Two Chilliwack runners kicked off 2024 by winning an ultra marathon in Hawaii over the weekend.
Andrea Tarras won the women’s division for the HURT 100 in Honolulu, nearly breaking a women’s record of 26 hours. Her finishing time on the grueling, 100-mile course through the rainforest was 26 hours and five seconds.
Ihor Verys sailed in over the finish line after 20 hours, 50 minutes and nine seconds, the fastest men’s time for the race in over a decade, according to running periodicals reporting on the event.
The HURT 100 is organized by the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team, and drew in 132 runners this year including 23 Canadians.
In a post-race interview at the finish line, Tarras was asked if the course was easier or harder than previous years.
“I wouldn’t want it to be easy,” she answered, laughing.
“It definitely lived up to its name. It hurt,” Verys said during his post-race interview. “That’s what we sign up for.”
He added that it was an “outstanding experience.”
“I’m going to ride this wave for months now,” he said.
With both the male and female winners of the long-running Hawaaian event coming from Chilliwack, Tarras said the HURT organizers should make their way to B.C.’s Fat Dog 120 Trail Race. The 124-mile event takes runners from Cathedral Provincial Park in Keremeos to Manning, and runs this year from Aug. 9-11. There are also shorter routes of 100 km, 50 mile and 40 miles, and registration has already opened.
Verys and Tarras have each won the Fat Dog 120 in the past. More recently, Verys was the second-last-runner standing at the 2023 Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra in Tennessee. American Harvey Lewis won that race, running more than 724 kilometres over five days.
Local backyard ultra
In addition to the annual summer event, Fat Dog 120 is running a registered backyard ultra in Abbotsford in late March, starting on March 23. Participants will be required to complete at 6.7056 km lap every hour, starting on the hour until they either do not complete within the time limit, or do not start the next lap at the top of the hour.
That event will be based out of the Abbotsford Exhibition Park and link to the Discovery Trail system around central Abbotsford.
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