Hardrock 100 1999 report
After a long vacation, I am finally back at home and in the midst of a brand new job. I'll get all my thoughts and experiences down on ‘paper' here for everyone to read… The Badwater crewing report will come in a few days...
NOTE: The race description itself starts a bit farther down, with a section header of "***THE RACE". Look for that if you don't want to read the pre-race stuff.
Trip plan: to pace Eric Robinson at Hardrock for 42 miles, from Grouse Gulch to the finish. I paced Eric last year, over 2 sections totalling 35 miles. I was going up 2 weeks early to socialize and acclimate.
Trip start, June 25 (Friday). I left Albuquerque, bound for Silverton, CO at about 11am, stopping in Durango to buy an old book from a cool used bookstore. I arrived in Silverton around 5 or so, and promptly met Bozena, who was staying at Charlie Thorn's house.
After meeting Bozena, and finding out that Charlie would be in the next day, I went to begin catching up on sleep. Saturday was busy as Charlie and Steve Patillo showed up, and everyone went on trail marking (except me). That evening I met one of the runners, Regis Shivers (Jr), who seemed to be very nice and also very excited about the race. (I also feel obliged to add that I'm a sucker for brown eyes... ;-) )
Lots of other runners were floating in and out, and of course at this point it is hard to remember all the names - and many times I also only remember first names, so please keep this in mind if I don't supply last names for lots of the runners.
Sunday - trail marking, Sherman to Maggie. A long day, lots of fun, met many new people (including Rollin Perry, who drove many of us the 2 hours to get to Sherman; Cathy & Jim Ballard, and Sue Johnston).
Monday - trail marking, Grouse Gulch to Sherman. Glissading ecstasy! Ginny LaForme, Mark, and I even trotted up higher on the snow slopes just to get a better long slide started. :-) Met up with John DeWalt on the way - always a treat. Picked up lots of stones coming down from Handies (my first 14'er summit).
Tuesday - I went to Durango to buy lots of junk food and other supplies for the race. I took the opportunity to develop my film from the trail marking the day before, and also from a few weeks back when Charlie, Steve Patillo, Brian Scott and I went to Grant Swamp pass to install Joel Zucker's memorial plaque.
Wednesday - I went up Kendall mountain, and ran down, hard, with the intent of punishing my quads to test them before the race. While up there I saw an elk and her baby (elkling?) taking a midday rest. That was pretty cool. I passed Gary Wright on his way up on my way down, and we were able to chat for awhile after we both were back in town, sucking on lattes at the Avalanche coffee shop. Unfortunately, on the way down that long rocky road from Kendall, I was feeling some pain in the front of my lower left leg. After I got down, it got worse. That wasn't a good sign. I gingerly touched the area that was bothering me... Nope, not good at all.
That evening I met Eric Robinson (‘my' runner :-) ), who had just arrived in Silverton, and hung out with him and Matt Mahoney. It turns out that Eric and Matt both had had the symptoms I had in my leg - I found out it was Anterior Tibialis tendonitis, and the verdict was to STAY OFF IT. At least for several days, anyway. And ice it, and the usual NSAIDs....
So, aside for meeting new people everyday, which is always great, I was in for about 5 days of boredom in a town with a population of 500. The library and the wonderful Jackie Lighthauser were about all that kept me sane. And another trip to Durango and the wonderful SUPER Wal Mart.
Sometime over the weekend I go on the Maggie - Silverton trail marking trip, and I have to stop at Cunningham (after only 7 miles) because the tendonitis is hurting so much. The fact that I'm injured only hurts a little physically, but its TICKING me off mentally, because I've been looking forward to this race for so long. I want to pace that whole 42 miles - for Eric and for myself. I go back into the ibuprofen and icing regime 100%.
Tuesday - another day off gets a brief respite in setting up tables in the high school gym for Joel's memorial service tomorrow. There I meet up with 2 long time support email friends, Julie Nelson and Heidi Schutt. Heidi is there with her husband Larry to work the merchandise tables and sell their own stuff from Running Delights. Julie is there to crew and pace her husband Jim, and also has their 3 fiesty kids in tow.
Wednesday - Runner check in and long trail briefing in the evening. I also get out and see the last few miles of the course. I still want to be prepared for whatever my tendon will let me do this weekend. After that little jog, I meet up again with Regis and Robert Youngren, who has just arrived in town from Alabama. I first met him last year when he was cleaning up a Grand Slam at Leadville. He now has his normal hair color, and is still running strong.
