2007 stats on 100 milers

A friend of mine forwarded this to me from the Ultra list.  Pretty interesting statistics.  Over 2000 runners completed at least 1 100 mile race this year, and almost 300 finished 2, with only 20 finishing 5 or more.  I think it would be somewhat interesting to also see how many more started a race but didn’t finish (I’d be one of them), plus the total number of 100 mile races completed by an individual.

Compiled by Jason Walz:

Greetings folks!  This project actually is a bit more involved than I
thought it would be, so wanted to provide some updates and let
everyone know what my plans are.

First, I won’t have a final version of this until the ATY 2007
official results are posted – many, many people recommended I include
all 100+ mile events, so I can’t have a final version until ATY is
done.

Yes, that’s a partial cop-out, too, while I get the data cleansed.

I have now included all 100+ mile events (all 100 milers, plus
24/48/72 hour events, the McNaughton 150, and Badwater).  Allan Holtz
pointed out that he received credit for the McNaughton 100 mile after
dropping out after completing 100 miles while attempting the 150 (so
if anyone else has done the same, please let me know).  I currently
have the 06 Ancient Oaks results, but will replace with the 07 results
before finalizing.

I’ve also received a lot of words of support and correction from a lot
of pacers and crew members on behalf of some of the more dedicated
hundred milers out there – I wish I had crews like you guys!

NEEDS:  I still need two things; if anyone can help with either of
these, it’d be appreciated:
1) Confirm that Iron Horse, Laramie and Moab 100 are inaugural events in 2008
2) Send a finisher’s list of the Haliburton 100 mile (or let me know
which UR it’s in; my URs through November are in storage, but I can
retrieve them over Christmas break – teach me to be the proactive
cleaner over Thanksgiving!)

Number of 100s finished in 2007:
11 (1): Dan Brendan
9 (3):  David Goggins, Dennis Drey, Hans-Dieter
8 (1): Phil Rosenstein
7 (3): Andy Kumeda, Gilles Barbeau, Jamshid Khajavi
6 (3): Jack Meyer, Karl Meltzer, Rob Apple
5 (9)
4 (31)
3 (66)
2 (283)
1 (1641)

2679 total finishes; 2053 ultrarunners; 80% of hundred+ milers run
only one race, and 94% of hundred+ milers run 1 or 2 ultras.  Western
States alone represents 10% of all these finishes.

Another way to look at this – the 20% of hundred+ mile runners who
finish more than one race account for 29% of all the hundred finished.

Although it undersells the effort a bit, the 2679 finishes at one
hundred miles each represents 1.4 BILLION feet ran by these 2053
runners.  That’s 10.8 times around the world at the equator.

The 270 finishers of the Western States 100 represents more than an
entire circumnavigation of the globe.  Not bad for 30 hours work!