Finishers list link
WASATCH 100 ENDURANCE COURSE BLISTERS RUNNERS
....submitted to Ultrarunning Magazine
Authored by John Moellmer
The race started at 5 a.m. Saturday in the Wasatch Mountain Foothills and ended at 5 p.m. Sunday at The Homestead resort.  Much can happen in those 36 hours.  Sometimes runners can blister a course, but this year, the opposite was the rule.  This year’s Wasatch was one the hottest on record resulting in a finishing rate of only 131 finishers out of 230 starters (57%).  In mid-afternoon, the temperature under the awning at the Alexander Ridge Aid Station was in the 90°s.  One tough run - and yet many tough runners!   It was a day of drinking water and consuming salt capsules.  Runners entered into aid stations with streaks of salt down their faces and shirts.  Phil Lowry remarked that it felt like July, running through the night at 9,000 and 10,000 feet in a sleeveless shirt and shorts.  

About a hundred runners dropped out of the race, most often quoting dehydration and blisters.  One runner was overhead saying that he was dropping out of the race because he “ran out of fun tickets”.  Often, the majority of runners drop out at Upper Big Water, at the 60 mile point.  This year, because of the high temperatures, the carnage was happening at Alexander Ridge and Lambs canyon, near half way on the course.

Nevertheless, some folks were able to run quickly through the heat.  Karl Meltzer had an outstanding day winning in the second fastest time ever (20 hours, 6 minutes), his fourth Wasatch Finish.  Tim Spence was second in a sub 24 hour race (22:42) with Dave Hunt close behind (22:45), just 50 yards at one point. The first woman was Krissy Moehl Sybrowsky who finished under 24 hours (23:49).  This was Krissy’s first 100 mile endurance run!  Ruth Zollinger also had a good race coming in as second woman (28:23).  

Only a few runners can be in the top of the pack.  But the real heroes in Wasatch are the “middle of the pack” runners who may not have run a 100 before but are willing to give it a go.  The challenges that many runners face to just finish are varied, but often boil down to “gutting it out”.  Injuries and injuries, however can force any runner to not finish.  

Wendy Holdaway, after three previous DNFs finished this year’s run in a time of 35:42.  Previously, blisters and injuries kept Wendy from finishing.  But this year, her fourth try was the charm.  Wendy was quoted as saying, "I'm very stubborn, and I do not accept failure well.”  Maybe, too, having her 73-year old father finish the race last year helped her motivation.  (Grant Holdaway finished last year with less than two minutes remaining to the cheers and tears of runners and spectators).  After her finish, Wendy was heard to say, “Never again”.  Well, yea, perhaps.  How many ultra runners have made that comment once or twice (or more)?

Each year, the race committee gives the “Spirit of the Wasatch” award to a person who exemplifies the ideal of excellence that Wasatch celebrates.  The award went this year to Huguette White, who served as a crew member for Dan Brenden (30:20:01).  Huguette, who has lost a leg and part of her lungs and liver, makes it up with an incredible spirit.  During the run, Huguette moved about the aid stations on crutches helping and supporting other runners and their families.  It is reported that she remembers everyone’s names and how they did.  Her upbeat attitude, personal attention to the runners, and good nature was an inspiration to all.  At the post race awards ceremony, she was called forward to accept the Spirit of the Wasatch award.

A special note must be made about Rick Gates (33:08) who has more finishes than any other runner at Wasatch.  Twenty times over Rick has run the course.  As this year’s race was the 25th anniversary of Wasatch, and Rick has more history, more experience and more bragging rights than any other participant.  Our hats are off to Rick Gates.

It was tough not only on the runners, but RD John Grobben who stayed up all night directing the run, handling problems, and greeting nearly every runner who finished.  Since directing the run since 1986, John has made it a point that whenever possible, runners are greeted at the finish line with a handshake or hug.

The Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance run is also the time when participants in the “Grand Slam” are awarded.  This year, 21 runners finished the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning by completing the Western States, Vermont, Leadville and Wasatch Front 100 mile trail runs this summer.    

The Royal Order of the Crimson Cheetah ceremony is also a part of the awards ceremony.  Variously described as “bizarre, insane, or appalling” this ceremony celebrates runners who finish the race under 24 hours.  There were 7 such runners subjected to the ritual under the direction of Irv Nielson, a long time race committee member, best known for placing rocks on the trails for the length of the course.   The Crimson Cheetah’s this year were Karl Meltzer, Tim Spence, David Hunt, Richard McDonald, Chad Carson, Jeff Browing, and Krissy Moehl Sybrowsky.   In addition to runners finishing less than 24 hours, there are those who are recognized for special contribution to the run with the title, “Honorary Crimson Cheetah”.  Stephanie Killian received this award for her years of work at the finish line.  

