Dale Garland, race director of the Hardrock Hundered Mile Endurance Run, oversaw the completion of another successful race this weekend in Silverton.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file
Kilian Jornet, left, of Spain, and Jason Schlarb, of Durango, celebrate on Saturday in Silverton after they tied for first place in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Dale Garland, co-founder of the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday, has made it a practice to greet every runner who finishes the race in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Xavier Thevenard, of France, crosses the the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run claiming third place on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jason Schlard, of Durango, with pacer Paul Hamilton make their way up Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Emma Roca makes her way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of Dunedin, NZL, makes her way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Xavier Thevenard, front, and Kilian Jornet, and a pacer make their way up Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Xavier Thevenard, of France, feels the effects of the the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run after claiming third place on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Emma Roca makes her way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The media and crowd gather around to ask questions of Kilian Jornet, of France, and Jason Schlarb, of Durango, and hear them talk about the race on Saturday in Silverton after they tied for first place in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jason Schlarb, of Durango, hugs Kilian Jornet, of Spain, on Saturday in Silverton after they tied for first place in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jason Schlard, of Durango, makes his way up Bear Creek Trail with his pacer on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Xavier Thevenard, front, and Kilian Jornet, and a pacer make their way up Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jason Schlard, of Durango, makes his way up Bear Creek Trail with his pacer on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jeff Browning makes his way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The media and crowd gather around to ask questions of Kilian Jornet, of Spain, and Jason Schlarb, of Durango, and hear them talk about the race on Saturday in Silverton after they tied for first place in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of Dunedin, NZL, makes her way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jason Schlarb, of Durango, and Kilian Jornet, of Spain, kiss the finishers rock on Saturday in Silverton after they tied for first place in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Joe Grant makes his way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Nick Clark makes his way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Jason Schlarb, left, of Durango, and Kilian Jornet, of France, cross the finish line hand in hand in Silverton on Saturday as they tie for first place in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Troy Howard makes his way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of Dunedin, NZL, makes her way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Ryan Kaiser makes his way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Troy Howard makes his way up to Bear Creek Trail on Friday afternoon while competing in the Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Emma Roca, of Spain, crosses the finish line with her children as she finishes second in the women’s Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of NZL, and Durango, is congratulated by a large crowd gathered as she wins the women’s Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of NZL, and Durango, is congratulated by a large crowd gathered as she wins the women’s Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of NZL, and Durango,kisses the finishers rock as she wins the women’s Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Anna Frost, of NZL, and Durango, relaxes and answers in front of the finishers rock after winning the women’s Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
“I have nothing left,” said Emma Roca, of Spain, after crossing the finish line for second place in the women’s Hard Rock 100 Endurance Run on Saturday in Silverton. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>When Blake Wood kissed the rock in 1999, he completed a new course record of the Hardrock 100 in 30 hours, 10 seconds.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>An important part of Blake Wood's 1999 Hardrock 100 win came when he was able to pay tribute at the Joel Zucker Memorial on Grant-Swamp Pass. Zucker died following the run the previous year.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>Blake Wood's Hardrock 100 journey has been made possible by his loving family for 20 years now.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>The view of Island Lake is capitavting every year for Blake Wood. He took this shot above the basin in 2014.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>Blake Wood always runs the Hardrock 100 with a smile on his face. Here, he is pictured running up Shrine Road in 1994.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>The Telluride aid station has been kind to Blake Wood through the years, including this stop in 1998.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>A decade ago, Blake Wood prepared to start the race alongside Tyler Curiel. Ten years later, there's no slowing Wood.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>Through the years, uncluding the 2001 race, Blake Wood has had to conquer many obstacles en route to the Hardrock 100 finish.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>Blake Wood's style has changed since 1996, but the view of Grant Swamp Pass remains the same.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>Blake Wood celebrated the turn of the century in 2000 with yet another Hardrock 100 start.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>The Hardrock 100 was still largely a mystery to Blake Wood when he ran his first race in 1994. It was only the third running of the event.
Courtesy of Blake Wood<br>Blake Wood's running career has no end in sight, as he continues to crush big runs such as the Hardrock 100. This shot is from his finish in 2014, and he's going for No. 20 this year.
One-hundred and fifty-two runners from seven countries departed Silverton School Gymnasium at 6 a.m. Friday. Within 48 hours later, 114 of them returned to kiss the finisher’s rock.
Exactly 75 percent of the field finished the 2016 Hardrock Hundred Endurance Run, the 23rd running of the 100-mile run through the San Juan Mountains at an average elevation of more than 11,000 feet.
The race saw an incredible finish with Spain’s Kilian Jornet and Durango’s Jason Schlarb finishing hand-in-hand as co-champions. They kissed the rock in 22 hours, 58 minutes as the only two men to ever run the course in less than 23 hours. Jornet previously had accomplished the same feat in 2014 running the same clockwise direction, and he has now won three consecutive Hardrock titles.
The women’s race was won by New Zealand’s Anna Frost for the second year in a row. Frost, who now resides in Durango, finished in 29:02 and was eighth overall for the second consecutive year.
Celebrated every bit as much as the winners were the other 111 finishers, including Kotaro Oikawa of Japan, who at 36 years old finished 113th in 48:25, and 57-year-old Liz Bauer of South Carolina, who was the last to kiss the rock in 48:30. Typically, the race has a cutoff time of 48 hours, but the final two runners avoided being swept off the course at an aid station and were celebrated along with all the other finishers.
Hitting a Hardrock milestone was Blake Wood of Los Alamos. The 57-year-old completed his 20th Hardrock 100 and finished 41st overall in 38:30.
Wood, who serves as the vice president on the Hardrock’s board of directors, was happy to report the quad tendon he had completely torn before the 2015 race didn’t bother him at all, and his time was actually only 10 minutes slower than his first Hardrock 22 years earlier.
“I really wanted to get in before dark so that my granddaughters would still be awake to see me finish,” Wood said in an email to The Durango Herald. “I did that. My youngest daughter, Margaret, who was 4 when she ran across the finish line with me 22 years ago, this year paced me the final 42 miles to the finish – through the night and over Handies Peak – her longest run ever. It was a good weekend.”
The only other man with 20 finishes, Kirk Apt of Fruita, also finished for the 22nd time. The 54-year-old was 71st overall in 42:47.
Betsy Nye of California also hit a milestone with her 15th Hardrock finish at the age of 51. She finished 38th overall in 38:23. After the run, she said she executed a perfect race.
Durango’s Drew Gunn finished 26th overall. The 42-year-old crossed in 36:05 for his fifth career Hardrock finish.
This year’s oldest finisher was 67-year-old Eric Hodges of California. He finished 86th overall in 44:34. Two 66-year-olds, Roger Jansen and John Koester also finished the race in 90th (44:56) and 101st overall (46:37), respectively.