At this point, I'll rehash some of the stuff I said in an earlier post about arriving 2 weeks early to acclimate. Certainly, there ARE people who can show up just before the race and run well, if not great. Case in point is Hans Put, who came in from New York 2 days before the race, and finished 2nd overall. On the other end of the spectrum are those that show up 2 weeks in advance or more, and do all the course markings, and feel great, and blow up sometime during the race. We are all individuals, with different reactions to altitude. Some people were never meant to go above 7000', some can acclimate well enough to do 29,028'. But for the most part, MOST people will get a huge benefit from arriving 10 days to 3 weeks early to give their bodies a chance to adapt. It is not a sure fire way to success, just as showing up a day before is not a guaranteed way to DNF. Acclimating is a way of ‘stacking the rocks' in your favor. I don't have the authority to speculate on how Robert would have finished, had he shown up 10 days earlier than he did. But he *did* finish, and very well indeed. Congratulations, Robert. :-)
***THE RACE!!! (finally)
Friday - 5:30am, Silverton High School. The adrenaline I imagine to be
in the air is electrifying. It is getting light when everyone begins
their 30 to 49 hour journey, in the glow of a beautiful pink sunrise.
Right after this, Dale Garland (RD), his dad, and the main radio guy ar e about to drive over to the mineral creek crossing (mile 2.?) And I jump in for a ride. We wait awhile for the first runners to come into sight at about 6:25. It is great to see every runner, finally; even in one group at the start, they were all so bunched up it was hard to pick out lots of faces. Everyone gets across the creek by 6:35, with only some stumbles, no complete dunkings or serious falls. So far, so good. 47:25 left on the clock...
After returning to the high school, I meet Julie and Heidi, and we all go to breakfast.
At some point on Friday I planned to sleep in preparation for the night ahead. I had made up my mind to start pacing Eric at Grouse Gulch, as planned, and see what happens with my tendonitis. Eric's parents were going to meet him at several aid stations along the way, but I wasn't particularly interested in being in a car all day. I wander back to the gym at about 10am and immediately find work at the Com table, entering runner data into the computer database (the reason why results with splits were available right after the finish). I work there for the next 10 hours, and find it addicting to be SO connected to the race. We hear all the radio transmissions between aid stations, and hear when each runner goes in and out of the stations. Twice, at 2pm and 5pm, I break away to post an update to the Ultra list. After that I lose my connection (the library closes), and I am unable to answer all the emails I get about how particular runners are doing. Sorry bout that - no time! The Ultra list will have to wait from 5pm Friday until approximately 5pm Sunday for any more results from Silverton. Poor guys... (that's not sarcastic)
By 8pm I was very tired, and decided to take a quick nap before meeting up with Eric's mom to go to Grouse Gulch around 10. Due to adrenaline and circumstances, I only sleep about 5 minutes. Oh well, I tried.
We made it up to Grouse around 11pm, and settled in for a few hours wait for Eric and Bob Ross(his pacer for that section). Got to see some great runners in and out of there - all three lead women, who were within minutes of each other: Betsy Kahlmeyer, Betsy Nye, and Sue Johnston. I got a tip from Steve Simmons before the race to watch out for Sue, and he appears to know what he was talking about - she was looking great. Also saw... Tyler Curiel, sportin' some polka dot Clifton tights, Regis, getting the full service treatment from his family, and many others... I was around when Tim Hewitt was doing is now-famous technicolor yawn on all fours, but I missed it. Way to tough it out, Tim. :)
At some point we heard Eric had come through Engineer at 11:30pm, which meant he should be at Grouse in about 2 hours, at 1:30. I got everything loaded up (I was using a small backpack again this year, after trying out a waist pack and HATING the bounce of it) and dressed warmly for the trip up Handies, and waited.
Eric rolled in right on time at 1:40, and promptly let us know that he would leave by 2am. He sat down and allowed an inspection of his feet by Mom, and got new socks, along with grilled cheese and a breakfast burrito (full service, this aid station!). Soon enough, we were ready to go, at 1:58am.
Up, up, up.... We hit the Grouse-American pass at 3:30, when my Princeton Tec 4aa flashlight conked out. Only 90 minutes on fresh batteries - sheesh. Eric, who had the same flashlight, was having no problems. I got out my other one, a 2AA of the same variety, and we went on. The batteries in that one would thankfully last the next 2 hours until daylight.
