After reading about his father pacing a friend to two second-place finishes in the Leadville 100 during the early ‘90s and seeing a graph in the Denver Post showing the athletes at the starting line versus those who finished the grueling high-altitude race, Hal decided to take up ultrarunning and become one of the latter group. Since that day he’s thrown himself full-force into the mountains surrounding his Parker, Colorado home with great success. The current course record holder at the Catalina 100, Rocky Mountain Double Marathon, Black Canyon 50K and Bear 100 (which he won every year from 1999 – 2002), Hal recently took second at the USATF 50M Trail Championship. “Ultrarunning encompasses everything from solitude to competition to camaraderie,” he says of the sport’s allure. “It is experiencing life at one of its most unique levels or heightened states of awareness.” While he aims for the podium at the country’s biggest races, Hal has other goals to knock off on the way—like the Colorado Trail speed record that he plans to claim with fellow Montrail runner Ian Torrence in the fall of 2003. As for his reason for lacing up the trail shoes, Hal’s already checked that one off, joining the second group at Leadville with a finish that matched his father’s pace.