Canadian Ultra Performance of the Year - Male

It's that time of year again to not only get fat and drunk over the holidays but to put your $0.02 in on who had the best ultra performance for 2010.

Gary Robbins and myself decided to share the work load this year and each take a gender. He's had more than his share of men lately so I offered to give him a bit of a break and tackle the men while he will be posting for the women.

Best way I figure is to start with a list of notable performances and leave them up for a few days to debate about and find any hidden gems that we might have missed over the year. Once the debate is over I'll post up a poll of the top 10 and we'll take to voting! Winner receives bragging rights and dinner with the Prime Minister!

So here, in chronological order, are the top male ultra performances of the year:

(1) Gary Robbins - HURT 100 Miler - 20h12m and course record (Geoff Roes old record holder). Rumor is the course was in wicked fast shape but that shouldn't take away from becoming only the 5th person to break the 24 hour barrier in the history of the race.

(2) Eric Deshaies - Rocky Raccoon 100 miler - 16:37:13 in what I believe is the second fastest 100 miler of the year behind Glen Redpath's Umstead 100.

(3) Adam Campbell - Chuckanut 50k - 3:52:59 somehow placed him 3rd in the stacked field this year behind Andy Martin and Erik Skaggs but Adam's time is the 4th fastest in the history of the event.

(4) Glen Redpath - Umstead 100 miler - 14h27m placing him 3rd overall. This is one of the fastest 100 milers run in Canadian history (4th all time) and may well also be the Canadian Masters record as well

(5) Adam Hill - Bull Run Run - 6:52:21 placing him 4th and missing the podium by less than a minute. One of the top 25 times laid down on that course full of history and fast people that have ran it over its 18 year life span.

(6) Ryne Melcher - Mount Si 50 miler - 5:54:15 broke the course record by 22 seconds and is the fastest known time for a Canadian on a trail 50 miler.

(7) Chris Downie - Miwok 100k - 9:00:23 landed Chris 7th place in the highly competitive Miwok 100k this year filled with people desperate for one of the last 2 Western States entries. Chris' time may also well by the fastest Canadian time recorded at the Miwok 100k.

(8) Adam Hill - Sulphur Springs 50 miler - 6:28:07 and within 2 minutes of the course record.

(9) Taylor Murphy - Fast Trax 50k - 3:32 was good enough to give Taylor the National Championship on what was rumored to be a hot day in Edmonton.

(10) Gary Robbins - Western States 100 miler - 17:06:20 was about 3 minutes shy of the fastest time laid down by a Canadian at the WS100. 17h06m also landed a spot securely in the top 10 at 6th place this year

(11) Glen Redpath - Western States 100 miler - 17:10:06 was right behind Gary for 7th spot and 7 minutes off the Canadian record at Western. Glen also took home the Gold for the Masters Division at the 2010 Western States Track Meet.

(12) Guy Gilbert - Ultramarathon Michel Gouin 48 hour race - 312.610km is a long way to go in 2 days! Imagine running 100 miler and breaking 24 hours, not bad. Now get up and do it again the next day as well!

(13) Thierry Asselin - IAU World 100k - 7:40:37 landed him as the top Canadian male at this years IAU World 100k Challenge in Gibraltar. The course at Gibraltar isn't exactly designed for PRs either.

Please comment on your thoughts of how the above stack up and certainly if you feel something should be added to the list that isn't on here! Again to view the same list but for the women go to Gary Robbins site!