Ultramarathon: Keen? Then buckle up for the ride, busters

BADGE OF HONOUR: Stuart MacLean, of Hastings, who returned with the bronze buckle. PHOTO/Paul Taylor

It is marketed as one of the "undisputed crown jewels of human endurance".

It's hard to argue because the Western States 100-Mile (161.2km) Endurance Run on the trails of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California is the byproduct of a horse trek mishap.

Gordy Ainsleigh was the first person to do it by foot in 1974 at the age of 27.

Auburn-born Ainsleigh had smoked the Western States Trail Ride (Tevis Cup) in 1971 and 1972 on horseback but the following year his new horse reportedly pulled up lame at the 46km checkpoint.

In 1974, Drucilla Barner, the first female to win the Tevis Cup and secretary of the trail foundation, inspired Ainsleigh to join the equine trail to see if he could walk the talk, as it were.

Twenty-three hours and 42 minutes later he arrived in Auburn, 18 minutes shy of what constitutes a day on the calendar.

"I made the decision to keep putting one foot in front of the other and, looking back, that was a really stupid decision," the now 68-year-old chiropractor was once quoted as saying.

In 1975, Ron Kelley ran the Tevis Cup course along with the horses to complete 157km of the course before throwing in the towel.

In 1976, Ken "Cowman" Shirk became the second runner to complete the course along with the horses as Ainsleigh paced him the last 40km.

Sixteen runners signed up for the first official run in 1977, taking their marks along Tevis Cup horses. Thirteen of them dropped out or withdrew at the midpoint that year.

Of the three remaining runners, only Andy Gonzales finished in the 24-hour time limit set for the horses. The other two, Peter Mattei and Ralph Paffenbarger, finished in 28h 36m (unofficially), leading to the establishment of the 30-hour bronze buckle time limit for runners, marking the evolution of the race into its own entity.

In the last week of June 1978, 63 runners competed but 30 finished - the first race staged independent of the Tevis Cup Trail Ride.

Amid statutes of limitations and new boundaries, in 1988 congressional permission was granted to organisers to allow 369 to run.

As the event grew in notoriety, a lottery system was created to allocate the available positions including winners of various ultramarathons in the US.

Historically about 15 per cent of lottery winners do not report to the starting line so as insurance about 425 runners are typically notified as eligible to climb more than 5500m from Squaw Valley and descend nearly 7000m before finishing at Placer High School in Auburn.

More than 1500 volunteers fuel the spirit of the human herd.