Part V: Sherman to Grouse Gulch

My original plan had called on me to really attack this part of the course, from Sherman all the way to Ouray. Yeah, it’s a pretty big climb from Sherman, about 9,500 feet, up to the roof of the course on Handies (14,048 feet), but I’ve hiked over 50 14ers since I moved to Colorado so I wasn’t too scared. I was hoping I could hammer down off Handies to the aid station, use Shad as my whipping boy to get up Engineer, then bomb down into Ouray for a quick brew.

Felt good coming out of Sherman, hanging out with Tyler Curiel and Scott Eppelman, two guys who I couldn’t hold a candle to back in Texas but were back with me due to the slightly bigger hills and slightly higher altitude in Colorado than San Antonio.

We head up on Cinnamon Pass road at a good hike. It’s not a huge climb and I should be running here, but I need to let my stomach settle from all the food I ate at Sherman. We’re soon joined by Betsy Nye, a former winner of the race. It’s a nice stretch, some good conversation to go with the familiarity of the road (besides doing it at Hardrock last year I’ve also been on the road to get to the Red Cloud/Sunshine trailhead).

Soon we hit Burrows Park and I see the shitter I hid in the previous year because Melissa wouldn’t let me take a break. I quickly refill my water bottles from some jugs hidden under a bridge, and head up through Grizzly Gulch on my way to Handies Peak.

It’s here I have my first, and last, low point of the day. I just got into a funk and it stayed with me for the entire climb. Tyler and Scott pulled away from me here, a real kick in the junk to get my ass handed to me by some Texans on a 14er. I just felt really tired, like “it’s way past my bedtime” tired, not physically exhausted, which was weird for 3PM. I never promised to quit running forever, as I usually do during an ultra, but I remember thinking that when I finished this direction of Hardrock I would have nothing to prove anymore and I wouldn’t have to return.

But I kept plugging away and for as bad as I felt, I wasn’t losing too much ground. I don’t think I was passed on this section, even though I felt like I was going very slow. Shortly before treeline it started raining and I had to put on my GoLite jacket. The weather didn’t get too bad though, and right before the summit I looked back and found myself looking down at a rainbow.

Arriving at the summit of Handies, I stopped to sign the 14ers.com log book. I was passed by five runners while doing this. I checked for Scott Jamie’s name, but it wasn’t there, proving my theory that he had to cheat to win our bet! I was the first runner to sign the log that day.

Didn’t waste too much time on Handies and soon began the run down through American Basin. My uphill blues soon went away as I was able to run most of the way back down to Grouse Gulch. This part is one of my favorite sections of the course, nothing to see but mountains and wildflowers and lakes and marmots (not that that’s different from anywhere else on the course, but for some reason this section sticks out to me).

At one point before the aid station I was running down some narrow singletrack and there was a marmot on the trail. I figured he’d just scamper off into the rocks but he just stood there. Right before I ran him over he turned around and took off down the trail as fast as he could. I was amused, and picked up my pace to catch the guy. The marmot looked back, saw me gaining, and surged! Great stuff! Didn’t last very long, as marmots aren’t the most fit animals on the planet, and right before I got close enough to step on him he jumped off the trail and disappeared.

Really got some confidence back on the downhill, and I was looking forward to downing my first bacon cheeseburger and picking up my first pacer. Entered the aid station at 18:31 and left at 18:39. It’s not quite the effort required to be a champion competitive eater but it’s not a bad time for a Purple Castle burger.

pics

Blake Wood took a ton of pics from Hardrock, see 'em here.

Incline happy hour

Small turnout but a great time!

underdogs

Pitt is listed as 70/1 odds to win the BCS title this season.

That'll make it all the more sweeter when the Panthers run the table!

two more!

Just dropped regos in the mail for the Cheyenne Canyon Mountain Race on July 26 and the local YMCA Mud Run on August 1. Probably won't run very well in either of 'em, but they look like fun and the hard effort will hopefully help keep some fitness until Leadville. The schwag at Cheyenne Canyon is pretty sweet - a cowbell and a pint at Bristol!

Also volunteering at the Women's Distance Festival this Saturday morning. John O bribed me with another sweet t-shirt. So all you chicks should come down and see me there. I'll probably be doing some kind of course direction gig, looking all official when in reality I'm just checking out the tons of hot women there. Remember ladies, it's gonna be hot this Saturday and the best way to avoid heatstroke is to wear as little as possible!

Ran twice since Hardrock. Last night I did three miles from the CRC, and this morning another three out to Graffiti Falls and back. Little stiff, but feeling pretty good.

Part IV: Pole Creek to Sherman

Really felt on top of the game during this section. There's a small climb (about 1,000 feet - tiny by Hardrock standards) from the Pole Creek aid station up to Cataract Lake. It's not terribly steep and I was able to run a lot of it, passing quite a few runners.

