Dunn started off that year doing pretty well, but 75 miles into the race he'd had enough. He was sick, he was tired. "Everything in my body said to stop."

At 2:30 in the morning, during a rest at Brighton Lodge, he decided to quit. "It was the desperation point," Dunn says. The next phase of the race was to climb Catherine's Pass, an uphill grind to 10,700 feet. "I just knew I couldn't do it."

Dunn was sitting on the floor, trying to eat a little, trying to drink a little, with his knees drawn up and his head in his hands.

"Mike?"

Dunn looked up to see Heikki. Dunn was shocked. Heikki should have been a couple of hours ahead.

"I've been sick," Dunn told him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sick, too," Heikki said.

"No, you don't understand, I'm going to quit."

"Don't do that," Heikki urged. "Let's finish together." If they had to walk the rest of the way, they would, Heikki told him.

As Dunn explains it now, the offer would be like Lance Armstrong asking someone to take a bike ride. "If Tiger Woods says, 'C'mon, let's play golf,' it doesn't matter how bad you feel, you go play golf."

So, Dunn got up, and the two took off.

"In his gentle, unassuming way, he literally coached, mentored and loved me through that race."

Several hours and 25 miles later, as the two ran down the finishing chute together in Heber, Heikki stepped aside and gestured to Dunn to be the first across the finish line.

"That was typical of a million things he did," Dunn said. "He had the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known."

In official race statistics for that year, they are listed side by side with the same time.

---

E-mail: lucy@desnews.com