Hopefully I’ll keep myself together better than the old Hardrock, which broke to pieces and had to be replaced with this one for 2012. Hardrock’s here, and I couldn’t be more excited. This is my 5th time running the course, but only my 2nd time around in the clockwise direction around the loop. Just as a reminder, because I doubt anyone is really keeping track, the last time I ran...
Is the “tough” part of the slogan meant to describe the lottery? The lottery for the 2012 Hardrock 100 was on Sunday, and I’m thrilled to report that I got in again. Some say the lottery process is the hardest part of the race. While that’s definitely an exaggeration, if you’re not given a chance to run because you can’t get a number, well then it’s sort of true. This...
When it was all said and done, I kissed the Hardrock on Saturday, 31 hours and 55 minutes after starting the morning before, for 9th place. It was the 4th time in as many attempts to do so, yet despite the experience I’ve accumulated through those years,
Well, it’s not my lucky number, but it’ll do. It’s time for another lap. Hardrock starts tomorrow at six. It’ll be my 4th time participating, and my 3rd trip in the counter-clockwise direction. That is, the race heads towards Lake City, then over Handies Peak, to Ouray, then Telluride, Ophir, and back to Silverton. Familiar as it has become, like a lot of Colorado, the San Juans are still buried...
Island Lake and Ice Lakes Basin – just another one of the awesome views out there on the course. Click any photo to enlarge. The 2010 Hardrock 100 is done and now, a week later, I’m still trying to put it all together. In the days that followed, as I embraced my “recovery”, mostly in the form of sitting on the couch and watching repeats of the days Tour de...
8 works for me. The gun goes off at 6am tomorrow and if all goes well I’ll be back here in Silverton sometime on Saturday, the earlier the better. You can follow the race through the Hardrock Live link on the homepage here. I’m trying to stay optimistic about it but the weather looks pretty bad. I overheard a few people at the pre-race meeting mention heavy rain and even...
The lost interview with Kyle Skaggs, the 2008 Hardrock 100 winner and course-record setter.
Twenty eight minutes. That’s the time it took for the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse to fill up on the morning of December 1st this year. While it may not be quite as hard as the race itself, getting a slot in some of the more popular races can be pretty challenging in itself. As testament to this, a congratulatory email was sent out to all those who got one of...
The race was awesome. Reflecting on it briefly here, a few things stick out– I improved on my prior 2007 time, cutting off 1:16, with a good amount of credit due to meeting my goal of getting through aids stops faster. A crash in the early parts slowed me down for a bit, a simplified strategy for food and fluids worked better than my mixed menu last time and the...
You’re only considered to have finished when you kiss the rock. The Hardrock 100 starts tomorrow at 6am, and with any luck could be over sometime Saturday. How will it go? Well, there’s so much to this race, so many variables and unknowns that it’s impossible to say for sure, until it’s over. So I have to fall back on the cliche for my answer– it’s hard telling, not knowing....
We met in Aspen in 2000 and have been happily stuck in the rockies ever since, getting out in the mountains every day we can, in every season and by all means possible. Read More
