Wow.
A lot of people called the race for Kilian Jornet, which was reasonable considering his resume. But he had just run 435 miles in the Pyrenees only a month before, and he likely did not do any heat training. Although Kilian pushed a blistering pace with Krupicka, in the end he could not maintain it. It looked like Krupicka's race until Geoff Roes somehow found the superhuman strength to come from ~16 minutes back to overtake and then put 7 more minutes into Krupicka in the last 10k. Nick Clark nearly passed Jornet as well, but Jornet managed to hold on to take 3rd.
This is really unusual for 100 mile races which can often be won by 30+ minutes, and the outcome is sometimes decided 30 miles before the end. Instead, here, we witnessed the closest finish in 15 years.
Another significant feature of this race was the fact that two fairly young individuals, Krupicka (26) and Jornet (22) led the race for the majority. Hundred milers are often the playground of older folks... at least 30 years old.
I was really pulling for Krupicka... he currently hails from Boulder, so he's a hometown favorite. Additionally, the guy has a very calm and engaging demeanor which is hard not to like.
I hope he's happy with "only" 2nd. He ran an astonishingly fast race, crushing the old course record in the process.
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