The talk about Kilian Jornet usually addresses his remarkable talent — the 2015 Mount Marathon champion is considered the world's best mountain runner — yet his toughness is evidently elite too.
The 29-year-old Spaniard on Saturday won his fourth consecutive Hardrock 100 in Colorado. That 100-miler includes 33,000 feet of vertical gain, an equal amount of descent, and takes place at altitude — the course ranges from slightly less than 8,000 feet in elevation to slightly more than 14,000 feet. So, it's a beast of a race.
And Jornet won it despite racing nearly all of it after dislocating his left shoulder in a fall while running downhill. He's a beast too.
Jornet, 29, suffered his injury about 14 miles into the race. Upon reaching an aid station, medical officials wrapped Jornet's left arm to his body. He ran the rest of the way one-armed, as it were, and finished in 24 hours, 32 minutes, 22 seconds to top Mike Foote by 23 minutes.
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The Hardrock is a point-to-point race that alternates directions every year. Jornet owns the course record in both directions.
Jornet earlier this year, in the space of one week, twice speed-summited Mount Everest — the first time in 26 hours, and the second time, from a higher starting point, in 17 hours. He did not use supplemental oxygen or fixed ropes.
Those efforts on Everest were part of Jornet's "Summits of My Life" project, an attempt to deliver the fastest-known times on some of the world's most iconic mountains, including Denali. Jornet in 2014 went from Denali's Kahiltna Base Camp (7,300 feet elevation) to the summit (20,237) and back in less than 12 hours, though he did ski portions of the descent.
Jornet in 2015 won his debut at Mount Marathon in 41:48, slashing 67 seconds off Eric Strabel's 2013 race record (42:55). Anchorage's David Norris in 2016 trumped Jornet's record with his 41:26.