This past weekend there was a little race out in Silverton, CO. Kyle Skaggs set a new course record at Hardrock by running 23:23! Diana Finkel won the women's race in 31:09. Both Kyle and Diana led from the start and never looked back. This is the first time in 15 runnings that anyone has broken 24 hours. When you consider the previous record for the clockwise direction was held by Karl Meltzer, who pretty much dominates mountain 100-mile races, this is a remarkable task. Kyle's time was more than 3 hours faster than Meltzer's previous record of 27:06 and over 6 hours ahead of the next finisher. Meltzer is still the man in my book, but Kyle went a long way towards making his mark. There already is discussion about this being performance of the year. Absolutely!! I don't know Kyle, heck I have never even met him, but hear is a great all around guy who doesn't flaunt his ego around. This is also a very Meltzer-esque quality. At Massanutten last year, he talked with front to back of the packers alike. I have heard the same about Kyle at Wasatch last year. To me, it is great when we have displays of talent such as this and even better when it comes from "real" folks who don't talk themselves up constantly.
It always amazes me how many mid and even back of the packers push how great their accomplishments are. Just trying to throw their own log on the fire I suppose. They look really silly when someone like Kyle throws a freaking forest of logs on the fire with a performance like this. Anyway, congratulations to Kyle and all the finishers.
