It used to be, Ludovic Pommeret (pre-race interview) mentioned, a dream when he kissed the rock on the finish of the 2024 Hardrock 100. He completed his lap across the San Juan Mountains of Colorado with a brand new total route list of 21:33:06, breaking Kilian Jornet’s earlier list, set in 2022, via simply over 3 mins. Pommeret, a 48-year-old Frenchman, led nearly wire-to-wire in a commanding model.
“I dream the entire day,” Pommeret mentioned on the iconic rock-kissing end simply previous 3:30 a.m. native time on Saturday, July 13, 2024. “The nightmare by no means got here.”
Neither did it come for the ladies’s winner Courtney Dauwalter (pre-race interview), who turns out to redefine what’s conceivable in ultrarunning each and every time she ft the road. Dauwalter gained the ladies’s race in 26:11:49, atmosphere a brand new total ladies’s route list, breaking her personal mark of 26:14:12 set ultimate 12 months as the second one race of her historical Western States 100-Hardrock 100-UTMB triple. That implies Dauwalter, who additionally led necessarily wire-to-wire, has set a route list the previous 3 times she’s run and owns the quickest 3 ladies’s occasions.
Courtney Dauwalter early within the 2024 Hardrock 100, on her technique to a 3rd victory at this race in course-record time. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
However sooner than the 2 champions were given again to the rock, there used to be a large number of working to do. At 6 a.m. native time on Friday, July 12, 146 runners prompt within the predawn darkness below the watchful gaze of the San Juan Mountains in Silverton, Colorado, to start one of the well-known, onerous, and scenically surprising 100-mile races on the earth.
The Hardrock 100, well-known for its problem and selectiveness, is a 102.5-mile trek that includes greater than 33,000 toes of elevation acquire and a median elevation of eleven,000 toes throughout the rugged San Juans. It alternates instructions once a year, and this 12 months’s race went clockwise. Beginning within the small mining the town of Silverton, runners made their technique to Telluride sooner than proceeding directly to Ouray and close to Lake Town after which returned to Silverton to kiss the long-lasting rock. The route, ceaselessly impacted via snow, used to be most commonly snow-free this 12 months, and temperatures vacillated between sub-40 levels and 80 levels Fahrenheit all over the day and night time.
“It’s 100 miles. It’s massive mountains. It’s altitude,” Dauwalter mentioned in her pre-race interview with iRunFar. “So, journey is assured needless to say.”
Learn on for extra information about that journey.
Thanks such a lot to Tailwind for sponsoring iRunFar’s protection of the 2024 Hardrock 100!
Thank you additionally to Fractel for sponsoring our race protection.
2024 Hardrock 100 Girls’s Race
Getting into the race, it used to be truthful to surprise what drove Courtney Dauwalter (pre-race interview) to go back to the development once more. During the last two years, she’d gained two times and set route data in each instructions. However she used to be again, she mentioned throughout her pre-race interview with iRunFar, as a result of she nonetheless felt that she had left one thing at the route.
“I’m again as a result of all of my runs right here have had simply actually vital chunks of time that had been spent in very low puts,” she mentioned. “I would like to take a look at to easy out the ones lows just a bit bit, and notice if I will be able to get round that route with no need such a lot of massive hours.” And whilst she struggled with abdomen problems for one of the crucial moment part of the run, she nonetheless reset the full route list, breaking her earlier clockwise list via greater than half-hour.
Dauwalter, who gained the Transgrancanaria 126k and the Mt. Fuji 100 Mile already this 12 months, is so constantly dominant that her wins in primary ultras can appear to be a foregone conclusion. However Hardrock is rarely simple, and she or he nonetheless needed to quilt the 100-plus miles and 33,000-plus toes of elevation acquire. As soon as once more, she did it sooner than any girl ever had sooner than her, together with herself.
Katharina Hartmuth and Courtney Dauwalter taking part in the early miles of the 2024 Hardrock 100. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
France’s Camille Bruyas (pre-race interview) and Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth (pre-race interview) posed the most important demanding situations to Dauwalter. Each had completed moment via Dauwalter at UTMB in 2021 and 2023, respectively, and each had spent the previous couple of weeks within the U.S. acclimating to the top elevations and finding out the terrain. Whilst Dauwalter had opened a small hole on Bruyas on the Kamm Traverse help station (mile 11) and maintained it via Chapman at mile 18, via Telluride at mile 28, Bruyas had closed the distance and got here via within the co-lead with Dauwalter, two mins below route list tempo.
