After covering 100 miles over Colorado’s San Juan mountain range, climbing 33,992 feet, and ascending to the highest point of 14,048 feet above sea level, it was Kilian Jornet and Anna Frost who took this year’s Hardrock 100 titles over the weekend.
The race began on Friday and for Jornet, who also won last year, it was over 23 hours and 28 minutes, a new course record. Before her victory in a time of 28:22, Frost engaged in a leapfrog battle with past Hardrock champion Darcy Piceu, who finished second in 28:57.
The course alternates direction each year and Jornet now owns the records for each. He won by more than two hours over second-place Mike Foote (25:45) and third-place Adam Campbell (26:49).
At the finish, Jornet gushed over the sunset picture he snapped while ascending Virginius Pass at 13,100 feet. His motivation for returning to Hardrock was the community feel of the event. “The ambiance, looking at the last finishers, the organization, the aid stations and volunteers,” Jornet, of Catalonia, said. “Such a nice ambiance, it’s not only the course.”
The race is known for its beautiful scenery and for its notable challenges in terrain and weather conditions. Jornet took a wrong turn and tacked on an estimated 40 minutes to the middle of his race “There was a lot of snow. It was my mistake,” Jornet said.
Jornet will now take a break from racing and focus on mountaineering projects. “It’s beautiful up there,” he said, in reference to mountains around the world. “The beauty of this sport is that it’s not repetition. It’s every day you see a place and want to go there.”
Like Jornet, women’s winner Anna Frost also has fallen for Silverton, Colorado, an off-the-beaten path old mining town far from the glitz and glamour of Colorado’s more popular resort towns like Aspen and Vail. Frost is from New Zealand and paced Jornet for a section of his run during last year’s race. She’s been training in Silverton since early June and had coveted a prized Hardrock entry for years. This was only her second attempt at the 100-mile race distance.
Piceu, who has three Hardrock victories on her resume, gave Frost a formidable challenge.
“If I caught up and blew up, I’d just drag myself to the finish anyway,” Frost said of her late-race surge to overtake Piceu’s lead. “I guess you’re just overridden by something, I don’t know what it is. You see it all the time at the end of a race, someone racing over 100 miles and they manage to sprint. It doesn’t come from your brain. Your brain doesn’t say that, but your body somehow does it…I just went for it.”
