BEAR 100 MILE ENDURANCE RUN RESULTS September 24-25, 1999 Start/finish at Deer Cliff Inn, Cub River Canyon in S.E. Idaho Leland Barker, RD 1. Hal Koerner III, 23, CO 25:04:04 2. Tim Seminoff, 41, UT 28:09:05 3. Klaus Dieter Muttke, 45, GER 28:16:42 4. Errol Jones, 49, CA 29:43:37 5. Johnny B. Wall, 35 29:58:45 6. Doug Millar, 41 30:07:55 7. Mary Workman(F), 38 31:30:29 8. Michael Thomas, 37, CO 33:46:43 9. Tonya Mauldin(F), 52, CA 34:10:10 Bruce Mauldin, 51, CA 34:10:10 11. Jim Ballard, 49, MT 34:15:41 Brent Craven, 49 34:15:41 13. Ellen Ives(F), 45 34:29:41 Mary Ritz(F), 44, ID 34:47:10 17 starters, 14 finishers (82.3%) Mother Nature sure fooled us! At the start of the Bear 100, it was looking like the perfect day for running in the mountains, cool and cloudy, but cool was barely cool and the cloudy was looking like the non-threatening kind. Two hour into the race, as I was driving up to Danish Pass it started to sprinkle. I headed down to Beaver Creek to check on the aid station there, and it started to rain a little more. As I headed back to Danish Pass, it came down even harder. So I stayed in my vehicle, hoping it would let up soon. As I waited I noticed someone on a bike coming up the road. "That was quick" I thought to myself, as I assumed it was Keith Dehart returning from his assignment to make sure a section of the course was flagged properly. Then I noticed he was having trouble with his bike, so I walked down to talk to him. "Not good" were the first words out of his mouth. He said that when he got to Gibson Basin he couldn't figure out where to go from there, and he was having rouble with his bike, so he high-tailed it back. I said "Okay, if you'll do the aid station, I'll run down and flag Gibson Basin." That was the only place on that section that the runners could go wrong on, and I had to make sure that didn't happen, so off I went, in the rain. I was feeling some empathy for the runners as I slipped and slid on the muddy road for 5 miles into the Basin. On my return trip, the rain stopped and the wind picked up, which was good, because it dried up the muddy roads rather quickly. Shortly after I returned to Danish Pass, Mary Workman came in and asked me if the weather would get any better. "How could it get any better?" I asked her. At the moment it was cool and cloudy. I guess she was looking for some sunshine to dry out a little bit with. We did get a little sun, but we got a lot of wind, especially on the high ridges, and there were a lot of them. But the views were spectacular with the fall colors at their peak. As the sun set, the runners were greeted with a full moon, which was much appreciated by the few who had flashlight trouble. I was impressed with the aid stations as I drove around and checked up on them to see how things were going. Many of the volunteers had no previous experience with 100 mile races and they did a great job! Hal Koerner, a young, first-time 100-miler from Parker, CO set the pace early and continued to stretch his lead throughout the race. He was looking tired at the 50 mile mark, and we thought surely he would pay dearly for his fast pace. Tired as he was, he continued to stretch his lead, and as he crawled in (almost literally) at 7:04 AM on Saturday morning, you could tell he had given it his all. Second place finisher, Tim Seminoff was walking the last stretch until he looked back to see Klaus coming. Tim took off running and held him off. Klaus Muttke, all the way from Germany, had to settle for third. After the race, Tim called it a "very challenging course." On the women's side, Mary ran a very controlled and steady race, leading pretty much from start to finish. She saved enough to run the last section a little quicker than we expected, and still looked strong at the finish. The majority of the comments after the race were about how spectacular the scenery was, and how great the aid stations were. Some had a few "suggestions" about course markings and vegetarian cuisine, which we will try to do a little better on next year. Considering the high finish rate on a tough course, I was very pleased with the race overall ¯ no, I was ecstatic.