Out of 24 Starters, Swiss Racer is 1st in 100-Mile High 5 After 37.51 Hours
Exhausted runners in last weekend’s 7th annual High 5 100-mile mountain ultra run were contemplative after a continual multiple day and night slog through the mountains surrounding Lake City.For first place Swiss runner Benjamin “Benji” Wiederkehr, who crossed the town park finish line near dusk on Saturday 37 hours and 51 minutes after start of the run, most memorable and “magical” were shadows cast by a near full moon on the summits of 14,001’ Sunshine and 14,034’ Redcloud Peaks.Utah ultra runner Jared Campbell — second to cross the finish line at 11:07 p.m. Saturday and third overall with a start to finish running time of 41 hours, 7 minutes — stated he enjoyed “experimenting” with his race trajectory. He acknowledged some of the experimental routes, such as ascending 14,015’ Wetterhorn Peak and Matterhorn Peak, at a mere 13,590’, were successful in terms of time efficiency, while other self-determined routes such as bypassing vertically challenging Sunshine Falls near the base of Sunshine Peak in the dark were perhaps less successful and in fact “downright questionable.”A repeat favorite in this year’s High 5 was Gunnison middle school educator Dustin Simoens whose blunt post-race assessment after crossing the town park finish line at