Arkansas Traveller 100

Hunt hits finish line all smiles

LR attorney, 32, sets record time

WILLIAMS JUNCTION -- The winner looked a little different from the rest.

Wesley Hunt took a right turn onto a narrow, downhill strip of pavement for the final 100 yards of a 100-mile foot race. He could see the large digital clock at the finish line and at last knew for certain that he would break the record for the Arkansas Traveller 100.

It was just past 9:30 p.m Saturday. Hunt had run up and and down rocky trails and roads since 6 a.m. as he made his way through the Ouachita National Forrest, but nevertheless began to shout joyously as he approached the finish. Fifteen people at the finish, most of them volunteers or Hunt's family, joined in his cheer. It was obvious by then that the course record for the 25-year-0ld race was his.

Hunt, 32, crossed the line in 15 hours, 36 minutes, 33 seconds, 53 fewer seconds than James Kerby needed when he set the former record in 2004.

"Great day," Hunt said.

"Well done," said race-day director Stan Ferguson in his typically quiet, low-key manner. "That's impressive."

Hunt stood joyously with his wife, parents, and admirers in the cool darkness, 10 yards past the finish. He spoke clearly of his experience to those around him, with an ease that made him seem long removed from the physical effort his accomplishment required, completed no more than a minute earlier. It was Hunt's second consecutive victory. He finished second in 2013.

Hunt was one of 116 runners to complete the race, with the last ones hitting the finish line around noon Sunday.

Many seemed on the verge of collapse. Most were immediately directed or helped to the nearby Camp Ouchita cabin and its large vaulted room, built in the 1930s by the Great Depression era Works Progress Administration. Emergency medical technicians were there to treat ailments. Bags a saline solution were available for dehydrated finishers. Several were intravenously connected to them, prone for an hour or more to receive fluids or other treatment from the EMTs.

Hunt, a Little Rock attorney, twice exchanged leads with Hal Koerner, a world renowned ultrarunner from Ashland, Ore., who won California's Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run in 2007 and 2009 and Colorado's Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run in 2012.

Koerner, 39, led through most of the race's midsection, but succumbed to Hunt's renewed vigor with about 30 miles to go, just past the Power Line aid station at 68 miles, and eventually faded to a fourth-place finish in 17:19:34.

Steven Moore of San Antonio, Texas, finished second in 16:44:32. Pete Kostelnick, or Lincoln, Neb., finished third in 16:55.50. It was the first time more than two people finished under 17 hours.

Hunt looked frequently at his watch in an attempt to set the course record, but women's winner Alison Jumper said she accidentally left hers at home in Fayetteville and had no idea how fast she had run until she saw the clock at the finish.

Jumper won the women's division in 19:16:44.

"I was shocked when I saw the time," Jumper said.

Stacy Shaver-Matson of Little Rock finished second among women in 23:02:58. Tammy Walther of Little Rock was third in 23:38:07.

Hunt led through early sections of the run and sounded confident, but after he and Koerner ran past the Lake Winona aid station at 31.9 miles, they entered a section with steeper ascents and a more challenging surface, favored by no one, but a portion of the Traveller course closer to those Koerner encounters in and around his home in Oregon. Koerner reached Power Line outbound on the out-and-back course with an 11-minute lead.

"That's always a hard part of the race for me," Hunt said. "It's not so much the climbs but the footing."

But from Power Line to the Turnaround aid station and back to Power Line, the course turns relatively fast for nearly 20 miles. Hunt ran into Powerline to learn he was a minute behind. Two miles later he caught Koerner and passed him in a rush.

"He looked strong at that moment," Koerner said. "I tried to just stay and maintain a decent pace and see where I was, hoping I'd maybe get another burst of adrenalin, but I could tell that someone who knew the course that well would be hard to catch."

"Once I get to Powerline, I always feel better, because I'm back on the forrest service roads," Hunt said. "I probably lost a little confidence earlier, but I got it back."

Sports on 10/05/2015

Upcoming Events