November 1, 2002 Ultrarunners of the Month - October 2002, Presented by Ultrafit Sports Chad Ricklefs  Chad Ricklefs, 35, of Boulder, CO, won the USA National 100K Championship on October 19th in a personal best time of 7:09:29.  Ricklefs was coming off a course record run at the  Leadville 100 Mile Trail Run in Colorado this past August. He is also the defending champion of the country's largest and oldest ultramarathon in the country, the JFK 50 Miler in Maryland.      Connie Gardner  Connie Gardner, 38  of Medina, OH won the women's title at the National 100K Championship in 8:30:32.  Running near perfect splits for the 62.1 distance (4:14 for the first half, 4:16 for the second half) Gardner pulled away from a tight pack of four women at about 60 kilometers to take her first national title.  A relative newcomer to the ultradistances, Gardner placed fourth at the National 50K Championships in March and then followed that up with a strong win (17:21:38) at the Umstead 100 Miler in North Carolina.  Both Gardner and Ricklefs earned automatic spots on the 2003 National 100K Team that will compete in Taiwan in November.  Congratulations to these two outstanding champions.