By HPRS Staff

This past weekend The Human Potential Running Series returned to in person racing following months of postponements due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The first race on tap was The 6th Annual Silverheels 100-Mile Endurance Run and the Last Call 50-Mile Endurance Run. In total, HPRS handled 146 total registrations for both distances combined and setting a new record for starters in the 100. The Silverheels 100 has the 2nd highest average elevation across the entire course, 2nd only to Hardrock itself in North America. A spectacular course that near circumnavigates the base of Mount Silverheels in Fairplay, CO. The Last Call 50-Mile is one of two 50-milers in the west with a midnight start. 

HPRS implemented a number of health and safety measures to minimize the affects of Covid-19 on participants and the local community. This included all volunteers wearing PPE, and providing runners with a mask at check in thanks to sponsor Orange Mud. Below is a collection of thoughts shared by runners following the event. 

The next HPRS race is slated for August 1st with the Sheep Mountain Endurance Runs and the South Park Trail Marathon & Half. Registration is currently open.

“Sherpa John:

On behalf of our community of ultrarunners: THANK YOU from our blistered (sometimes nailless) toes to our altered minds. In a year of restrictions and bans, you delivered us a weekend of freedom and fun. The first post-Covid ultramarathons—Silverheels 100 & Last Call 50—in Colorado; maybe the country; maybe the world. Take a moment—maybe the world.

We had the privilege of running a real ultramarathon because of you. Not “virtually” tracking ourselves across the Colorado trail or some other lonely, computer-based race. We had the privilege of: toeing a start line in the dark with other runners; seeing the sunrise near High Park (x2); peering into an old iron mine in the side of Mount Silverheels (x2); bombing down Jungle Hill and across the Logan Polfuss memorial bridge; sucking the dust into our lungs at Crooked Creek (x2); wading trout creek (x2); visiting Tarryall a “million” times; skirting Boreas Mountain in 80-degree heat; looking at the Milky Way and thousands of stars above the tree line in the saddle between Mount Silverheels and Little Baldy; fighting our way back up to the mine; and descending to a real finish line on a track in a beautiful, near-empty stadium. We had the collective privilege of helping our over-heated, dehydrated friends across the mountains.

All of us dared greatly. Some made it home; others did not, as is always the case in your ultras. But all of us had the opportunity. All of us fought and kept training through uncertainty—the uncertainty of being able to run a race; the uncertainty of being infected with an invisible virus that attacks our immune system (or doesn’t depending on the political winds); the uncertainty of knowing if we could finish the Grand-Daddy of all your races. That opportunity existed because you attended town-hall meetings, persuading community leaders and businesses that it was worth the risk of us descending on Fairplay. That opportunity existed because you read and complied with the oft-changing Federal and State governmental orders. That opportunity existed because you re-thought and re-invented aid stations, support, and the race. That opportunity existed because you made us feel safe. That opportunity existed because you went to work every day for us. That opportunity existed because you do not quit. That opportunity existed because you love this community and sport.

As we run through a global pandemic, we understand that there is no Leadville race series. There is no Hardrock 100. There is no Western States 100. There is no BigHorn 100. There is no Badwater 100. There is no Barkley. There is no Brazo’s Bend. There is no High Lonesome 100. There is no San Juan Solstice. There is no Vermont 100. And the list goes on and on for hundreds of races.

Thank you for the opportunity to run in the mountains together as a community; and, whether we made it home or not, it was a privilege to start and run in your race for a little while, a long while, or, as in my case, a very long while. 

Human Potential Running Series has a Race Director—not a Race Canceller.

We love you and Emily.”

LaMar Jost