After the lake it's a 3,500 foot drop down to the next aid station and I had a blast running the entire thing. I got a feeling here that I was gonna be able to finish the race, and it was such an awesome feeling to know that all the hard work was gonna pay off. The views were incredible, the people around me were incredible, the effort was nothing, and I was having such a great time I remember thinking "it's a great day to be alive and in the mountains." Just one of those moments where I realize why I do all this crazy shit.

I laugh several times down the hill, including when I pass two places where Melissa allowed me to take 20 minute naps last year!

Soon the fun is over and I'm at the Sherman aid station. After escaping an overzealous volunteer I grab a seat and start to shovel down the yummy mac & cheese. Gawd that stuff was like heaven!

Funny moment at the aid station as well. Despite several pounds of vaseoline the lining of my shorts continued to chafe my nutsack. That was the only problem I was having at that point, and I worried how much shit I'd take if I had to drop from Hardrock for that. I asked a medic for scissors. He gave me a super heavy duty pair, the kind you could cut through clothes with, and I reached down the front of my shorts...drawing all kinds of stunned looks from the peeps at the aid station. But don't worry ladies, I only cut the lining out of the shorts.

Into Sherman at 13:41, out at 13:49. 28.7 miles, over a quarter of the way there with Handies Peak looming.

Part III: Maggie Gulch to Pole Creek

Fairly uneventful section. One of the more runnable parts of the course. You're on the continental divide here, so the views of the surrounding mountains are spectacular. Last year this part of the course was a mud pit and it took me forever, but this year it's pretty dry and I run almost the entire thing. Mr. East Coast takes off and pulls away from me here.

Enter the Pole Creek aid station at 11:31 and am out at 11:33. 19.6 miles down.

woohooo!

Just got tix to see Micheal Franti & Spearhead at Red Rocks on July 29!

RIP

Guess I've known this for a long time and have been in denial, but it looks like Rosie's brewpub in Leadville has closed. The country's highest brewpub, I would go there often after my mountain adventures to refuel on the Mt. Massive Malt Liquor. In fact, besides Trinity and Arctic, it was my most visited brewbub. Last time I was there was back in January after the snowshoe race, and they've been closed every trip I've made to the area since then. And I just tried to call 'em, but the phone number has been disconnected. Sigh...

Methinks some kind of unofficial memorial service will be held after the Leadville 100.

Part II: Cunningham Gulch to Maggie Gulch

I got to leave CG with Diane Van Deren, who was featured in a front page NY Times article the day before. Really nice to get to chat with her for a bit, quite an amazing person.

Soon we started one of my most dreaded climbs of the day, up to Green Mountain. 2,500 feet, basically straight up a cliff. I remembered it from last year when Melissa and I were running down it, saying how much it would suck to have to run up it.

I settled into a strong hike, dropped Ms. Van Deren, and actually started passing quite a few people. I was not pushing very hard but I was making up a lot of ground on people in front of me. It was my first of many good climbs I'd have during the race.

Slow and steady, I finally reached the top of Green Mountain and broke into a run. It was such an awesome feeling, I had just finished the climb I was dreading most and I felt great. From Green Mountain I was able to run most of the way to the next aid station. Hooked up with a runner from Virginia, who I'll call Mr. East Coast since I can't remember his name, and we started some friendly banter after I told him I was always embarassed when I was losing to sea level guys. He did tell me he was a former top five finisher at Hardrock, so at least I wasn't losing to a sea level scrub.

Up and over Buffalo Boy Ridge and down to Maggie Gulch. Mountains and wildflowers everywhere I looked! Same drill at the aid station - took in a ton of food and liquid, refilled my water bottles, and took off. Into Maggie at 10:33, out at 10:35. Two aid stations, four minutes total, not too shabby. 15.3 miles down.

Part I: Silverton to Cunningham

"...5...4...3...2...1...get out of here!" Guess it's the same thing every year. I had been working my ass off since the end of October for this, and Hardrock '09 began with RD Dale Garland yelling at me to leave.

The first half mile or so is probably the easiest terrain I'll see all race. Nice jog through the tiny mountain town of Silverton on the dirt roads (I think Silverton only has one paved road, and we pretty much avoid it), with lots of locals out cheering for us runners.

We soon head out of town and the fun begins. Around two miles in we cross our first stream. I have to laugh at myself as I remember the year before when this five inch deep creek had brought me to my knees in near defeat. After the stream we begin the first climb of the day, about four miles straight up to Dives-Little Giant pass just above 13,000 feet. Runners are still grouped together here, and I fall into a gaggle moving slower than I want to, but I play it safe and tag along.

