Anchorage Daily News

At this rate, Geoff Roes of Douglas is going to become known as "The 100-Mile Man.''

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Geoff Roes of Juneau was the men's winner in the Crow Pass Crossing Saturday July 21, 2007.

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Roes, 33, late Friday night won his fifth 100-miler in five attempts when he seized the Wasatch Front 100-Mile Endurance Run in Utah for the second straight year.

And he did it in a record-smashing time.

Less than two months after his record-setting run in the marathon-length Crow Pass Crossing from near Girdwood to the Eagle River Nature Center, Roes obliterated the course record in the 30th edition of the Wasatch.

Roes clocked 18 hours, 30 minutes, 55 seconds, which slashed more than 64 minutes off the 2007 record of New Mexico's Kyle Skaggs (19:35:14).

Writing on his blog earlier this week, Roes sensed he had a strong effort within him.

"I feel really well prepared for this race,'' he wrote. "I've done so much more mountain running this summer than ever in my life.''

Roes trained at elevation in Colorado for two weeks before traveling to Utah a week ago for his final race preparations.

He is seemingly at his best on punishing courses replete with agonizing climbs and thigh-thumping descents. The Wasatch, run in the mountain range of the same name, features nearly 27,000 feet of vertical gain and more than 26,000 feet of descent.

Roes led six-time Wasatch champion Karl Meltzer of Sandy, Utah, by two minutes about 19 miles into Friday's race, which began at 3 a.m. ADT. He stretched his lead to 12 minutes near the 35-mile mark and that advantage flitted between eight minutes and 20 minutes over the next 50 miles before he began pulling even farther away from Meltzer, 41.

Meltzer finished second in 19:12:05, more than 41 minutes behind Roes. Still, his time beat Skaggs' previous race record by more than 23 minutes and rates as the second-fastest time in race history.

In his Wasatch debut last year, Roes clocked 20:01:07, the fourth-fastest time in race history until his blazing effort Friday.

In January, he shattered the course record in the H.U.R.T. 100-Mile Endurance Run in Hawaii. He clocked 20:28 on a course that featured nearly 50,000 feet of combined elevation gain and loss and slashed 15 minutes off the previous race record.

At the 26th edition of the Crow Pass Crossing in mid-July, Roes became the first runner to break the three-hour barrier. His winning time of 2:57.11 slashed more than eight minutes off the previous record set by Eric Strabel. Strabel also broke three hours by clocking 2:58:30.

Roes also owns the course record in the Resurrection Pass 100-miler from Hope to Cooper Landing and back.

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