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 12:06 a.m. Sunday was “I’ll absolutely never do that again’ due in part to the fact the 2025 High 5 was “by far the hardest” because of added checkpoints.Later on Sunday morning, at a celebratory post-race runners’ breakfast, he reconsidered, saying “yeah, I’ll probably do it again.”Due to the fact the Gunnison ultra runner had competed in three prior High 5 runs, he began the race at 9 a.m. Friday, August 8, three hours after the 6 a.m. start for first-time runners. Simoens completed the mountain race route second overall after running 39 hours, 6 minutes.The three top 2025 High 5 runners — Wiederkehr, Simoens, and Campbell — were among 24 ultra runners, including two women and three locals, who took part in this year’s race, six of whom — 25 percent — actually finished the run. All 24 starters were termed winners by race organizer Caitlin Rhodes at Sunday morning’s breakfast, Rhodes determining “it was a success for everyone.”Caitlin’s husband, race co-organizer Logan Rhodes Durango, Colorado, ultra runner Josh Golden, middle photo with pacer Mark Smith, breezed into Camp Trail Trailhead on the final leg of Saturday’s High 5 Run (photo Duane Keprta); left, at an early point in the race, local runner Logan Rhodes with Alexander Beckman and Dustin Simoens on proverbial heels, arrives at Capitol City (photo Jodi Linsey); right, after nearly 40 hours non-stop jogging, Benji Wiederkehr and Jared Campbell are contemplative at the town park finish line. has previously completed the run on two occasions, hence was assigned an 8 a.m. start from the park two hours after a majority of the racers. Rhodes was characteristically upbeat in his remarks at the 6 a.m. start, telling first-timers in the grueling mountain run “you are about to attempt one of the hardest things physically you’ve ever done.”He urged racers to savor the moment, telling them “one day in the distant future we’ll be old, broken down, and unable to do this… we don’t know how much time we have in this life.”In addition to the three top finishers, also successfully completing the run were Ted Schultz, Colorado Springs oil and gas pipeline manager, fourth with total running time 43 hours, 48 minutes; 52-year-old Durango, Colorado ultra runner Josh Golden, 45 hours, 8 minutes; and Brandon Worthington, from Longmont, Colorado, giving his registration address as “Longmonster,” who finished the High 5 at 4:10 a.m. Sunday after continuous 45-hour, 10-minute slog.Worthington drew smiles at his race start, 8 a.m. August 8, in recounting a “nightmarish” dream from which “I woke up screaming” prior to the race start.In the dream, Worthington said he encountered challenging changes to the race route which, on the Continental Divide, included an array of computers which he was mandated to hack before continuing the race.In the dream, Worthington said he thought to himself, “well, I’m not going to finish the race.” He drew laughter on Friday at the race start, telling cheering bystanders, “hopefully I’ve repressed that dream.”Apart from the top six out of the initial 24 who started the race, an additional three runners persevered and finished the 100-miler in Lake City between 8 and 9 a.m. on Sunday and well past the mandatory 6 a.m. cutoff: Lukas Zavorka, from Los Alamos, New Mexico, and fellow runner Joel Kuenning, Silverton, had a slow start, leaving the Camp Trail Trailhead in darkness at 9:55 p.m. Saturday and navigating both Williams Creek ascent and Alpine Gulch descent while omitting mandatory summit of Peak 13811; a third High 5 runner who completed the race in Lake City post cutoff was 35-year-old Alex Beckman, an architect from Salt Lake City.
