The 2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile got underway Friday, September 16. The “hares and tortoises,” as race organizers playfully frame competitors, started from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, at noon and 8 a.m. local time, respectively.
They then clambered through the day, night, and day again over an exhaustive roundtrip through the mountain bike trails and dirt roads encircling the town.
The circuit is nothing if not a rugged one: the race website says an entire eight miles of it are paved, 86 are trails, and the remainder consist of “rough jeep roads.” Over “about 101.5 miles,” runners ascend some 20,391 feet — then descend it, of course.
This year, the weather featured heavily, with waves of rain heavily wetting the course, making it, at times, a humorous slip-and-slide.
For the hares, mainly consisting of highly attuned professionals, there was a lot at stake in the high-altitude race. Prize purses totaled $75,000, distributed equally between both the top-seven men and women. Each winner snagged $15,000, what together represent one of the highest prize purses in ultrarunning.
Men’s leaders began to trickle into the finish line just before dawn on Saturday, September 17, with the top women a few hours behind.
In the men’s competition, Richard Lockwood prevailed, breaking away from the rest of the men at a little over halfway, and never failing to relinquish his lead at any timed checkpoint over Arlen Glick in second place.
On the women’s side, Annie Hughes tailed her competitors early before taking the lead about a third of the way through the race, methodically adding time on her chasers, and posting a decisive victory.
The start of the 2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile. All photos: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile Men’s Race
Richard Lockwood never wavered in the punishing 100 miler, at times appearing obstinate in his determination to lead Glick. At Long Lake, 24.3 miles in, the two ran together about a half minute off the lead pace and 10 seconds apart. Six miles later at Summit Lake, they were still in the thick of it together.
Richard Lockwood, 2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile champion.
But it was Avery Collins who got off to a hot start and led the field through about the halfway point. By Dry Lake at mile 44.5, he’d built his lead on the field to over eight minutes. However, by 64 miles into the race, Lockwood was in lockstep with Collins, and would take over the lead and run away with things.
And by the second Long Lake timing point at 89 miles, Lockwood led by what might as well have been light years. No one ran within an hour of his pace by the finish line.
Nick Elson (Canada) did lead Glick late, by up to 79 seconds at the mile 95.8 mark, but couldn’t hang on for the rousing final descent and finished third. Glick turned around his podium finish at the Western States 100 earlier this year, and Elson debuted well in his first 100 miler.
Samuel Collins took fourth, and the other Collins, the early leader Avery, finished in fifth position.
2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile Men’s Results
- Richard Lockwood — 18:01:44
- Arlen Glick — 19:04:02
- Nick Elson (Canada) — 19:12:06
- Samuel Collins — 19:30:50
- Avery Collins — 19:49:09
- Steven Cornelius — 19:54:09
Arlen Glick (left) would take second at the 2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile.
2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile Women’s Race
As has become the case in every race she starts, this was the Annie Hughes show. Early on, Hughes let other women take the race out, staying in contact with the front of the pack before taking over the lead by one third of the way through. Her smart racing meant that, aid station by aid station, she grew her lead, splitting each section faster than the rest of the field.
By the finish line, she was some 100-plus-minutes clear of any other woman. This makes a trio of big victories in competitive events in 2022 for Hughes, with wins at the Cocodona 250 Mile and the High Lonesome 100 Mile in addition to here.
Annie Hughes, 2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile champion.
The rest of the top women’s field highlighted what’s so exciting about women’s ultrarunning right now, some six or seven women running nearly together in a tight pack well clear of the halfway mark. In that group included eventual top-five finishers Tara Dower, Rachel Lemcke, Kasey Nobert, and Mary Baughman who were just minutes apart for so long.
By the time the women returned to the start-finish line, the race for the top spots was still incredibly close, with second- and third-place Dower and Baughman under three minutes apart, and fifth- and sixth-place Lemcke and Sarah Boughner just 21 seconds apart. Once a phenomenon only seen in much shorter races, the down-to-the-wire duels are now a thing of 100-mile mountain ultrarunning.
2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile Women’s Results
- Annie Hughes — 21:26:00
- Tara Dower — 23:08:03
- Mary Baughman — 23:10:50
- Kacey Nobert — 23:36:10
- Rachel Lemcke — 23:52:15
- Sarah Boughner — 23:52:36
Tara Dower (left) on her way to taking second at the 2022 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile.
