Hardrock 100 mile race

This year I carried a video camera with me around the course, and put together this little vignette (OK, it's 37 minutes long) of the race experience. This was my first attempt at making a movie, and I'll humbly say I think it turned out pretty well. I hope it gives a runner's perspective on the race, as well as highlighting the incredible scenery that surrounds this rugged course.

As a bit of an overall review of the race, this was my third finish at Hardrock, and unfortunately ended up being my slowest. I ran very well for the first 65 miles, and then my legs blew from a lack of sufficient training and I hobbled in over the remainder of the course. This was a disappointing and painful way to finish, although my overall time and placing was still quite respectable. I was very encouraged to see that I was running in the top ten up until I cracked, which gives me hope for taking that through to the finish in another attempt sometime. It is in me, I can feel it...

This course humbles you, and is always hard.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Hardrock 2009 - A Runner's Journey from lonerunman on Vimeo.

Hardrock preliminary report

Finish time: 35:03
Placing: 14th / 98 finishers / 140 starters

I wrote this up in the car in my Blackberry as Martha and I were heading back to SLC to fly home. I will put a more detailed report and pictures up here in the coming days, but here is a quick recap:

I was happy with the run overall, making some good time on the flats
and downhills. The steep, STEEP climbs just ate my legs to the point
where I was staggering like a drunk going up. It may have been the
altitude, but my climbing legs just weren't what I wanted them to be.
I am very happy with the overall result, though I feel I did not run
optimally nor did I reach my time goal of 32 hours (and hopefully, top-10). These are,
however, trivialities compared to being lucky enough to participate
in this magnificent event.

No rain! We got lucky on that count.. Despite no rain, the course was
very wet, and we had soaked feet from mile 2 to the end. Can you say
trench foot? There were very strong winds at night heading over 14000'
Handies Peak that frosted us, but the snow had melted a lot leaving
only a few spans we had to cross.

I got off course heading down a road at night, costing me about an
hour and a quarter, as well as another 1000' of climbing. There were
a lot of people who made the same mistake, but it is our
responsibility to know the course, so I was bummed but sucked it up
and kept going.

Martha was just awesome as my crew once again, providing much-valued
cheer, encouragement and smooches. I felt good all race, so she did
not need to dig into her bag of motivational, first-aid, or
psychoanalysis tricks.

Overall, we had a wonderful time hanging out with old friends and new,
and revelled in the cool environment of Silverton, Ouray, and the
mountains. It was great to see my old friend Howard and new friend Kim
finish their first Hardrocks, ands also to share the race completion
of our other cabin-mates Phill and Dave, among many others too.

And hey, what about that Kyle Skaggs and his 23:23 finish! Holy crap! :-)

Got tons of pictures out on the course, so will let you know when I
get those up too.

Thanks again for your interest and good wishes!

Bruce


To keep me going, I sucked down:

34 NUUN electolyte tablets
65 CarbBoom gels
4 1/2 PB&J sandwiches
1 quinoa/lentil wrap
2 bananas
1 popsicle
2 cups chicken soup (which I puked up intermittently for 2 hours from
Virginius Pass to Ouray...)
3 saltine crackers

Gear:
ENDoutdoor Stumptown 10 shoes (9.5 ozs!)
Nathan HPL008 hydration pack
Nathan X-trainer Mutation bottle belt
Team NUUN Patagonia silkweight shirt
Dahlgren Outdoor XT wool/alpaca socks
Patagonia Spectre jacket
Patagonia wool R3 jersey
Patagonia ultra shorts
Patagonia Aerius bucket hat
YakTrax
Trek 7 green LED flashlight
Black Diamond headlight
DirtyGirl gaiters
Arm warmers
Native sunglasses
iPod nano