Hans-Dieter Weisshaar ran the first Heartland 100 three years ago and returned this year to do it again, finishing in 26 hours, 59 minutes.
"The prairie, the open spaces, no other race is like this one," said Weisshaar, 63, from Kassel, Germany. "This is unique. There is a saying in German: 'It has its own flair.'"
The race was his 15th 100-mile run of the year and his 53rd in the last four years.
"I came to the States in '99 and heard about 100-mile foot races," he said. "I wanted to find out if I was an ultrarunner."
A doctor, Weisshaar retired in February 2001 and now spends much of the year traveling from one ultra race to another.
"I brought an RV over last year, and since then I have had a wonderful time," he said. "I enjoy the mixture of running and the fun of being outside, and I go to races to meet the people. These are all very special people.
"But sometimes, running through the middle of nowhere at midnight, I think: What are you doing here?'"
Weisshaar ran much of the way with Jeff Heasley, who owns a company in Gunnison, Colo., that does concrete foundation work.
"This is our sixth 100 together this year," said Heasley, 36.
Heasley ran his first 100-miler in January in Hawaii, where he was one of only 13 finishers at the notoriously difficulty HURT 100-mile trail run.
"I met Hans there, and we ran together for 12 or 13 hours, and we bonded," he said. "He spends a lot of time in Colorado, and a lot of time in my driveway, living there."
Heasley said he enjoys the people he meets at the runs.
"It's a community of friends," he said. "I've never met a negative ultrarunner."
Most ultra runs allow support crews to help runners, and Gary Henry had the biggest and most enthusiastic crew at Heartland.
Henry, 47, of Lawrence, Kan., was recently promoted to chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. His support crew consisted of four other reservists and his wife, Karen.
"This is a unique fraternity that Gary just joined," said Master Chief Petty Officer Ron Hunnicutt, of Kansas City, Mo.
After his promotion ceremony, Henry mentioned that he was planning to run the Heartland 100.
"He just made the comment that it would be nice to have a Navy crew to help," said CPO Mike Fryer, a Gladstone, Mo., police officer.
That was all it took for the group -- which also included Roberta Hunnicutt, wife of Ron Hunnicutt and a master chief petty officer herself; and CPO Terry Dejaynes, of Lee's Summit, Mo., -- to get organized.
The group met Henry with whoops and hollers at each aid station and then efficiently got him something to eat and drink, massaged his legs and got him a change of socks or clothes when he needed them.
Henry came into the 75-mile checkpoint about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, well ahead of the pace he needed to finish the race but on very wobbly legs.
At that point he took a 30-minute nap, then decided to continue, and members of his support crew took turns pacing him -- slowly -- the rest of the way. He finished the race, his first 100-miler, in 25 hours 59 minutes.
Jim Perry, 54, an accountant from Enid, Okla., also ran the Heartland 100 in 2001.
"My friends think I'm nuts," he said. "I enjoy it because of the community of runners. It's great to be out with them."
Perry, who finished this year's race in 28 hours, 20 minutes, said he began running because of a family history of heart problems.
"I decided I didn't need that kind of problem, so I started running," he said. "I lost 45 pounds after I started running, and I've been able to maintain it."
Jay Silcox, of Denver, had made his first attempt at running 100 miles two months earlier but failed to finish in the 10,000-plus foot elevation of Leadville, Colo.
After Leadville, he said, "I needed something to raise my spirits," so he decided to try the Heartland run.
High winds and several brief but heavy downpours in the first few hours of the race failed to dampen his spirits.
"I feel great," he said while running through the rain near the 24-mile point.
Silcox, 25, an engineer, was the second-youngest runner at Heartland and ran 75 miles before dropping out at the Teterville aid station.
Still, he said, he enjoyed the experience and carried along a digital camera.
"I liked the course," he said. "The terrain was good, and it was rewarding to have downhills after uphills and nice rolling hills. And after it stopped raining, I took a few pictures."
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Silcox said he plans to try another 100-mile race in the East next year, perhaps at Massanutten, Va., or in Vermont, "so Dad can crew for me."
Jamie Menard, 44, of Denver, ran the Heartland 50-mile two years ago and came back this year "to face the challenge of 100 miles."
A sprinter in high school, she returned to running about eight years ago and since then has run eight or nine shorter ultras of 50 kilometers to 50 miles.
"I just love it," she said. "I had a long break -- about 20 years -- and I got bored."
She and her husband, Jack, sometimes run the same races. But this time Jack, who ran the Heartland 100 in 2001, met her at aid stations along the course along with their two dogs to cheer her on and to help her.
"Running has totally changed my life," he said as Jamie ran into the 24-mile checkpoint in the rain. "Nothing else comes close."
Jamie Menard completed the race in 28 hours, 50 minutes, for her first 100-mile finish.
The Heartland 100 turned out to be a unique experience for Dallas Smith.
"It's the first time I ever failed to finish a race," said Smith, 63, of Cookeville, Tenn.
Smith, who ran this year's Country Music Marathon in Nashville in 3:14, finished last year's Heartland 100 in 24 hours, 6 minutes, after running his first 100-mile race the previous weekend.
He was hoping to break 24 hours this year but dropped out at the 75-mile aid station.
"I think it was just a mental problem," he said.
"When it got tough, I couldn't get the image of the sleeping bag in my truck out of my mind," Smith said. "I just wanted to get in that sleeping bag worse than anything. Then the voice of sweet reason whispered in my ear, 'This is insanity,' and when that happened I just didn't have a good answer."
Smith, who holds several Tennessee age-group records at shorter distances and also does Ironman events, isn't sure whether he will run more ultramarathons because of the time demands.
But if he does, he said, he'll be ready for that tough stretch late in the run.
"If ever I do another 100-mile race, I'm going to rehearse that and have an answer for sweet reason," he said. "Right now I'm sitting here thinking, why didn't I go ahead and finish that race?"
