By all appearances, Craig Hunt seems like a reasonable, well-adjusted guy. His voice is calm and modulated, nary a hint of fanaticism seeping through. He runs a lot, sure, road marathons and trail ultras, but that’s not unusual for those in his cohort.
But when Hunt, 33 and the cross country coach at Coconino Community College, speaks about his race calendar in mid-April, some might question his judgment, if not his sanity.
On April 15, Hunt will compete in the elite field in the Boston Marathon. No surprise there; he owns a marathon PR of 2:15:29 and ran in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. It’s what he’s doing 11 days later in Auburn, Calif., that’s eye-popping (or at least brow-raising). Hunt is expected to turn around and run The Canyons 100K, featuring just shy of 11,00 feet in elevation gain, in hopes of finishing in the top two and gaining a “Golden Ticket” to June’s iconic Western States 100 Mile.
His impetus? Hunt finished just one place shy (fourth) in February’s Black Canyon 100K, another “Golden Ticket” race.
(One caveat: Hunt currently is on the waiting list for The Canyons, since his decision to run came after registration closed, but it is likely a runner of his caliber will be added.)
Asked about the back-to-back challenges, Hunt seemed unfazed.
“That’s my rough plan,” he said in a recent interview. “That would kind of be a big double.”
That’s certainly an understatement. But then Hunt is accustomed to toggling between road and trail racing. And, lately, much of his success has come in trail ultras.
In 2023, Hunt stormed through Northern California’s “shorter” ultra scene, winning the competitive Way Too Cool 50K in the Auburn trails in a swift 3:23:13 on a muddy, rainy course. Three weeks later, he finished second (in 6:32:17) at the American River 50 Miler from Folsom to Auburn.
Running Western States has been a goal, Hunt said, but not an all-consuming one. Hunt has an eclectic racing schedule. His track background is evident in his success at shorter trail races, and he holds his own against pro road marathoners, too.
February’s Black Canyon 100K, however, was a race Hunt wanted to win – if only for redemption from his effort in 2021, when he had the lead after about 50 miles (of the 62.1) but had to drop out with a calf injury. This time, Hunt intentionally began conservatively and picked up the pace as the day progressed. Late, he started picking off people, passing four runners in the final 3.6-mile stretch, on which he averaged 6:06 per mile – a Black Canyon record for that final segment.
I crossed the line and had a huge smile on my face. … But then it hits you the next day – I wish I’d gotten it.
— Craig Hunt
But it wasn’t enough to catch Chris Myers for third place, Hunt finishing about three minutes back at 7:46:39. (Interestingly, Hunt beat Myers in last year’s Way Too Cool.) Black Canyon, which featured a loaded field, was won by ex-Southern Utah University runner Hayden Hawks, whom Flagstaff people may remember from his days challenging NAU cross country runners in the Big Sky Conference.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Hunt said of his race. “I didn’t get a Golden Ticket, but I did run really well. My mindset going into it wasn’t necessarily to get a Golden Ticket, but that was a bonus, like, the reward for running well. I really just wanted to be competitive with some of the best 100K runners in the country. I just wanted to prove (this year) that I could do it and be competitive.
“I feel like I stuck to my race plan well and closed really hard, the fastest finish ever on that course. Obviously, I look back and think I could’ve run a little quicker in the beginning. But, then again, would I have had the fast finish if I’d used a little more at the beginning. Ultimately, I’m happy. I crossed the line and had a huge smile on my face. … But then it hits you the next day – I wish I’d gotten it, wish I had two or three more minutes. That’s what got to me to reach and try to run The Canyons 100K. Afterwards, I got a little more hungry for (the Golden Ticket), whereas before it wasn’t my main goal.”
What really impresses is that Hunt posted such a strong run smack in the middle of his Boston Marathon training block. But Hunt said he considers himself a “hybrid” runner and that trading off road and trail running is complementary and helps him in both. (In college, he was a Division 1 runner at Central Connecticut State University and a two-time NCAA qualifier.)
“It goes both ways,” he said. “I think road runners can learn a lot from trail runners, and vice versa. When you run a 100K trail race, going for eight hours, it makes a marathon seem way shorter. All of the sudden, the marathon distance – the holy grail of many people’s lives and training – makes it seem easier all of a sudden. ‘Oh, I can go run 2 hours and 15 minutes.’
“Vice versa, a lot of trail runners – we’re used to running 10-, 12-, 20-minute miles if there’s a lot of vert – we could learn a lot if you’ve trained for a road marathon and all of a sudden (on the trail) you’re called up on to run 5:15 pace back to back to back. I don’t know; I get the best of both worlds.”
Despite running for the U.S. in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Innsbruck last June, Hunt is currently unsponsored. But he recently joined forces with coach Ben True, an elite middle- distance track and road (5K) and cross country specialist. True coaches road-turned-trail speedster Lauren Gregory, among others.
If, by chance, Hunt is added to The Canyons, and if he earns a “Golden Ticket,” that would mean Hunt would run Western States on June 29. But, wait, isn’t Hunt already scheduled to run the Broken Arrow Sky Race 46K a week before that? Yes, but not even Hunt thinks that double is feasible – or advisable.
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