Dave Mackey wins the Bandera 100k; it gets a hell of a lot harder to become the fastest ultrarunner ever to graduate from UNH

I was following the progress of Saturday’s Bandera 100k a bit via Twitter when @irunfar tweeted that Dave Mackey (above) had won.

I knew that was a name I’d heard of in the past, but he wasn’t one of the guys I’m used to following, so I googled him. One of the first things that came up was this seven-year-old Running Times article.

Imagine my surprise when I read this in the fourth paragraph:

“Mackey started down his athletic path playing soccer at age five in Cumberland, ME. He stayed with the sport through college at [the] University of New Hampshire. ‘To make up for my relative lack of technical skill, I would run around the field and mark opponents instead.’ Mackey took to running at UNH, where he ran on the trails near campus to stay in shape.”

And that’s when I realized that it had just gotten a hell of a lot harder to become the fastest ultrarunner to graduate from UNH (yes, I’m aware I haven’t graduated yet).

Perhaps it’s beneficial to point out that Mackey didn’t just win the Bandera 100k, he beat the previous course record by an hour (here’s his race report). And a glimpse at Mackey’s blog reveals that he was third at December’s North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships in 6:55:50 (which had quite the competitive field, thanks to a prize of $10,000 for the winner). Mackey has also run 16:30 at Western States (in addition to top times at dozens of other races). This guy is legit.

It’s important to mention that the quest to become the fastest ultrarunner to graduate from UNH was never an easy one to start with. Sometime during my freshman year I realized that Matt Hart (below) is a UNH alum, and he has a rather impressive race resume as well.

But I was unaware that Mackey was one as well; that ups the ante even further.

Then again, challenges are what ultrarunning is all about. In the meantime, I’m just going to enjoy saying I run where Dave Mackey ran.