Gut Check draws 142 marchers and $35,000 for veterans and first responders

GUNNISON–The ninth annual Gunnison Gut Check drew 142 marchers and raised $35,000 for charities that support veterans and first responders and their families, organizer Justen Mellor reported following the event.

Centered at Gunnison City Park, the event is always the weekend closest to Sept. 11. Marchers walk dirt roads and mountain terrain with about 1,300 feet of elevation change. The event is split into classes by distance and by whether a marcher carries a 35-pound ruck. The full course at just under 26 miles and the half course 16 miles.

Names of winners were not available at press time. Organizers enter race times by hand, and Mellor was still working through 142 records sorted by bib number.

He named two winners, Mike Musto in the individual full light class (carrying a light pack the full 26 miles) and Kati Mason in the individual half light class, with the remainder to be announced soon.

Two finishes stood out. Angel Burnside covered the half course in a standard wheelchair rather than one of the powered track chairs the event offers, with her mother, Brandi Meyer, alongside her. When she reached the finish line, she got out of the chair and walked the last 10 feet.

Christopher Wolff walked the last 10 feet too. Wolff, an Air Force adaptive athlete, gave the motivational speech at the evening program.

"Money raised and participant attendance does not measure our success," Mellor said. "It’s the one person or many whose lives were strengthened (by the) realization they are much better than they ever thought."

Burnside is the reason the Gut Check has an adaptive race at all. When United We March added the 4-mile March of Angels in 2024, the Gunnison Valley Gazette reported it was "named for and inspired by Angel Burnside of Mayfield after she participated in the Gut Check in 2023."

The March of Angels started at 8 a.m., with each participant paired with one "comrade" and track chairs available by reservation.

This year, Burnside skipped the 4 miles and the track chair and took on the 16-mile half ruck in a traditional wheelchair.

Mellor, who was in the crowd for Burnside’s first race and said she had already made an impression on the valley. She had spoken to Gunnison Valley High School students about what the march meant to her. "Her positivity, strength and spirit had the whole school cheering and crying," he said.

Last year she won the March of Angels outright, in 34 minutes 30 seconds, according to the event’s posted 2025 results.

The track chairs available at the Gut Check are partly because of her family. Brandi Meyer said Brock Carter of Track Action Mobility brought extra chairs to the event after she asked, through family friend T.J. Willden and the riding association Full Throttle Full Mag.

Before the marchers departed from the park, about 100 people unfurled Big Betsy, the quarter-acre American flag that weighs roughly 400 pounds and always anchors the weekend.

The timing is deliberate: Saturday’s start went off at 6:46 a.m., which is 8:46 in New York, the minute the first hijacked plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center.

The first Gut Check occurred in 2018, after Mellor marched the Bataan Memorial Death March in New Mexico in 2017 and came home wanting something like it in Sanpete County.

He was not able to serve in the military himself for medical reasons, and the event became his way of paying toward other people’s service. That first year drew 135 participants and raised about $32,000. By 2024 the event was in its seventh year.

This was the third year for Scott Anderson of Gunnison. The distance does not get easier, he said.

"It is always a challenge to do something your mind tells you is dumb to do," he said. "Twenty-five miles is a long way for anyone. You have to be mentally tough to finish, no matter how much training you have put in."

He said the crowd is the reason he keeps signing up.

"I love doing this event because it helps me focus on those who have given so much for the freedoms I enjoy," he said. "Everyone who participates is friendly and encouraging even though most of them are complete strangers."

The marchers were not the only ones on the road. The Call of Liberty Motorcycle Club runs a benefit ride on the same weekend, now in its fourth year.

Club founder Paul “Pablo” Harnett said the group got involved with United We March when the Moving Wall, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, came to Gunnison and organizers asked motorcycle groups to escort it.

“Service is an important part of our club,” Harnett told the Messenger.

With another successful event behind him, Mellor says the day he keeps in mind while working towards the next event is not Sept. 11 but the day after.

"We must remember 9/12/2001 to be worth the sacrifices, work together through all differences," he said. "The greatest strength of our country lies in us, not our government."