Ludovic Pommeret (France) and Courtney Dauwalter (United States) have won the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run 2024 in Silverton, United States. Both trail and ultra runners did that in a new course record.
Pommeret led the race from the start. At first together with François d’Haene, but he soon dropped the four-time UTMB winner and went off on his own. He did that all the time below the course record, set by Kilian Jornet in 2022: 21:36:24. That is, to be precise, the course record in clockwise direction, as Hardrock 100 is run each year in the opposite direction of the previous year. Where most of the ultra runners behind him showed signs of fatigue, Pommeret kept on smiling throughout the race.
With that same smile, he crossed the finish, after 21 hours, 33 minutes and 6 seconds. Improving Jornet’s record by more than three minutes. “Running Hardrock 100 was my dream”, he said directly after the finish. “I felt like I was dreaming all day. The nightmare never came.”
Beautiful playground
Before the race Pommeret already said in a pre race interview with iRunFar that he was super happy to finally race Hardrock. “Hardrock and Western States are well known in France. Those are for French people the two main races in the United States. What maybe isn’t known, is that only 130 people can run Hardrock. I entered the lottery for several years, but never got in. Now I’m here. This is a beautiful playground. Last year I already ran a part as a pacer, for Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz (last year’s winner; jk).”
The French UTMB winner of 2016 spent four weeks in Silverton to acclimatise. He fastpacked the trail first on his own in four days, then – a few days later – fastpacked it again, with Camille Bruyas and Marianne Hogan. Again in four days. “It’s good to have done it twice. The first time there was a lot more snow.”
Second place for Pazos
Behind Pommeret Diego Pazos (Swiss) took second place in 24 hours, 39 minutes and 33 seconds. Just like for Pommeret running Hardrock was a dream coming true: “I’ve been dreaming of this race since I started ultra running in 2012. I’ve been signing up for it ever since 2016. I guess I just got lucky this year.”
Third place was for Jason Schlarb (USA). He finished in 1 hour, 48 minutes and 13 seconds.
Dauwalter beats her best time
Courtney Dauwalter (USA) won the women’s race. Just like Pommeret she set a new course record: 26 hours, 11 minutes and 49 seconds. More or less two and a half minutes faster than her own course record of last year; the year she ran and Western States and Hardrock and UTMB.
With her time of 26:11:49 she finished fourth overall. Behind her, Jeff Rome (USA) grabbed fifth place in 26:30:52. Camille Bruyas, who explored the course together with Pommeret, finished as second woman, and sixth overall.
Katharina Hartmuth (Germany) finished third. She only decided at the last moment to run, after having a bad fall, exploring the San Juan Mountains two weeks before the race. Even with one week to go her back injury prevented her from running.
With her time of 30:29:12 Hartmuth was 9th overall, behind the Americans Brian Peterson (7th) and Paul Terranova (8th). Nick Coury (USA) completed the top 10. He finished in 30:34:14.
DNF for d’Haene
François d’Haene didn’t finish. The Frenchman didn’t feel well, and stepped out after 90 kilometres. He had been struggling with a virus in the weeks before the race.
RELATED: D’Haene and Dauwalter favourites at Hardrock 100
Archive photo
All results Hardrock 100 2024