So another Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run concludes.  This was a particularly difficult year with the heat.  But as one runner said when dropping out with dehydration problems, “I wouldn’t have signed up for this run if it were a slam dunk.  I’ll be back”.  Every runner of the Wasatch 100 has the respect of those who have participated in this grueling event.  We too will be back.
Meltzer wins his 4th Wasatch Front 100 race

100 of the 230 runners failed to finish

By Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News

      MIDWAY — The fourth time was a charm for Karl Meltzer and Wendy Holdaway.
      The two were among 230 runners who started the 25th annual Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run, which started at 5 a.m. Saturday and ended at 5 p.m. Sunday at The Homestead resort.
      Meltzer once again blistered the mountain trails with a time of 20 hours, 6 minutes and 8 seconds, making it his fourth Wasatch 100 victory and his 25th ultramarathon
win.
      With Meltzer, 36, you expect him to be in front of the pack.
      Holdaway, 49, had tried to simply finish the race three times before. Not one to accept defeat easily, she came back for a fourth try and was practically forced by pacer Troy Marsh to finish.
      With only 18 minutes separating Holdaway from missing the 36-hour official cutoff, she crossed the line arm in arm with her 73-year-old father Grant, who finished last year with just two minutes to spare.
      This year's nail-biter finishes came from Julie Nelson, 35:57.48 and Joe Hayes, 35:58.59.
      "Never again," Wendy Holdaway said after the race.
      Who could blame her decisiveness after enduring daytime running conditions of temperatures in the high 90s.
      "It was tough," said John Grobben, who has greeted almost every finisher with a handshake or hug since he took over the job of race director in 1986.
      There were nearly 100 runners who started but did not finish. The word "dehydration" kept appearing on a list of reasons why so many declared "DNF" on a race form.
      Meltzer "noticed" the heat, but he was careful to stay hydrated, avoiding the fate that met him in a July 100-miler where he threw up blood.
      He was ready for Wasatch, having taken the summer off from his bartending job at the Snowbird ski resort to put in 110-mile training weeks.
      "I think it paid off," Meltzer said while nursing a beer after the race.
      For many, running — and finishing — the Wasatch 100 is about learning from past ultra mistakes.
      During this year's race Michele Harmon, 38, took electrolyte tablets every 30 minutes to 45 minutes. In July 2002, Harmon was running an ultra in Vermont and ended up in a coma for five days — too much water and/or not enough salt in her system.
      Harmon finished the Wasatch 100 in 33:38:06, well behind the top female runner, Krissy Moehl Sybrowsky, 23:49.47.
      Sybrowsky became the fifth woman ever to finish the Wasatch in under 24 hours — it was also her first 100-miler.
      "I was lucky the heat didn't kill me," she said after the race.
      Sybrowsky's pacer, Roch Horton, talked her through a rough stretch. "I just couldn't move forward," she said. Horton told her a story about how his mother moved to Ecuador, which turned out to be the right distraction for Sybrowsky.
      It also helps that her husband is Brandon Sybrowsky, who even on a bad day manages to post strong Wasatch finishes — this year's time was 27:25.18. When he's not away somewhere being an archaeologist, Sybrowsky runs with his wife.
      "It's our quality time we spend together," he said. They ran the first 62 miles of the Wasatch 100 together before wife left husband in her dust.
      Covered in dust after sliding down scree slopes on the course, Ron Cunningham, 55, sat alone on the grass after the race, tending his achy feet. This was his third Wasatch finish, 33:06.39.
      "It was the toughest one yet," he said.
      Cunningham was one of a handful of runners in the country who finished the "Grand Slam" of ultra marathons, which includes 100 mile races in California, Colorado and Vermont all in one year.
      Any finisher of the Wasatch 100 has well-deserved bragging rights, but probably not 20 times over. With a time of 33:08.29, Rick Gates, 47, posted his 20th Wasatch finish this year — now that's tough.