Dauwalter slowly started to drag away — 5 mins up at Kroger’s Canteen at mile 33 and 6 mins via Ouray at mile 44 — sooner than making a robust transfer to extend her lead over Bruyas to 31 mins via mile 52. At that time, simply over midway, it used to be Dauwalter, adopted via Bruyas, Hartmuth, Tara Dower (pre-race interview), and France’s Claire Bannwarth rounding out the highest 5.
Katharina Hartmuth runs into the city of Ouray on her technique to taking 3rd on the 2024 Hardrock 100. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
From there, Dauwalter endured to run on my own. Smiling and shifting impulsively in a vibrant yellow blouse, she used to be 18 mins below course-record tempo via Animas Forks help station at mile 58, making fast paintings of the help station and selecting up her pacer.
One of the crucial few indicators of fatigue she confirmed all race used to be on the Sherman help station at mile 73, after mountaineering and descending from Handies Top, the route’s top level at 14,058 toes. She stayed for 5 mins to relaxation and refuel sooner than working on into the darkish. By way of Maggie Gulch at mile 87, she used to be just about an hour below course-record tempo and seemed sturdy. Six miles later, at Cunningham Gulch, she picked up her husband as her pacer as they made their means up and over the general climb.
Not up to 3 hours later and now within the early-morning solar, Dauwalter returned to the rock, and kissed it over again.
In the back of her, Hartmuth, who used to be nursing a bruised sacrum from a fall 3 weeks prior, had closed the distance on Bruyas throughout the mid-race miles to as low as 13 mins via Sherman at mile 73. Eye problems slowed Hartmuth later within the race, inflicting blurry imaginative and prescient and sluggish motion, and Bruyas doubled her lead via Pole Creek at mile 81. Bruyas took an 18-minute prevent on the Maggie Gulch help station at mile 87 to refuel and get heat, whilst Hartmuth, who used to be additionally feeling the miles, additionally took a longer smash.
Camille Bruyas working into the city of Ouray, sooner than the midway level of the 2024 Hardrock 100. After serving to to push the tempo for the lead for over 40 miles, she’d pass directly to take moment position. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Camille Bruyas battled via the remainder of the race to complete moment in 29:28:11, and Hartmuth, after a protracted prevent at Cunningham Gulch (mile 93) to get heat below a blanket and maintain her deteriorating imaginative and prescient, completed 3rd in 30:29:12.
The race for the highest 5 in the back of them used to be possibly the nearest of the day. After announcing she had thrown up 8 occasions, Dower, simply 3 years into her ultrarunning profession, battled to catch as much as Bannwarth via Maggie Gulch at mile 87. Bannwarth, who used to be visibly suffering, fell off the tempo, whilst Dower flew alongside in pursuit of a place within the best 5.
Tara Dower on the 2024 Hardrock 100. After a robust first part, she struggled along with her abdomen over the route top level on Handies Top, however were given her abdomen again and rallied into fourth position with a late-race surge. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
By way of Cunningham Gulch at mile 93, the 3 ladies in rivalry for positions 3 via 5 — Yitka Winn, Emily Halnon, and Dower — had been separated via most effective 16 mins. All 3 made quick stops on the help station sooner than proceeding.
Between Cunningham Gulch and the general descent at mile 97, Halnon made a transfer. She handed Winn to transport into fourth position, making up greater than 20 mins in lower than six miles. Dower, in the meantime, installed an enormous transfer of her personal at the rocky ultimate descent and likewise handed Winn, with the distance rising visibly in an overly quick distance.
Therein, possibly, lies the wonderful thing about Hardrock and ultras on the whole: After nearly 100 miles of racing, the combat for the highest 5 got here down to 2 strikes made at the ultimate descent and the general rolling miles into the streets of Silverton. Finally, Tara Dower held onto fourth in 33:10:55, Yitka Winn completed 5th in 33:17:00, and Emily Halnon got here in taking a look completely ecstatic in 6th with a time of 33:24:22.
A couple of hours later, Becky Bates crossed the road in 36:00:26 for 7th position, an improbable efficiency for the 62-year-old. Claire Bannwarth, after the ones difficulties in the second one part of the race, reached the rock because the 8th girl in 36:13:33.
