2023 Hardrock 100 Men’s Race

Without any clear race favorite this year, the men’s race was wide open, and France’s Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz (pre-race interview) made the most of the opportunity to go to the front immediately, leading the race line-to-line. Even before the first mile was up, Dunand-Pallaz had opened up a gap on the rest of the field and never looked back, running steady and strong through the heat of the day and the dark of the night.

Behind Dunand-Pallaz, the race between the rest of the field never let up, but the gap to the leader continued to grow steadily as the hours passed. Silverton local Avery Collins (pre-race interview)led the early chase, along with Dylan Bowman (pre-race interview), who had finished second here in 2021. While Dunand-Pallaz was running his first Hardrock 100, Bowman had course experience on his side, and Collins had the course in his backyard to train on.Behind the two Americans, another Frenchman, Beñat Marmissolle (pre-race interview), was biding his time in third. Brian Culmo, Spaniard Javi Dominguez, Arlen Glick, former Hardrock 100 champion Jeff Browning, Paul Terranova, and Jesse Haynes rounded out the top 10 in the early miles of the race.Coming through the Maggie aid station at mile 15.5, it seemed like Dunand-Pallaz was going to give the men’s record a run for its money, coming in about 10 minutes under course-record pace. By this time, he was also 10 minutes up on Collins, who was running in second. While Dunand-Pallaz’s gap on the course record had disappeared by the time he dropped into the Sherman aid station at mile 30, his gap on the rest of the field had grown to 13 minutes, now with Marmissolle running in second with Bowman and Collins just a couple of minutes back. The rest of the top 10 remained unchanged.And aside from a few shuffles within the field, not a whole lot changed in the top 10 until the witching hours, after the heat of the day turned to the dark of night and legs started to get heavy. Then things started to change, and quickly. While the two Frenchmen continued their relentless march forward, both Collins and Bowman faltered, and it was Dominguez who left the Chapman aid station at mile 84 in third. Glick was fourth, Terranova fifth, and Browning sixth. Both Collins and Bowman took extended stops at Chapman to regroup, losing their positions but eventually headed back out on the trail to finish.While others struggled behind him, Dunand-Pallaz crested the last climb well clear of the field. Marmissolle followed 40 minutes back. And from there, it was almost all downhill for the two Frenchmen. Dunand-Pallaz ran back into Silverton to kiss the rock and win his first Hardrock 100 in 23:00:07, the eighth-fastest time in history.

Marmissolle finished second and was followed by Dominguez who ran a steady and smart race from start to end finished third in 26:12:01. Glick finished fourth with a time of  26:43:05, and Browning would round out the top five with a time of 27:17:02.

posted Sunday July 16th
by Eszter Horanyi -I Run Far