Anchorage Daily News

Juneau's Geoff Roes figured finishing the Resurrection Pass 50-Miler from Cooper Landing to Hope in seven hours would constitute a "great race."

So when Roes, winner of the 24-mile Crow Pass Crossing two weeks ago, actually traveled the tortuous trail through rain and rugged mountains in 6:10 to obliterate the course record, he was taken aback.

"It's kind of hard for me to understand it yet," Roes said by phone from Juneau, nursing his thrashed quadriceps. "I haven't been able to flush out how I feel about it."

"Obviously, I am pretty excited."

The previous course record in the 12-year-old race was 6 hours, 59 minutes, set in 2001 by J.T. Lindholm.

Roes beat that by 49 minutes.

"I have had a great summer of training," he said. "I knew I had it in me to have a great race. I thought a great race would be an hour slower than it turned out to be. I guess I got myself into better shape than I thought."

Other than stopping to relieve himself a few times, Roes never stopped -- outside of a 40-second pause at an aid station to fill his water bottle and eat a banana.

While the 31-year-old cook said he wasn't as exhausted as he's been after other races but felt an overall sense of dehydration and a feeling much like "a really bad hangover."

Roes downed gels and drink mixes along the way for fuel, and he made it through a tough stretch near the end where he ran through a soaking wet field of tall grass above the tree line.

"There was definitely a moment where I felt the weather ...(It was) getting to the point were it would have been dangerously cold," Roes said.

Roes maintained a steady pace to the finish and managed to outrun some brutal weather that drenched racers behind him.

"I feel better today than I did after Crow Pass," Roes said of the race he won in 3:07:49. "Between this and Crow Pass, I did very little except a couple difficult runs last weekend to make sure everything was back in working order."

Roes finished 1:47 ahead of second-place finisher Robert Schnell.

Two other records were set Saturday. Anchorage's Laura McDonough set the women's record in the 100-mile race in 21:57, snapping Monica Scholz's 2003 record by nine minutes.

And Jeff Arndt set the men's record in the 100-miler in 20:33, 15 minutes faster than Eliseo Marquez did in 2003.

Six of the eight participants in the 100-miler and 19 of 22 racers in the 50-miler completed the race.

Sixteen of the 50-milers were rookies at the distance.

2007 Resurrection Pass

Saturday's Results

100-Miler

1) Jeff Arndt 20:33 (male course record); 2) Laura McDonough 21:57; (female course record); 3) Anne VerHoef 23:29; 4) Pete Mitchell 24:22; 5) Eliseo Marquez 24:58; 6) Eugene Trahern 25:57.

50-Miler

1) Geoff Roes 6:10 (male course record); 2) Robert Schnell 7:57; 3) Daniel Salvador 8:00; 4) David Johnston 8:20; 5) Gail Taylor 8:21 minutes; 6) Reid Wynans 8:22; 7) Tyler Johnson 9:27; 8) Paul LaFrance 10:20; 9) Darren Rorabaugh 10:20; 10) Rudy Brueggemann 10:34; 11) Claire Connelly 10:34; 12) Fred Hveding 10:50; 13) Janet Tune 11:43; 14) Pam Richter 11:43; 15) Beryl Anderson 11:43; 16) Emily Grossman 11:50; 17) Tracy Leithauser 12:50; 18) Beth Burkhart 12:39; 19) James Eaton 12:40.