Soon enough we're at the pass. Everyone bombs off down the mountain, but I think it's too early for that kind of effort and hike/jog down the technical descent. Before too long I can see the Cunningham Gulch aid station several thousand feet below. I'm psyched to see CG and I pick up the pace a bit. After a long downhill and another creek crossing I'm already at the first aid station.

I enter Cunningham at 8:29, chug some ensure, eat one of Katie's delicious turkey and cheese bagels, refill my water bottles, and head out at 8:31. 9.2 miles are now behind me. I'm about 20 minutes behind schedule, but I'm feeling terrific and have a feeling that this race is gonna be a much more enjoyable experience than the year before.

you guessed it...even more HR pics!

Katie's pics from Hardrock can be seen here. They include our trip to the Bigfoot museum.

more Hardrock pics...

Paul S, who ran from Ouray to the finish, took some awesome pics and videos along the way. They can be seen here.

Hardrock video

Nice video by Kelly K can be seen here. Shows off some good parts of the course.

Grouse Gulch

Took my first extended break of the race at Grouse Gulch. All jokes about my diet aside, I'm sure I felt a lot better after eating a Purple Castle bacon cheeseburger and chugging a PBR than having to get those calories through packets of GU. Check out the sweet Hardrock edition Moeben sleeves we got in the schwag bag! I wore them knowing that I'd hafta throw them out if I DNF'd.

DeWalt finish video

Video of the DeWalt finish. He had hurt his back earlier in the race and continued anyways.

DeWalt finish

pacers

Finish line pic with Paul S on the left and Shad on the right. Those two guys paced me through the night and kept me moving forward. Between 9AM and 5AM this year I probably went at least a dozen miles farther than last year, a big reason for my time improvement.

This was the final paragraph of my write up of last year's Leadville debacle:

"Will I ever do another hundred miler? I’m not sure. I can’t imagine going out on a DNF, especially one as disappointing as this. On the other hand, I really can’t say I’ve enjoyed any of the hundreds I’ve attempted. It’s such a huge financial and time commitment, and I’m not sure it’s worth it in the end. You’d think it would be worth it when you cross the finish line, but I’m always too wasted to enjoy that. I could do well at marathons and even 50 milers with only a quarter of the time spent on training, allowing me to have much more of a life here in Colorado. We’ll see…"

Pretty funny, because right now I wish there was one that started tomorrow that I could go do.

finish!

To officially finish Hardrock you hafta kiss the two ton slab of rock that awaits you at the finish line. You can't see it from this pic, but I'm holding an open can of PBR and a lit cigar. Thanks to Shad for this shot, you can see the rest of his Hardrock pics here. That's Katie in the green shirt and race director Dale Garland on the right.

36:35!!!! Over 6hrs better than last year! still finished with a cigar and a pbr. i actually met him at the river crossing two miles from the finish and revived him with a pbr. without that pretty sure he would have layed down and waited for dewalt...who by the way is almost 2hrs ahead of the cutoff!!! he's the 72 year-old 13 time finisher.

so they just updated and he went through kt at 1411...about an 1hr behind his predicted time. he's picking up speed here during the daytime. he lost 2hrs over the night which was expected since that's when the sandman comes out and puts sand in his vajajay. it was getting pretty warm out there today but we just had a little rain so hopefully it cooled the runners down a bit and he'll be here about 7pm.

as many of you are porbably wondering,"where the hell is jt?" so am i. i am sitting here at the finish line watching people finish, drinking beer, and wondering when they are going update the website. the second woman finished in just under 34 hrs. but that's all i know....except i'm on beer 5:) good times at the silverton hs!

So JT left telluride, 72.8miles, about 700 a little behind his i want to go to the brewery and have a beer after the race time. and here i sit at baked in telluride enjoying a chorizo burrito and coffee...it's a hard life crewing. he was still awake but barely. i think paul has his work cut out for him these last 30miles.

karl meltzer finished at 6:38 this morning. The first woman, Diana Finkel, is currently in third. and if you're wondering on the pbr race....scott jaime is winning. even after suffering or still suffering from a bad stomach. i don't know first hand b/c jt's too slow for me to be at the aid station when scott gets there. he could very well beat him by 12 hrs. that means i better drink the pbr in the cooler before jtgets in so he can't steal mine to give to him.

so i was going to do 1 beer for every ten miles jt runs. there are just 3 little words that prevented me from doing that thus far. MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY! (scariest paved highway in the world...i came close to hitting 6 deer, a moose, and 2 skunks last night) but i have 3 down and will resume my goal once i'm safely in silverton waiting for brownie to finish...which will be at approx 8 tonight.