Going down into American Basin was.... interesting. We couldn't figure out the best way to do it, since the snow was rock hard - way too hard to glissade on - and at a steep enough angle to freak us out. Eric made his way down on some rocky stretches, and I sort of glissaded in a squat position. That actually worked pretty well, because the tread in my shoes was so aggressive I couldn't go very fast.
We made it down, and picked up the trail again on the way to Sloan Lake, and the punch. Once punched, on we went again towards Handies, sucking on Gu on the way. Right after the punch, I spied a Powergel wrapper on the ground and bent over to pick it up, and was immediately plagued with a sharp chest pain, which lasted all the rest of the way to the top. I was concerned about it, since I've had ‘excercise induced angina' before, but not this bad. I had to breathe very shallowly to keep it under control.
A few hundred feet from the top, I turned off my light and was in awe at the coming dawn. This was the first time I had been out at that time of day, and it was great! We got to the top, and I blinded us by taking a self portrait of Eric and I with the flash on. After reaching the top, somehow my chest pain had gone away, and I finally realised what it was, so I told Eric. A few years ago I had the same thing, and found out that it was likely a form of ‘tendonitis' of the cartilage between the Sternum and one of the ribs, called CostoChondritis (swelling of the intercostal tissue). It made perfect sense, since it hurt at every breath, and it started with a sudden move (picking up that wrapper). I felt much better, since if it was true heart pain I would have freaked out a bit more. (YOU'RE WELCOME, Powergel litterbug!)
Anyway... a small crisis was resolved, and now we were looking at one of the most "fun" parts of the course: the descent into Boulder Gulch towards Sherman. All I can say if you haven't been on it is: "Ow, my knees!". We made it down okay, with the strange occurance of a double fall on the lower trail. Eric skidded on some loose rocks and went down hard, with me watching. He was getting up and looking at me a little dazed, when I stepped on a big rock that decided at that moment to obey gravity. That meant I had to obey gravity, too, and I landed hard on my ass. Ouch. Well, aside from the humorous value, I was unscathed, as was Eric from his fall. Good thing.
We (practically) rolled into Sherman (70mi) at 7am. This aid station won for best service and nicest people - they just hovered around us and catered to every request. I never found out where the garbage bag was... everytime I uttered the word ‘garbage' or ‘trash' an open hand would magically appear in front of me to take it. Amazing. They made Eric an extra strong coffee, but only after he fell asleep eating a sandwich. He said he had a dream about eating a sandwich. Hehe. :-)
I made a bad decision at Sherman. My tendon was bothering me down Boulder Gulch, and I should have listened. But by the time I had sat down for a few minutes, it felt better, and uphill walking doesn't bother it much. I decided to keep going. Besides, I was having fun with Eric. Why should I stay at the aid station and wait hours for someone to give me a ride back to Silverton?
Off we went. The stretch between Sherman and Pole Creek aid station is loooooong. It seems the aid station will never come. Lots of up, lots of flat, and several stream crossings later, we get there. Somewhere in that stretch I inadvertently practice my sleepwalking skills. I would be walking along the singletrack trail, absently following Eric's heels, and then I would.... zone out a bit. After a bit, I would look around and wonder for a few brief moments what I was doing there, and who that guy in front of me on the trail was. It was really weird to get disconnected like that. Freaky and kind of cool at the same time.
At Pole Creek (79mi), Eric got another sandwich (he discovered a new favorite at Sherman: cheese and mayo) and I got a stale bagel. It was okay, I guess. I finally was feeling good enough to eat solid food. (Earlier my stomach was a little queasy - I couldn't fathom chewing and swallowing food) That perked us up a bit, and we slogged off towards Maggie.
Another long, slow stretch... over this whole section since Grouse we were averaging 2 miles per hour. Eric was feeling unusually tired, not hurting really, just out of energy. He tried jogging a little a few times, but only could keep it up a short distance. We kept a good walking pace, but walking was about all we did for 25 miles.
Coming down the last steep trail into Maggie, my tendon had had it, and so had I. It hurt just to stand up. If I could get a ride out of Maggie, I would stop there, but otherwise, I would face a 4 mile, steep walk down to the highway to get a ride to Silverton. If that were the only option, I would keep going to Cunningham with Eric, since there are only 4 downhill miles on that section anyway, and his mom would be there to drive me back. The downhills, by the way, are what really abuse the tendon. Uphills don't bother it (much).
