Last updated: 15-Nov-18
Kilian Jornet of Spain and Jason Schlarb of the USA have jointly won the infamous Hardrock 100 which set off at 6 am MDT on Friday. Their time was 22hrs 59. The two champions ran over the finish line hands raised and embraced.
Hardrock 100 is one of the original and most remote and wild of the mountain ultras. This race is a looped 100.5 miles of dirt trails along the San Juan Range of Southern Colorado (USA) with a total elevation of 67,984 feet. Starting at 6am, the cut off time for the race is 48 hours. Runners cover extremely rugged terrain, steep scree climbs and descents, snow, river crossing and boulder fields.
Alternating between clockwise and anticlockwise every year, this extremely challenging course leads participants from Silverado through the towns of Telluride, Ouray and Sherman and back, crossing 13 major passes in the mountain range.
Schlarb took 4th place at UTMB in 2015 and wants to podium this year. “That is a very high ambition for an American runner!” he told RunUltra just after running MdS as an Ambassador for I Run 4 Hope to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s and ADHD, “One of our difficulties is that our mountains just aren’t as steep. We have the Rockies, but they are more characterized by switch backs and there are trails there for mountain bikers and hikers whereas the Dolomites and the Alps are really sheer. I really attribute my fourth place to the fact that I went to Europe for three months to train. It made all the difference. This time I am hoping to do that again but just for six to seven weeks.”
Congratulations to both men and all the competitors in this tough mountain ultra.
