Pat Caffrey's Archive of Great Moments
1982
Le Grizz is Montana's first Ultramarathon. 14 of the 16 finishers had never run farther than a marathon.
1983
The runner statuette on winner Rick Spady's trophy is broken off at the knees in shipment. Other winners cry foul, demand similar trophies.
1984
A sleet storm is too much for seven veteran ultrarunners, who drop out. All entrants attempting 50 miles for the first time finish.
1985
Bobbie Dixon (now Pomroy) wins the womens' race in a nationally ranked 6:37:53.
1986
Mike Schmahl receives an IV of Ringers Lactate at 37 miles after sustaining metabolic blowout. He then completes the run in what is still the fastest last-place finish.
1987
Don Kardong runs the event and wins. His awesome article about his experience soon appears in Runner's World, and Le Grizz instantly has national recognition.
1988
Bret Doucett is knocked to the pavement 50 yards from the finish, picks himself up and finishes with bruises and a sprained ankle.
1989
Romel Mackelprang is medically disqualified, but finishes anyway and is reinstated.
1990
A massive storm strikes during the event, completely covering the road with hailstones.
1991
Andy Nicoll runs in a ripped 3-piece suit as a simulated grizzly mauling victim.
1992
Dennis Clute lines up his drop bags in front of the Race Director's truck for delivery to the course. The Race Director runs ‘em right over for him.
1993
The first two dozen finishers are handed 22-oz bottles of Big Bear malt liquor at the finish.
1994
Carlos Tallent completes the event six months after heart bypass surgery.
1995
A bandit runner finishes second in 5:52:26.
1996
Jim McKenzie & Colleen Marrinan attend for their honeymoon, get Le Grizz aprons.
1997
Burt Carlson, 72, runs across the dam he helped construct 48 years before, wearing the same hard hat.
1998
Le Grizz finally gets some respect as the Montana USATF 50-Mile Championship.
1999
Matt Darrington, 12, completes the run.
2000
Dan Brendan carries amputee wife across the finish line, demonstrating proper technique for support crew retention.
2001
Maynard Kicking Woman, elder of the Blackfeet Nation, is Master of Ceremonies for the first awarding of the Chief 10 Bears to Skookumtumtum Heaps.
2002
Tarr wins Le Grizz for the 10th time.
2003
Delay of Game: The Official Le Grizz Starting Device failed to fire, so the runners were started by voice. The Race Director then fiddled with the firearm, finally spiking the butt into the ground in desperation. A click was heard, and the R.D. immediately scanned the road for shotgun parts. Turned out the firing pin had been knocked free, so a shot was fired, carrying the message down course to the runners, “Gun works now.”
2004
Entrants at the starting line experienced the first “Test Firing” of The Official Le Grizz Starting Device, pre-empting a recurrence of the 2003 problem noted above. Being unannounced, the sudden 12 gauge blast scared some and incited others to commence running. Turned out to be a great way to instantly get the chattering field’s undivided attention for the pre-race announcements.
2005
Skookumtumtum Heaps has completed every Le Grizz, sometimes under considerable duress. This year, thanks to the services of Massage Therapist Debbie Bloomfield, he was able to once again tough it out. For his extra effort he received the now-coveted Cialis Award. The inscription “I had to seek medical attention at Le Grizz” says it all.
2006
Jack the dog takes charge, showing Bob Hayes the way to his 10th Le Grizz completion at age 80.
2007
Yes, it IS all about you. This year belonged to the ladies, both a record number (29) and percentage (34%) of finishers. Cindy Weaver, 50, won the Seniors Division in her 1st 50 (above). Le Grizz veterans Margaret Smith and Allie Wood finished together (lower left). Kendra Borgmann, backed by support crew Jenny Newton, kept warm after nearly besting the 22-year-old Women’s Course Record (lower right).
2008
The Melee in Couer d’Alene: Skookumtumtum Heaps got in an altercation with a gas pump hose en route to Le Grizz. Bill Greene was thoughtful enough to capture the moment in a handmade poster taped inside his vehicle window at the starting camp (left). We hadn’t seen this look since the days of the Grizzly Bear Artificial Insemination Team. Skookumtumtum was also recovering from cancer treatment, yet continued to log another completion (right) in spite of his latest adversities.
2009
Boise Ultra Gang savages Le Grizz. A half-dozen young runners and their support crew pillaged their way from southwestern Idaho, all sporting catastrophe-orange T-shirts captioned front and back (below) and non-matching knitted caps with teddy-bear ears, horns, pac-man teeth and other motifs of the goofball culture. Most were first-timers at 50 miles, but all finished in grand buffoon style, and by all indications persevered in their festivities beyond the finish.
2010
Gunhild Swanson wins the Seniors Division as the oldest woman to ever run Le Grizz.
2011
Mark Tarr, upon completion of his 20th le Grizz, is presented a quilt of his T-shirts by his wife Yvonne.
2012
Crew vehicle slides off wet road, perches precariously. Extracted by wrecker.
2013
Six of our eight Chief 10 Bears recipients reunited with Blackfeet elder Maynard Kicking Woman to confirm Chief candidate Jim Ballard and 2011 Chief recipient Mark Tarr. A confirmation includes bestowing a Blackfeet name. As it will be at least six years before another Chief candidate may emerge, the meeting served as a possible final gathering for our brotherhood of Chiefs. Mr. Kicking Woman takes a Chief confirmation quite seriously, and only other Chiefs and invited witnesses such as family or those appreciative of tribal lore may attend them. The Blackfeet names that are bestowed are private honors. The R.D., who never attends confirmations, knows the names, but has not and never will publish them.
2014
In spite of heavy rain/hail during the afternoon, the event was well attended, in part as a farewell to Pat Caffrey, who is retiring as Race Director after serving 33 years. Three of the nine Chief Ten Bears recipients competed, and all the other six were in attendance. Heather Cauffman and Will Hammerquist were introduced as prospective race managers starting in 2015.