Courtney Dauwalter had to overcome a little adversity to defend her title in the Hardrock Hundred Endurance Run this weekend.

“This race is really tough on your best day,” she said.

Dauwalter, however, wasn’t having her best day on Friday when the race started in Silverton.

“I didn’t feel very good for the first 60 miles,” she said. “I was looking for my legs, hoping they would jump on board.”

Aurelien Dunand-Pallaz of France took an early lead in the race and never let it go, eventually winning the overall title in 23 hours and 7 seconds.

A different French runner, Anne-Lise Rousset Seguret, however, was running just ahead of Dauwalter and had the women’s lead for about half of the race.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday, 13.5 hours into the race, Dauwalter was .2 miles behind Rousset Seguret and in ninth overall.

In the next half hour, however, Dauwalter ran a tough 2.27 miles to pass Rousset Seguret and two other runners to move into sixth overall.

“Things started to click,” Dauwalter said. “Everyone was riding their own roller coaster, but I felt I could move more efficiently.”

She continued to push and passed a couple more runners. When she crossed the finish line at 8:14 a.m. on Saturday, Dauwalter had set a new counterclockwise record in the race: 26:14:08.

“I feel really wrecked right now, which makes the finish even more special,” she said afterward.

Diana Finkel previously set the women’s counterclockwise record of 27:18.24 in 2009. Francois d’Haene holds the men’s counterclockwise record of 21:45:50, which he set in 2021.

Dauwalter also set the women’s clockwise record last year: 26:44:36, as did Kilian Jornet for the men (21:36:24).

Dauwalter ended up finishing fourth overall out of the 145 entrants from 25 states and 11 foreign countries. Dauwalter, who is from Minnesota and now lives in Leadville, was also the first American to finish.

Benat Marsmissole of France finished second in 23:50:06.

Javier Dominguez of Spain crossed third, just ahead of Dauwalter in 26:12.01.

Arlen Glick of Ohio was the top American male finisher, placing fifth in 26:43:05.

Jeff Browning of Arizona, who was running in his seventh Hardrock, finished sixth overall in 27:17:02.

“This is probably the hardest 100-miler, in my opinion,” Browning said. “It’s beautiful, but it’s so big and really hard. What keeps me coming back is trying to figure out each direction; they’re totally different courses.”

The race, which starts and ends in Silverton, switches directions every year from clockwise to counterclockwise.

Rousset Seguret was the next finisher in seventh overall (27:29:55).

At press time, 16 runners had also completed the Hardrock, including two who got to run through hometowns: Chris Price of Ouray and Sam Ritchie of Silverton.

Paul Terranova of Twin Lakes crossed eighth in 27:54:50, followed by Utah’s Brain Culmo (28:57:09) and Mark Hammond (29:54:16). Dylan Bowman of Oregon finished 11th in 30:25:40.

Price finished 12th in 30:46:11.

Annie Hughes of Leadville was the third woman to finish, placing 13th overall in 32:13:03.

Jose Cruz of Utah finished 14th in 32:16:44.

Collins crossed 15th in 33:05:57.

Sam Ritchie of Boulder finished 16th in 33:32:07.

The runners have until 6 a.m. Sunday to reach the finish line. Drew Gunn of Durango had run 80 miles, but hadn’t moved in an hour. Anthony Culpepper of Durango was in 94th place, 77.26 miles in.

Twenty other runners had been dropped, including Steve McClung of Durango and Howie Stern of Silverton.

Complete results are available at https://www.opensplittime.org/events/hardrock-100-2023/spread.

The first Hardrock was in 1992. With the event having to be canceled four times, this year marked the event’s 28th edition.

The event had 2,414 qualified applicants in the lottery for the 2023 run, including 1,939 men and 475 women (19.7%). Based on the percentage of women who applied, the event selected 117 men and 29 women (19.9%) to compete in the 2023 edition.

The top-six states running in the 2023 Hardrock are Colorado (47), California (12), New Mexico (10), Utah (9), Washington (7) and Oregon (6).

This year’s starting field of 145 had 354 finishes between them. The event also had 72 first-time Hardrockers in the field (49%).

The oldest entrant taking on the challenge is Drew Meyer (76). Liz Bauer, 64, is the oldest female in the field.

Hughes, 25, was the youngest entrant while Dunand-Pallaz, 30, was the youngest male in the race.