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com

Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run

By Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News

      She plays for the National Symphony of Mexico — So, there's no denying Wendy Holdaway knows how to work a bassoon.
      Going before an audience still gives her an adrenaline rush.
      So does running 100 miles through the mountains, she says in the same breath.       Problem is, Holdaway hasn't quite been able to figure out how to work her body to finish the annual Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run.
      Yet there's something that keeps Holdaway coming back for more — The Sept. 11 race will be her fourth try.
      "I'm very stubborn, and I do not accept failure well," she said.
      That's part of what it takes to finish this race.
      But nasty blisters and dislocated kneecaps have kept Holdaway from reaching her goal, one her 73-year-old father from Vineyard has already achieved.
      Last year, Grant Holdaway was the guy who finished with less than two minutes remaining on the 36-hour clock runners have in order to post an official finish. His accomplishment was marked by agony and elation, a moment so dramatic that onlookers were cheering and crying at the same time.
      If bad weather hadn't held up Wendy Holdaway along the course, she might have made it in 2003.
      Both Holdaways are back for more this year.
      So are others, like Troy Schultz, Paul Gillmore, Larry Denyf and Mindy Niitsuma. These are other runners who, like Wendy Holdaway, have tried Wasatch but have never finished.
      They're not sponsored by shoe and apparel companies or sports drink manufacturers like those who finish ultramarathons in front of the pack.
      This year's men's race, for example, features last year's overall winner Karl Meltzer, along with Wasatch 100 course-record holder Nate McDowell, six-time Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run winner Scott Jurek, two-time Wasatch 100 winner Leland Barker and the always threatening Brandon Sybrowsky.
      "We're going to have a heck of a men's race," said race director John Grobben.
      On the women's side, Laura Vaughan is expected to be a contender for a sixth win in the female division, but familiar names of past winners are lacking this year.
      "There's a bunch of women we've never heard of that could come out and surprise us," said Cindy Andrus, one of the race organizers.
      Most runners, however, will be glad with just a finish.
      "When you finish, you've got that feeling you can do anything," said Andrus, who was the top female finisher in 1985.
      One thing that drives people who haven't finished to keep coming back, she added, is that they simply like spending a weekend running in the mountains. They're what Andrus calls "good people" who view the Wasatch 100 as a "social event."
      "They just need to finish it one time," she said.
      Wendy Holdaway flew from Mexico City back to her hometown in Utah County in early August for several early-morning mountain runs. She describes points along the last 13 miles of the Wasatch 100 course as "god-awful," washed out areas where there's less trail and more places to sprain an ankle or fall.
      But she's focused and determined, two words that will appear on T-shirts she and her patient husband/artist, Alejandro Flores, will be giving to members of her "dream team" crew.
      Then there's the familial rivalry — her father, who also finished in 2000, will be running, along with her brother Jeffrey, a five-time finisher, and a cousin.
      She's also put 100-mile and 50-mile finishes under her belt since last year. Confidence is high. Aside from all of that, "I'm tired of getting up at 4:30 in the morning," she said.
      Time for Holdaway to finish this "(bleep)" race —
 or this stubborn woman will force herself to do it all
 again next year.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
WASATCH 100: THREE BOTTLE RACE
    Having played many times in studio orchestras recording film soundtracks, I am a big fan of film music.  One of my favorite tracks is One Barrel Chase from John Williams’ Jaws.  That track came through my MP3 during Wasatch this year, a race whose theme should have been Three Bottle Race.
    I have never carried three bottles all day at Wasatch.  Never.  Some years I would carry three bottles between Big Mountain and Lambs’ canyon, the hottest stretch of the course.  But never in other places.
    This year was different.  The weather gods, who for the last six years have blessed the race with cool fall temperatures and/or rain, played a nasty trick on the race this year and dispatched record heat.  Temperatures under aid station awnings reached into the 90s.
    The day before the race I stopped by REI and got a hand bottle to supplement my two-bottle fanny pack.  Good call. Drank every drop, and didn’t ditch the third bottle until the sun slipped behind the Nevada mountains, barley visible from the Wasatch crest at sunset.  
More remarkable still was running through the night at 9,000 and 10,000 feet.   In a sleeveless shirt and shorts.  It felt like July.  No fireworks, though.  Just a lot of vomit.  In fact, the RD, John Grobben, posed a question to my sleep-deprived self at the finish line: “You have a murder of crows.  A pod of whales.  What is a group of ultraunners?  A vomit.”  Yep.  I choked mine down at Mile 69, but only by the hardest.
    Which makes this year’s finish, my ninth, especially sweet.  I hate the heat, but it didn’t beat me.  When I finally crawled into cool Lamb’s Canyon at 6:00, I ripped off my sweat-encrusted shirt and screamed back at the hot, sun-drenched hills behind me, “I win!”  A hubristic epithet that was blessed to be prophetic.  My luck.  The day’s mantra was Latin:  Bibo.  Commingo.  Accurro. (I drink. I pee.  I run.)
    So goes Wasatch.  Next year bring your snow pants and moon boots.  ‘Cause, just like that old villain in Jaws, just when you thought it was safe to run a 100 . . . Dum . . . . .Dee Dum . . . . Dum Dee Dum . . . Dee Dum Dee Dum . . . Dee Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum DEE Dum Dee Dum DEE Dum . . . . .
Phil Lowry
******************************************************************************************
 Thanks to the encouragement of our friends Huguette and I completed the
Grand Slam on Sunday.  It culminated a year long effort of preparing for
and running the grueling four 100 mile races in 11 weeks.  But what I am
most proud and of much greater consequence than completing the grand slam
was Huguette s continuing inspiration during this time.  Huguette does not
tell the story so I want to share it with you.  Huguette received the
Spirit of the Wasatch award during the ceremony following the last
run.  This is an award given each year to the person who most represents
the ideals and goals of the Wasatch 100 Front run.  For a person who has
one leg, has to use crutches to get around I find it pretty amazing.  But
I wasn t surprised.

