2011 The North Face 100
In mid May Spanish endurance runner Kilian Jornet won this year’s The North Face 100 in a record time of 9 hours, 19 minutes, 6 seconds. Jornet maintained an impressive average speed of 11 kilometres per hour over the hilly 100-kilometre course that winds its way through the Blue Mountains. Jornet was closely followed home by Frenchman Francois D’Heane, who finished in 9 hours, 24 minutes, 33 seconds, while South African runner, Ryan Sandes, finished 30 minutes later in 9 hours, 54 minutes, 57 seconds.
The first woman home was Australian endurance runner and rogaining champion, Julie Quinn, who smashed the previous race record (which she also held) and beat an eminent field of local and overseas entrants. She eclipsed her 2009 record by more than 30 minutes in a time of 11 hours, 39 minutes, 7 seconds. Quinn was very closely followed home by internationals Nerea Martinez (Spain) and Jen Segger (Canada) in 11 hours, 39 minutes, 55 seconds and 12 hours, 1 minute, 8 seconds respectively.
The 23-year-old Jornet is something of an endurance wunderkind, winning not only many of the world’s endurance footraces, but also being a super talented ski mountaineer with multiple world titles to his name.
Last year’s winner and Blue Mountains’ local, Andrew Lee – who previously held the course record jointly with Stuart Gibson in a time of 9 hours, 54 minutes, 19 seconds – pushed hard early but faded in the second half of the race to finish 43rd.
This year all 850 places in the race sold out within two weeks, with 510 runners completing the course over what was an extremely cold weekend.
To read more results thenorthface.com.au/100
Photo by Mark Watson/Incite Images
