37 hour cutoff for 2023 and future High Lonesome 100's

Effective for 2023 and all future High Lonesome 100’s, the overall race cutoff will now be 37 hours. All existing aid station cutoffs will remain the same except the finish line, which will now close at 7pm.

Our decision to make this change is the culmination of three years of data collection and team discussion. Historically, the 4:45pm Saturday cutoff at Raspberry 2 (the final aid station) gave runners a minimum of 1.25 hours to travel the final 7.3 miles. This cutoff time was driven by a desire to provide runners who made it Raspberry 2 a chance to finish. We figured that 1.25-hours was doable, although admittedly difficult. Over time however, we began to realize how unattainable the 1.25-hour time window was. The average for a 2018-2022 finisher to complete this segment was roughly two hours. Looking at it critically, the Raspberry 2 cutoff was essentially useless since it wasn’t indicative of a fair time window. The proverbial nail in the coffin came during the 2022 race when five runners finished after the 36-hour cutoff.

While we sensed that the final segment could probably use an adjustment prior to 2022, we held off the decision due to a second potential change we’d hoped to roll out in conjunction with it. For the past three years we’ve been in discussions with the Forest Service to reroute the course to eliminate the out and back over Laws Pass. The new route would have been significantly more difficult and likely warranted a 38–40-hour cutoff. Unfortunately, this fall the Salida Ranger District indicated that they would not be willing to approve this change and that their position was unlikely to change. Since we expect no other future changes, we decided this year was the right time to adjust the total race cutoff to  37-hours.

A big part of what we believe in is creating a space for fair competition. Not only does this additional hour not in any way  diminish the challenging nature of the course, but we also feel it is more representative of the race’s ethos. We additionally feel that the cutoffs prior to the final segment are in line with our desired goals. The race, as always, remains a challenging but attainable 100 miler regardless of experience level.

Since 2019, there have been five runners who finished between 36-37 hours, and two who finished in more than 37 hours. During our discussions we felt that it would be unfair to not address those five runners who would have been counted as official finishers had they run in 2023. We talked through the options and settled on inviting those runners back with a lottery bypass for either 2023 or 2024. We don’t take lottery bypasses lightly, but we felt that these runners deserved the chance to cross the finish line and  be handed their buckle.  We know they can all do the distance and we’re absolutely thrilled to have another chance to support them in their High Lonesome endeavors.

See you in the Sawatch,

Caleb, Kelsey, and the High Lonesome 100 team