful but it's
 worth it. "