It turned out that even though pacers are not supposed to stop at Maggie, it was Pacer Drop Out Central there. Another pacer was already there waiting for a ride to town, having stopped after taking his runner all the way from Ouray (about 42 miles). It didn't look like a ride was forthcoming, so I started out with Eric. We got a hundred meters or so, when I heard shouting from the aid station. A vehicle was just pulling up - a ride! I went back to check it out, and Eric went on, knowing I could catch up if whomever it was with the truck wasn't going back to Silverton. It turned out it was the wife of a pacer, who was somewhere between Maggie and Cunningham, headed back towards us (so we thought). He had fallen behind his runner (Tyler Curiel, I think), and decided to go back to Maggie. Why, I don't know, since there is much better access to Cunningham. So his wife was trying to find him. We waited over a half an hour, long past when he should have been back, when we heard a radio message that he was in Silverton at the high school. He had gone to Cunningham anyway, and got a ride to town with someone. So Chris (the other pacer waiting) and I piled in the truck with this woman (I forgot the name...) and her kids, and we rocketed down the road.
After getting back to town, I realized I couldn't get any new clothes or anything, since my truck keys were with Eric's mom at Cunningham. So I just hung out, chatted with people, watched several people finish, and waiting for her to come back from Cunningham after Eric had passed through.
After leaving Maggie, Eric realized that the slow section we had just done was exactly what he needed to recover a bit for the final push. He regained some energy, and cruised into Cunningham, where Bob Ross (his mom's husband) was waiting to pace the last stretch. Good thing, since Bob is fast. And Eric was finally ready to go fast. The last 9.2 miles are wickedly steep, both up and down, until the last 3 miles, which are rolling gently. Most people at this time in the race take 3 ½ to 4 hours to do the section. After dark, they take close to 5. Eric left Cunningham at 4pm, and actually started to consider the fact that he *could* finish under 37 hours (7pm). Last year, with better training, his finishing time was 38:32:xx. Bob was thinking the same thing, as they sped off towards Silverton.
I was in town, wondering what was going on. At 5:30 or so, Eric's mom showed up, and I got some warmer clothes finally. She said the two of them looked great when they left, and even stripped down to just shorts and one layer on top for a fast finish. She thought they might be in around 7:30 or so. We kept watch, just in case they went faster. We watch several more runners finish, but no Eric yet. At about 6:55, we see two runners coming, but with bad eyesight neither of us can identify them. It *looks* like them, and it looks like the right clothes, but we're not even sure until they are less than a block away. Just a few minutes earlier, I had made a mental note that if they didn't come around the corner for the last few blocks *right then*, Eric couldn't break 37 hours. Well, it was them, and finally we screamed and cheered as Eric practically sprinted in to the tape, at 36:59:03, and immediately jumped on top of the Hardrock, standing up there with a huge grin on his face. We reminded him to kiss the Hardrock, and he kissed his hand, then slapped the rock. (cheater) ;-)
That was it. The anticlimax of the last 38 hours. We all just wanted to get some sleep, then.
Its really hard (unless you've just finished the race, I suppose) to go to sleep that second night of hardrock. I wanted to stay up and see everyone finish! I felt I wasn't being a good spectator by not cheering in those 9pm, 1am, 4am finishers. But I slept, anyway.
The next morning we all assembled at the gym at about 5am, to see the last few runners in, and also see about 4 runners finish after the cutoff, including Bozena in 48:30, and Todd Burgess, in a heart-wrenching 48:03, all because he got off course and lost a few minutes in the last few miles.
People milled around from then until 9am, when the awards ceremony is held. Results were available at about 8:30, with complete splits for the aid stations, a survey, and 2000 applications included. Excellent job, everyone, to get those out! :-)
The awards were great, the food was great, but the fruit was frozen, again. Other than that - a great time was had by all.
Jeez that was long. Thanks for reading. See you at the race next year, when I will be sporting my own race number. :-)
Andrea
______________________________________________________________
_/\_ "Obsession has to | Andrea Feucht
\ / have action" | foyt@hotmail.com
|/\| | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Neil Peart | http://tenacity.net
______________________________________________________________
Back to the Hardrock Hundred Homepage