While JT ran I drank, slept, and picked up some shit for him....guess he's taking full advantage of my crew title. He sent me out for caffeine pills, salt capsules, and his own personal maid. i came back with red bull, snickers, and shad. At 15:30 I decided to drink one with the locals....Pablo and Cindy...at the rum distillary. I had a Tai boxer....which proved to be a great way to start a drive up a "two-way" rocky path with only enough room for one vehicle. that had a sheer drop off on the one side and a cliff on the other. saw JT at grouse gulch at 18:40ish. he's feeling well...looking as good as one can after 42 crucial miles. He said he is officially the michael Johnson or maybe it was michael vick of marmot racing...either way party at his house next saturday...he said to bring your money. He had his first bacon cheeseburger and beer at grouse. pretty sure he had about a dozen awe-strucken volunteers and crew staring at him. his next one is scheduled for, ouray, hopefully a little after midnight with 8 yellow snow, if he can stay awake that late.

Moogy dropped at Sherman which is the aid station right before heading up Handies Peak. Heard he was an hour ahead of Joe but not sure the exact reason. Hell of an attempt anyways.

on-out....more in the morning.

the hardrock website is keeping very good tabs on race thus far. JT got to cunningham gulch at 8:30....a whole 30minutes behind scott jaime and only 9 miles in. way too early to tell but with that kind of split his sponsorship money will be going to scott and not his crew/pacers. but on the bright side that 9miles took him approx 5hrs last year. JT is currently getting chicked by 4 awesome women...he excuse to that, "he got behind some slow people." we'll see about that tonight. everyone looked good out there this morning...it's a beautiful day here in silverton. blues skies, sun is shining, and i get to take a nap. next aid station we'll be running into the wanker will be about 6pm tonight.

and they're off!!! with a full cooler of pbr i'm off to chase them around the san juan's:) first stop...cunningham gulch. brownie's predicted time of arrival 8:00. so hopefully i'll have an update on the pbr race...him vs scott jaime+6hrs around 9:00.

no wait listers made it in this morning which, i gather, is quite unusual. but with almost perfect conditions no one second guessed themselves.

updates

Gave Katie access to my blog for the weekend, so check back for some updates.

Feel good and ready to go. So serious about this I only had five beers and some rum before bed.

it's time!

Off to Silverton. Wish me luck! You can track me here. Should give you something to do all day Friday and most of Saturday.

full moon run

Good times at the Pikes Peak Roadrunners full moon run last night! 4.5 miles through beautiful Red Rock Canyon Open Space, followed by a few PBR's. My last run before Hardrock...

fluid replacement

Thanks to the doc for this one. If you're a fan of bars, you should definitely check out his blog.

Hardrock taper

Taken by BLOS at the Blues Traveler Red Rocks show.

35:59:59

Been keeping this goal under wraps for a while now. It's what I thought I could run last year, but I was more interested in sight seeing and not embarrassing myself for the front page than actually running for time.

Not so this year. It may seem like a stretch to want to run seven hours faster, but I feel I'm in much better shape this time around, and I wasted A LOT of time at the aid stations last year.

After spending the past few days coming up with splits to each aid station, someone posted basically the same numbers to the HR list. Here's what I got. On race day, you'll be able to track me here and see how I'm holding up.

Cunningham Gulch - Friday 8:10AM
Maggie Gulch - Friday 10:15AM
Pole Creek - Friday 11:15AM
Sherman - Friday 1:20PM
Grouse Gulch - Friday 6:00PM*
Engineer - Friday 8:45PM
Ouray - Friday 11:25PM**
Governor Basin - Saturday 2:10AM
Kroger's Canteen - Saturday 3:45AM***
Telluride - Saturday 5:10AM
Chapman Gulch - Saturday 9:30AM
Kamm Traverse - Saturday 1:00PM
Putnam Basin - Saturday 4:00PM
Silverton - Saturday 5:59:59PM

* - pick up Shad
** - pick up Paul S
*** - catch Fast Eddy, who will pass out after drinking a shot of tequila (Paul S is bringing a sharpie for the occasion...)

PBR and King's Chef bacon cheeseburger at Grouse Gulch and Ouray.

Of course, my main goal is still just to finish the thing. I'd be happy with a 47:59:59.

DeWalt - guaranteed tough

Be sure to watch the progress of John DeWalt this weekend. While I hope I live to be 72 - 72! -, this guy keeps on keepin' on and will be going for his 14th Hardrock finish. Think they just make people a little tougher in Pennsylvania!

Also keep your fingers crossed for Neil, he's currently 19th on the wait list...

training

Been a long time since I've been so nervous over a race, so I took a look back at last year's training vs. this year's. I start training for the Hardrock/Leadville double the final weekend of October at the CRUD run. On paper, it looks like I'm much more prepared for this round.

running superfans - ultramarathon