{"id":39481,"date":"2022-07-14T23:39:39","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T05:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/guterl-taking-ultra-success-into-first-hardrock-100\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:49:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:49:55","slug":"guterl-taking-ultra-success-into-first-hardrock-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/guterl-taking-ultra-success-into-first-hardrock-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Guterl taking ultra success into first Hardrock 100"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Maggie
Maggie Guterl runs down Engineer Mountain during a training run. Guterl will run down the 12,968-foot mountain this weekend during the Hardrock 100. (Photo by Barkley Finisher)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Maggie Guterl of Durango wasn\u2019t an elite athlete when she was young. She said she ran track in grade school and did some other team sports, but in high school she didn\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n

After discovering ultra running, however, Guterl has excelled in the endurance discipline and won some huge races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI picked it up later in life,\u201d she said. \u201cI was in my 30s when I did my first ultra.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was the curiosity factor and the unknown that made her want to try the endurance sport. After she ran her first marathon, however, she said to her self, \u201cNever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maggie
Maggie Guterl does a training run in early June above Maggie Gulch. (Photo by Meghan Hicks)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But the curiosity returned and she wondered if she could run could two marathons in a row, and after she did, she continued upping her mileage.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Guterl became the first woman to win Big\u2019s Backyard Ultra last-man-standing race, running 60 hours straight and covering 250 miles.<\/p>\n

In the competition, runners had an hour to complete a 4.167-mile loop, and Guterl and Will Hayward of Hong Kong competed head to head for the final eight hours of the race. After she finished her 60th lap, she prepared to head out again. Hayward, however, was unable to complete his 60th lap in the allotted time, so Guterl claimed the victory.<\/p>\n

Last year, at age 40, she won the inaugural Cocodona 250<\/a> in Arizona in 85 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

At 6 a.m. Friday, she\u2019ll join runners from around the world in Silverton in the Hardrock 100. She applied once before, in 2018, but this will be her first time competing in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a daunting race,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the vertical, which is over 30,000 feet, it\u2019s the fact that the altitude is so high it makes it very challenging, even for people who live at high altitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterl, however, said she has run the entire course while training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it all during training, but I can\u2019t wait to experience it in a race,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing a lot of runs up high, and with the early snowmelt I was able to start running the course the first weekend in June.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maggie
Maggie Guterl crosses Mineral Creek on a training run for the Hardrock 100. (Photo by Meghan Hicks)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Guterl also trained with a Hardrock veteran, Meghan Hicks of Silverton, who will run in her fourth Hardrock 100 this year.<\/p>\n

Guterl qualified for the Hardrock 100 by running in the High Lonesome 100, which takes place in the Sawatch Range near Buena Vista.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty rough for me,\u201d she said, adding that she experiences exercise-induced asthma. \u201cI need to be a little more diligent with my inhaler regimen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition the altitude and mileage and climbs, the competition at this year\u2019s Hardrock also will challenge her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe field is awesome,\u201d Guterl said. \u201cI know a lot of the women and in the last six weeks, I\u2019ve seen a lot of people training here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s women\u2019s champ, Sabrina Stanley of Silverton, was planning to try and defend her title, but had to pull out at the last minute.<\/p>\n

Plenty of other strong women, however, remain.<\/p>\n

Darcy Piceu, an eight-time Hardrock finisher with multiple championships, will part of the field, as will Courtney Dauwalter. Dauwalter won the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc last year in Chamonix, France, the largest 100-miler in Europe.<\/p>\n

Angela Shartel and Stephanie Case also will compete with Guterl for the women\u2019s title this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHannah Green is another awesome local girls that got in,\u201d Guterl said. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t race a lot, but she has the potential to be up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Meghan
Meghan Hicks enjoys the view overlooking Island Lake while training for the Hardrock 100. Hicks will race in her fourth Hardrock this year. (Photo by Maggie Guterl)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For the first time, the percentage of women who applied to run in the Hardrock, 18%, was equal to the number of women who got in, 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel if they had not increased the number of slots for women, I may not have gotten in,\u201d Guterl said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great step.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did say, however, that the sport has systemic problems, and more women need to qualify and apply.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, four-time champion Killian Jornet is back this year.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s champ, Francois D\u2019haene, also will return. D\u2019haene won last year\u2019s Hardrock in a record 21 hours, 45 minutes and 50 seconds. He then went on to win the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc for the fourth time.<\/p>\n

\u201cKillian and Francois will be a pretty epic race,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Jung, Jeff Browning, John Kelly, Luke Nelson and Nick Coury also will challenge for the men\u2019s title.<\/p>\n

Durangoans Drew Gunn will be going for his eighth finish, and Neal Matosky his first.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s race will go clockwise, heading from Silverton to Telluride first, then to Ouray and Lake City before finishing in Silverton. The runners have 48 hours to finish.<\/p>\n

To help her along the way, Guterl has two pacers: Whiley Hall will join her in Ouray, and Zach Miller will join her at Sherman.<\/p>\n

Guterl\u2019s goal, however, isn\u2019t to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would really like to finish on Saturday,\u201d she said. \u201cMy boyfriend and dog are crewing me, and I don\u2019t think they want to do it two nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

To finish, the runners need to complete a little more than 2 miles per hour, which sounds easier than it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the climbs will be punishing, so it\u2019s important to take care of yourself and move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to my friend Nikki Kimball (the 2018 Hardrock runner-up) and her advice to me was to have fun,\u201d Guterl said. \u201cThe rest will come if I have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterl, originally from Pennsylvania, moved to Durango in 2019 to work for Tailwind Nutrition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used it for a while and then I heard they were hiring,\u201d she said. \u201cI told them I would move here. I don\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

at 6 a.m. Friday in Silverton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,327,1916],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-silverton","tag-trail-running"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84346,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39481\/revisions\/84346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39481"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}