[Editor’s Note: As of this article’s publishing on Saturday evening, July 13, eight women have finished. We’ll update this article as more women come through.]
Emily Halnon throughout the 2024 Hardrock 100. She would end 6th position in a glad and hard-fought ladies’s race. Picture: iRunFar/Alex Angstadt
2024 Hardrock 100 Girls’s Effects
- Courtney Dauwalter (Salomon) – 26:11:49 (pre-race interview)
- Camille Bruyas (Salomon) – 29:28:11 (pre-race interview)
- Katharina Hartmuth (Hoka) – 30:29:12 (pre-race interview)
- Tara Dower (Altra Working) – 33:10:55 (pre-race interview)
- Yitka Winn – 33:17:00
- Emily Halnon – 33:24:22
- Becky Bates – 36:00:26
- Claire Bannwarth – 36:13:33
[Editor’s Note: As of this article’s publishing on Saturday evening, July 13, eight women have finished. We’ll update this article as more women come through.]
Camille Bruyas taking moment on the 2024 Hardrock 100. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
2024 Hardrock 100 Males’s Race
The primary vital information within the males’s box got here every week sooner than the race started. American Zach Miller, who used to be moment in ultimate 12 months’s UTMB and had installed a monster coaching block in preparation for Hardrock, used to be a number of the favorites, however didn’t race following an emergency appendectomy on July 5. Ever the optimist and benefiting from a disappointing state of affairs, Miller spent a part of Saturday morning making his patented donuts for lovers.
Together with Miller, France’s François D’Haene (pre-race interview) used to be anticipated to contend for the win, even though he were getting back from damage and now not feeling 100% main as much as race day because of an sickness a couple of weeks forward of time. D’Haene, one of the most very best runners on the earth at lengthy mountainous ultras, set the counter-clockwise route list for the win in 2021 sooner than striking moment in the back of Kilian Jornet in 2022 within the clockwise path. Getting into the race, D’Haene had two of the quickest 3 times in race historical past.
From correct to left, it’s Ludo Pommeret, François D’Haene, and Diego Pazos within the early miles of the 2024 Hardrock 100. Pommeret and Pazos would end one-two, whilst D’Haene could be pressured to drop after halfway. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
And whilst Ludovic Pommeret (pre-race interview) used to be no doubt anticipated to be a number of the best contenders this 12 months, it’s most probably truthful to mention he used to be now not the favourite. However as soon as the race started, the Frenchman made his intentions transparent.
Pommeret, who used to be working his first complete Hardrock after pacing for ultimate 12 months’s winner Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz, arrived in Silverton on June 14 and finished two laps of the route as multi-day journeys, in a different way referred to as Softrocks, as a part of a month-long coaching block to acclimatize to the altitude and mountains. That health and preparation had been transparent from the instant the race started when Pommeret led a pack of runners, together with D’Haene, Jason Schlarb, and Switzerland’s Diego Pazos (pre-race interview) throughout the Rainbow Path at mile 1.5.
François D’Haene within the early miles of the 2024 Hardrock 100. A pre-race favourite, he needed to retire after the midway level because of bodily problems from a up to date sickness. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
At Kamm Traverse (mile 11), Pommeret, D’Haene, and Pazos all got here via within the lead in combination. By way of mile 28, when Pommeret entered Telluride in 5:34 elapsed, he used to be two mins under course-record tempo, with D’Haene 2.5 mins in the back of him.
Then started the well-known 4,300-foot ascent to Kroger’s Canteen help station, which sits at 13,100 toes above sea degree at mile 33. Pommeret got here via within the lead once more, smiling and ingesting Coke sooner than leaving after just a minute. D’Haene used to be nonetheless shut in the back of, and Schlarb — who tied Jornet for the win at Hardrock in 2016 and has been recuperating from a torn ACL from a snowboarding coincidence two years in the past — got here via in 3rd, 32 mins off the lead. “It’s challenging to really feel excellent up right here,” Schlarb mentioned, ingesting most effective water and leaving temporarily. Pazos, who has a number of sturdy finishes at UTMB, got here around the iconic go 4 mins in the back of Schlarb.
