Wasatch 100 attracts distance runners to Utah mountains

It started as a whim. Six friends, who also happened to be runners, were looking for a new challenge when they decided to run 100 miles.

"They didn't have maps or anything else. They just said, 'Let's run 100 miles.' Two of them finished," said Wasatch 100 race director John Grobben as he and his more than 200 volunteers gear up for the 27th Annual Wasatch 100 endurance run, in which about 225 runners will try to navigate 100 miles of Utah's backcountry in 36 hours or less.

The six friends weren't attempting a feat that had never been done before. At the time, there were two other organized 100-mile races, one in California, that offered athletes the chance to test their endurance like no marathon ever could. It just hadn't been done in Utah.

The next year, they made it more official under the direction of one of those runners, Steve Baugh.

"I've started it a lot more than I've finished it," said Baugh, who is a member of the race committee. "I finished it twice."

The Wasatch 100 is the second-oldest 100-mile race in the country, and the last race in which runners can finish to earn Ultra Running Magazine's Grand Slam. This year 29 runners signed up to finish all four of the oldest 100-mile races, including the Wasatch 100.

This year, just 12 people remain eligible as more than half were unable to finish one or more of the other three races. One of those is a Utah man, Andy Knight.

"I have no doubt he'll finish the Wasatch 100, and it will be neat to see him earn that Grand Slam," said Baugh, who oversees that aspect of this year's race. "The last three years we have had at least one Utahn earn the Grand Slam."

The 225 runners who congregate in Wilderness Mountain Park this Saturday at 5 a.m. will have many reasons for wanting to tour the central Wasatch Mountains on foot.

The course begins in Kaysville at East Mountain Wilderness Park and makes its way to the Homestead Resort in Midway. The course has varied over the years, but essentially, runners will traverse the mountains, through rugged, rocky areas and city streets and trails, all while gaining a cumulative elevation of 26,882, as well as enduring a cumulative loss of about 26,000 feet throughout the course.

The weather will range from 80 degrees to low 40s. The changing temperatures and terrain make the Wasatch 100 one of the toughest.

"Most other 100-mile races cut off at 30 hours," said Grobben. "We would only have 25 percent finish if we did that. This race is a lot more rugged and primitive."