Roes is first to finish 100-mile run in backcountry

Geoff Roes, the premier ultra-marathon runner in the U.S., won the inaugural 100-mile race of the Santa Barbara Endurance Races on Friday night, finishing the grueling run in the backcountry in 16 hours, 32 minutes.

Roes reached the finish line at Rancho Oso Western Village at 10:32 p.m. He covered the last 10 miles in about an hour and a half.

He said the winds that swept through the area on Friday nearly knocked him over, and he was glad to finish when he did because the winds made things colder later in the night.

“I had a little taste of the wind at night, when it was getting cold,” he said. “By the time I had to deal with that for an hour or two, I was done. I was pretty fortunate, knowing that for some of the folks that were out all night it was going to be cold.”

As for the course, Roes said the steepest terrain was at at last six miles to the turnaround point at Divide Peak.

“The 12 miles (total) was really just rutty and technical, with lots and lots of steep ups and downs, where you’re going up something so steep you had to walk it a bit, and going down you had to walk,” said Roes.

Roes, a native of New York, last year set the record at Western States 100 (15 hours, 7 minutes, 4 seconds) and has won several other ultra-marathon races since starting the sport in 2006. He reached the 50-mile point at Divide Peak in 8 hours and nine minutes.

The Santa Barbara Endurance Races continued Saturday with races at 100k, 50 miles, 35k, 25k and 15k.

Among the finishers in the 50k (32.16 miles) were 70-something women and good friends Pat DeVita of Granada Hills and Patty Landis of Santa Ynez. They crossed the finish line together in about 10.5 hours.

DeVita, 77, who started running in her 40s and has run in every Los Angeles Marathon, was greeted at the finish line by cheering family members.

“It was beautiful today, but my feet are like hamburger. I got some sand in my shoe and I should have dumped it out,” said DeVita.

She and Landis were in great spirits after the race.

“Still putting one in front of the other… very slowly,” DeVita said with a smile.

DeVita runs as tribute to her daughter, Vicki, an ultra runner who ran the 50k in the first Santa Barbara Endurance Race in 2009 while in remission from cancer.

The cancer returned and Vicki died in November of 2010 at the age of 57.

An award in her honor was created for the women winners in each SBER race.

Pat carried a photo of her daughter on her hydration pack.

“She’s as beautiful as you,” a race supporter yelled to Pat.

Landis felt good running on familiar ground.

“These are my trails where I do a lot of my running,” she said.

Landis said she and DeVita plan to do the Wine Country Marathon next weekend and do an ultra run on the Chamberlain Ranch near Figueroa Mountain the week after.

“I wanted to run 70 miles on my 70th birthday. On my 50th birthday, I ran 50 miles and on my 65th birthday, I ran 62 miles,” Landis said. “My birthday was in February and I haven’t been able to run 70 miles yet because of all the rain and bad weather. So, maybe at Chamberlain Ranch. Hopefully, I can do the 62 miles and then run the eight miles home to Santa Ynez and I’ll have my 70 miles.”