"He was a Greek god," longtime friend and running buddy Ted Heal said, smiling. Heikki wasn't Greek, of course, but Finnish, having moved to Utah from the Baltic country with his mother and sister when he was 8. His startling good looks were also legendary.

"Every woman on 11th Avenue knew his running schedule," Heal said.

One woman told Jon Harper that she and friends would brown-bag their lunch up to 11th Avenue, sit on the wall at the Salt Lake City Cemetery "and do some Heikki watching," Harper told his friends.

Heal ran the Wasatch 100 with Heikki in 1991. It was the first year for both of them, and it stormed the whole way. Heal calls that 1991 race "the mud year." Heikki finished ninth in 27 hours and 40 minutes. Heal came in 40 minutes later.

"He was so carefree. He was always smiling and easygoing," Heal said. "You never saw his competitive side until race day."

And that was part of the fun, ribbing each other, taunting each other about who would prevail in the next outing.

Harper loved the rivalry. He beat Heikki by 20 seconds in the 1986 St. George Marathon to finish at 2:28:16, and by 30 seconds the next year. Against Heikki, that 30 seconds qualified as a "butt-kicking," Harper said.

Harper still good-naturedly laments the 1987 Boston Marathon where Heikki placed 66th and he was 74th. Heikki was the 42nd American to finish that year.

In 2002, Tim Seminoff ran with Heikki for the last time. It was the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 Miler, and Heikki, then age 44, finished third. Seminoff came in four minutes later in fifth place.

They ran 48 miles together, and Heikki kept his friend going, Seminoff recalled. "We were having a really hard time, and he'd say, 'Let's just run this thing and get it over with.' "

Like most friends at the gathering, Seminoff preferred the good memories to the mountain of questions surrounding his death that now plague Heikki's friends and relatives.

"The ending chapter isn't great," Seminoff said, "but the rest of the book is incredible."

"He said he got married, and I thought he was kidding."

— Dwight Anjewierden, a friend

To examine the accomplished and mysterious life of Heikki Ingstrom requires an analysis of a complex man.

He was wickedly determined and competitive, but also generous with his smile, friendliness and support for others. He also had a compartmentalized, private, detached personality, friends and family say.