Her life has been a journal chronicled by no less significant
accomplishments.  Briefly, two times in her life doctors gave her less
than 6 months to live.  Upon beating the odds she said "I lost my leg,
part of my lungs and liver but not my spirit" amazingly brave for a 16
year old girl whose life had just been changed forever.

The grand slam began with the Western States 100 mile run.  That is always
such a pleasant run. Mary and Greg Soderlund and the entire Western States
organization go out of their way to accommodate Huguette and make the
event more than just a run but a revered experience for everyone.  The
most memorable moment of the entire run was after carrying Huguette over
the finish line, I glanced at Mary who was on the sideline cheering and
clapping for us, her smile lightened the morning.   We have a neat picture
of the moment.

Just two weeks before the Leadville 100, the third grand slam stage,
Huguette s crutches slipped in spilled water on a tiled floor.  She was
quite seriously injured; suffering a concussion, broken teeth, stitches on
her chin and numerous other bruises.  As she lie in pain at the hospital,
unable to speak because of a suspected broken jaw, she got word to me that
the fall was not going to deter our Slam Resolve .  She rallied as
promised, put new gripping on her crutches, left her wheel chair at the
airport in Phoenix and we were off to Leadville

In Leadville, Mary Lee, the race director, gave Huguette an official pass
to park close to the aid stations so she didn t have to walk far and could
crew. This was a great help.  But only 12 miles into the run one of my
prior injuries dramatically resurfaced.   At mile 25 I told Huguette that
we need to talk.  It was heartbreaking to consider that we might have to
drop out of the run and ruin our slam aspirations.   Ahead, were 75 tough
miles and two crossings of a 12,600 foot high mountain in rain and
sleet.   As I limped out of the aid station in pain but well bandaged,
Huguette told me I have a good feeling, you are very tough, go get them
Tiger .  I finished in about 67th place out of 660 entrants.  Of course I
spent half an hour on oxygen after the run and couldn't walk but that was
OK.  I needed a wheeled carrier at the airport, Huguette didn't.

At Wasatch, the last race, during the day before the start there was a
steady stream of runners, Hans, Cantra and others visiting with her and
hugging.  The run was 100 miles of heaven and hell.  I tease Huguette that
when I finished the run, race director, John Grobben, told me how Huguette
was the "Doll of Wasatch"; he nearly forgot that I just completed running
my heart out for 30 hours and accomplishing the biggest running goal of my
life.  Later I find out from others that Scott Jurek became quite ill
during the race. Huguette was so sad to see him that way and thought in
her words that poor thing .  She tried to think of a way to help him so
she went through her supplies and found some vitamin c fizzy
stuff.  Remembering that I had successfully used it in earlier runs she
gave it to Scott s wife hoping it would help.  It is kind of ironic that
probably the top ultrarunner in the world is being assisted through a run
by a person who can't take a step without crutches.  But after further
thought, maybe the two of them were like pieces of a puzzle fitting
together for that instant in time.  The top physically tuned ultrarunner
and the top mentally tough "ultrarunner at heart" working together to rise
above a despairing moment.  I have found that Huguette is always there for
me but she has assisted and comforted so many runners and their families
accomplish their dreams through these runs as well.

There are many things that I don't discover until after these runs and
some of her contributions I will never learn.  She doesn t say much about
them.  They all involve other people but the story and outcome is always
the same.  She incredibly remembers everyone s names, how they feel and
she makes it better.

I've learned a lot from this special person.  Huguette is one great
ultrarunner at heart and I know that there are many others with equally
inspiring stories.  I have discovered that great ultrarunners are not
always defined by their elapsed time.

One of the most valid measures of our success is that when a child,
coworker or spouse gives us their approval.  For Huguette she was
gratified at the beginning and again at the end of the event.  In the
early morning darkness at the beginning of the run, only feet from the
starting line, Hans gave her a simple yet heartfelt kiss on her right
cheek.  At the finish of the run, after all the runners had arrived
safely, she was so touched by the thoughtfulness of others when she
accepted the Spirit of the Wasatch award so that she could share it with
others.
Dan Brenden
I compliment John Grobben and the Wasatch Board for recognizing one of the
finer aspects of this great sport.  Maybe we can all share the Spirit of
the Wasatch as we prepare for our next challenge whatever that may be.