Imagine starting to run about 5 a.m. Say you start at East Mountain Wilderness Park in Fruit Heights in Davis County, as hundreds of devotees of the Wasatch Front 100 Endurance Run have for years. Run north on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to the foot of Francis Peak, then climb 5,000 feet to the ridge line. Double back and run along the crest of the Wasatch Mountains through Farmington Flats, over City Creek Pass and southeast to Bald Mountain on the border of Salt Lake and Summit counties.

Keep running, and zig-zag your way all day and all night through Parleys, Lamb's and Millcreek canyons, rise to Desolation Lake and then along the Wasatch Crest trail. Continue through Big Cottonwood Canyon, American Fork Canyon and southeast to Pole Line Pass in Wasatch County. At this point, you will have run 85 miles.

Fifteen miles and hours later, the race finishes through Wasatch Mountain State Park at the Homestead Resort in Midway.

Few runners finish in fewer than 24 hours.

Today, Heikki still holds 12th place on the list of all-time fastest finishers of the Wasatch 100 Endurance Run. He won the race that year, after running for 21 hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds.

Salt Lake City firefighter Barry Makarewicz was at his side the last 50 miles, pacing the friend he had known since 1981.

For 11 hours the two ran together, chatting.

They lumbered through lightning and thunder, darkness, cold and exhaustion. "With about 25 miles to go, he really started to drag, and I realized he was just low on calories." Makarewicz fed him Fig Newtons and granola bars, energy drinks and gooey gel packs. "Basically, it was anything I had at the time, because it was clear that was a problem," he said.

For a few hours, Heikki was so sick he just kept throwing up. He couldn't eat. "Even then he could make jokes," Makarewicz said.

Through much of the race, Heikki and Makarewicz were playing cat and mouse with rival runner Dana Miller, who held the course record and had won the year before.

Heikki took the lead from Miller at 54 miles but lost it again 74 miles into the contest when, just out of the Brighton aid station, Miller slipped by. Heikki lost some ground and couldn't see Miller's headlamp up ahead. But near the top of the pass, Miller appeared right in front of them. Heikki turned it on. "Let's bury this guy," he told his pacer. He passed Miller for the last time.

"It was the middle of the night; we were going downhill on this rocky trail, and Heikki was just hauling."

Makarewicz told friends of Heikki's who were gathered in January that it was an honor to be part of the race. "It must have been one of his finest moments. It certainly was a highlight for me."