Montrail runner Geoff Roes smashed the Wasatch Front 100 in 18:30:55. Kyle Skaggs set the previous record of 19:35 in 2007. That’s over an hour improvement on well-established, always competitive course. He also dropped an hour and a half from his previous Wasatch time of 20:01:07, which he ran en route to winning last year. Congrats to Geoff!
Quoteth Geoff:
- “I never thought I’d break Kyle’s record by an hour and still be looking over my shoulder.”
- “From Brighton to here is so much different from the rest of the course. It’s so much harder.” says the man who was the first to break 5 hours from Brighton to the finish. The previous best split was 5:09 set by Karl Meltzer.
La Sportiva’s Karl Meltzer also broke his personal best and the old course with a 19:12:05. He’d previously run 19:43:47 in 2005. With Geoff breaking 20 hours, four men have now done so: Geoff, Karl, Kyle Skaggs, and Nate McDowell, who was the first to break 20 hours with a 19:52:25 back in 2002.
Karl has posted his 2009 WF100 analysis, while Geoff has posted his full Wasatch 100 report in addition to some quick Wasatch thoughts.
In another Wasatch first, two women will be inducted in the Royal Order of the Crimson Cheetah for their sub-24 hours efforts. Betsy Nye led most of the way, but local resident Mandy Hosford caught her around mile 83. Mandy held the lead until the final aid station, but couldn’t match Betsy on the final descent. Betsy has now won Wasatch six times and finally broke 24 hours for her first time in her tenth running of the Wasatch Front 100. Oh, and Betsy’s 23:15:18 sets a new women’s course record. Yes, Ann Trason ran a 22:27:00 in 1998, but that was on a significantly different and markedly easier faster course. The old record record on the current course was 23:29:28 set by Liz Irvine in 2007. That means that Mandy also bettered the course record with her 23:25:55.
