A participant in Colorado’s Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run, known as the Hardrock 100, died on Friday, July 11, several hours after the race started.
According to a news release from the San Juan County Sheriff’s office, a 60-year-old runner named Elaine Stypula stopped running and then died in an area called Little Giant Basin. The area is approximately six miles into the 102-mile course, and it comes just after runners top out on Little Giant Pass, a 4,000-foot ascent.
A separate release from the Silverton Medical Rescue Team said that first responders received an SOS call at 9:02 A.M. of a CPR in progress by members of the race’s safety team. The incident took place near Gold Lake on the Little Giant Trail, one of the numerous trails used by the race.
Rescuers had to drive up a series of backcountry roads in 4×4 vehicles and then hike less than a mile to the lake. Officials were unable to revive Stypula when the reached her, and pronounced her dead at 10:27 A.M. Both releases said that Stypula’s cause of death was unknown.
The race published a statement on its social media pages shortly after the incident acknowledging the fatality.
“We are deeply saddened to share that a beloved member of our Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run family has passed away during this year’s race,” the race’s Instagram post read. “Our hearts are with their family, friends, and fellow runners as we grieve this tremendous loss.”
Stypula was a veteran runner with a long list of finishes in ultra-endurance events. According to the website Ultrasignup, which tracks running results, she had finished California’s Western States 100 ultramarathon, Alaska’s Denali 135 run, the Badwater 135, and other races.
The Hardrock 100 is one of the most challenging trail races on the international circuit of ultramarathons, with a course that starts and finishes in the mining town of Silverton, Colorado, and loops around the San Juan Mountains. Participants tackle the loop in different directions each year, and both loops take in approximately 33,000 feet of elevation gain.
Participants must ascend long, grinding climbs that top out at 14,000 feet. The race was founded in 1992, and its list of champions includes some of the best in the sport’s history: Kilian Jornet, Courtney Dauwalter, and Karl Meltzer, among others.
“People who’ve never run this race or have been to the San Juans should know that the course itself, based on the remoteness of the San Juans and inaccessibility of the aid stations, is inherently wild,” a runner named Yassine Diboun told Outside in 2023. “Add to that all the climbing over high peaks, and it’s very tough. The San Juans are more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. You have to see it with your own eyes.”
This is a developing story.
