Just before dawn on Saturday Kyle Skaggs did what few runners thought possible. He finished the grueling Hardrock 100 Endurance Run in under 24 hours, setting a new record with a time of 23 hours, 23 minutes, 30 seconds. See results and video of finish here. “This is the performance of the year in ultra-running. Someone’s going to have to walk on water to top this” said his friend and fellow runner Nate McDowell.
Hardrock is considered the toughest running race in the country. In a 100-mile loop of trails and mining roads through the San Juan Mountains, it climbs 32,962 feet over 11 mountain passes and one 14,000-foot summit. The course is fraught with creek crossings and steep snow fields. Historically, only about half of runners who enter finish.
Skaggs, 23, beat the course record by two hours, 45 minutes.
“That was a solid record and he just shattered it,” said race organizer Dale Garland. “I can’t say what a big deal this is. I honestly didn’t think what he achieved was possible.”
The race started Friday at 6 a.m. Skaggs, who is from Glenwood, New Mexico, trotted in to Silverton Saturday after running all night, and kissed a two-ton granite boulder that acts as the finish line of the race. He leaned against the rock for several seconds, smiling in near exhaustion.
“What can we get for you?” a bystander asked.
“I think I just want to sit down,” he said with a broad grin.
Skaggs has been living in Silverton and running up to 160 miles per week to prepare for the race. He went out at a pace few thought was maintainable, leaving the rest of the pack in the dust. Almost every runner coming into aid stations along the course asked when Skaggs came through. On hearing he was hours ahead, they invariably said, “how did he look?” and race volunteers always seemed to say “really strong.”
“I only had one really rough patch where I hadn’t been eating enough,” Skaggs said, “but most of the race I felt really good.”
He walked several steep climbs, but never stopped. His record may be a turning point in the sport of ultra-running, which has long been dominated by older runners. Young runners were said to lack the stamina.
“Kyle and I are sort of changing that,” said Colorado Springs resident and Skaggs’ good friend Tony Krupicka, 24. Krupika won the Leadville 100 in 2007 by three and a half hours. The have their eyes on other records in the years to come. Skaggs may run the Pikes Peak Marathon this summer.
Hardrock organizers think Skaggs record will stand for years.
Skaggs sat in a dazed glow at the finish line. He pulled of his shoes, which were stripped of most of their soles by a single run, and brushed some of the bigger grit off of his scraped and dusty shins.
“Man, my quads are going to be trashed,” he said.”I might not run tomorrow.”

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