Jason Schlarb working sturdy into Chapman help station, 18 miles into the 2024 Hardrock 100. He would in the long run take 3rd position. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
It used to be at the descent to Ouray that Pommeret started to open up an opening. By way of Ouray (mile 44), the distance to D’Haene, who started to turn indicators of fatigue on a scorching, humid phase of the route, used to be 23 mins. It used to be a stark distinction to Pommeret, who seemed as easy as ever. At simply over the midway mark (mile 52), the highest 4 males had been Pommeret, D’Haene at 62 mins off the lead, Schlarb simply two mins in the back of him, and Pazos an additional 11 mins again.
By way of Animas Forks at mile 58, Pommeret had larger his result in 1 hour and 24 mins, and Schlarb, in spite of puking, and Pazos had handed D’Haene, who used to be unfortunately in tears on the help station. D’Haene dropped from from the race quickly after, announcing, “You don’t know should you don’t play.” He used to be obviously nonetheless feeling the after-effects of an sickness simply 10 days prior.
Pommeret endured cruising. He seemed easy and environment friendly on the subsequent a number of help stations, refueling temporarily sooner than proceeding his list day. On the Sherman help station at mile 73, now 22 mins forward of course-record tempo, Pommeret used to be animated and sprinted away after a three-minute prevent, lower than 20 miles from historical past.
Nearly precisely seven hours later — after 3 extra characteristically quick stops on the closing help stations — Pommeret made historical past, working the general few steps within the chilly darkish sooner than hugging the rock that had awaited him for the previous 21-plus hours. He used to be formally a Hardrock champion and course-record holder.
Pommeret’s win is a testomony to his longevity: He ran his first UTMB twenty years in the past, gained it in 2016, and now, 8 years later, has gained Hardrock. Each D’Haene and Miller had been on the end line to congratulate the brand new champion.
After D’Haene dropped, the combat for moment used to be between Schlarb and Pazos. Schlarb used to be in entrance via 13 mins at mile 62.5, however Pazos seemed made up our minds to reel him in. By way of Sherman at mile 73, Schlarb reported that he were cramping for lots of the race, whilst Pazos, who quietly wolfed a cup of noodles, had lower into his lead.
Diego Pazos on the Maggie Gulch help station, mile 87, now not lengthy after shifting into moment position on the 2024 Hardrock 100, a place he’d grasp till the end. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Fourteen miles later at Maggie Gulch (mile 87), Pazos nonetheless seemed sturdy and had handed Schlarb, who mentioned he used to be struggling with nausea and getting into his vitamin. Pazos had grew to become a nine-minute deficit right into a six-minute lead. That order would stay till the end, with Diego Pazos taking moment in 24:39:33 and Jason Schlarb coming in 3rd in 24:48:13.
Jeff Rome, the second-place finisher in 2018 who lives simply blocks clear of the beginning of the race and used to be quoting J.R.R. Tolkien at help stations, ran a particularly constant moment part of the race to say fourth, whilst Brian Peterson took 5th after rising from a crowded again part of the boys’s best 10 during the last 25 miles. His time used to be 29:36:04.
Silverton, Colorado’s place of origin hero Jeff Rome, on his technique to taking fourth on the 2024 Hardrock 100. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2024 Hardrock 100 Males’s Effects
- Ludovic Pommeret (Hoka) – 21:33:08 (pre-race interview)
- Diego Pazos (Compressport) – 24:39:36 (pre-race interview)
- Jason Schlarb (Norda/Final Course) – 24:48:18
- Jeff Rome – 26:30:59
- Brian Peterson – 29:36:08
- Paul Terranova – 29:58:10 (pre-race interview)
- Nick Coury (Aravaipa Working) – 30:34:18
- Andy Vermilyea – 31:02:13
- Benjamin Bucklin – 31:07:47
- Luke Jay – 32:51:48
The boys’s podium of the 2024 Hardrock 100 (left-to-right): 2. Diego Pazos, 1. Ludo Pommeret, and three. Jason Schlarb. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Protection Thank you
Thank you such a lot to the next people who helped iRunFar quilt this race: Susan Van Weperen, Kaska Gdela, Ralf Elsaesser, Franz Dill, Curtis Whittit, Zachary Gingrich-Gaylord, Micaela Theisen, Hannah Inexperienced, Eric Blood, Matt Dietrich, Luke Verbus, John Reese, Alexander Angstadt, Ashley Saloga, Casey Wyatt, Ellie Greenwood, Olivia Rissland, and Marissa Harris. Our race manufacturing is a neighborhood manufacturing!