From: "Miss Tenacity" Subject: Hardrock pace/race report Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:24:54 PDT Hardrock pace report, ver 2.0 Microsoft Hotmail screwed me over in a big way about 10 minutes ago when it refused to send my 10k-big race report, saying I had to relogin, and it lost the damn message. I will try, this time, to not be brief or cursory due to the frustration I am feeling right now. It was such a great report, too! I paced Eric Robinson this weekend at Hardrock to his first finish and a great performance. I accompanied him on 2 sections, miles 42- 57.5, and 82-101.3, about 1/3 of the race. A precursory note: my roommate's name is Erik, so if I inadvertently misspell Eric as Erik, its my error. I'll try to be careful. The original plan was to stay at 48hr pace the entire way, because he did not know how well his acclimatizing would work. Finishing was the goal, nothing more. His legs had other ideas, as it turned out. That plan would have had me pacing 10:30pm - 5:30am fri/sat, and 6:30pm-6am sat/sun, both night sections - the toughest part of any course. I arrived in Silverton Friday morning of the race at around 1am, stopped for a nap, and made the start at 6, talking with a few people before they took off. I had been in Boulder for the past week attending a conference, which would prove to be quite a detriment to my earlier acclimatizing. Some of the people I saw were suprised to see me, as I had not anticipated coming back to town until mid-day. I got to see the tried-and-true apparel combinations of Joe Clapper, who swears by white collar button-up shirts. Not sure if it was all cotton, though. The rain was still coming down, as it had been for the last 5 days (!), as everyone gathered for the final call and the announcement that since it was Kris Maxfield's birthday, the "starting gun" would be a group rendition of Happy Birthday. Just after the starting song ;-), I met Eric's parents who were making a hasty retreat to the hotel room. They invited me over to hang out and basically took me in for the next 3 days, a real blessing and I appreciated it. I napped a few hours during the day, and also saw Eric at Cunningham, mile 9.x of the race. We weren't sure what time to meet him at Grouse Gulch, where I would start pacing, but I knew we should be very early, just in case. After I got all my stuff together, we made the drive north to the aid station and arrived around 7pm. We cautiously anticipated him at 9pm, but the 48hr pace for this point was 10:30pm. I got myself fueled, eating and drinking while waiting, and talked with some people. Saw Ernst Baer's first pacer, Tom Harms(?), whom we had run into a week ago during one of the trail marking parties. At least I think it was Tom...the guy was tall, handsome, and looked ready to run. ;-) [I had commented to Ernst about this earlier, and he said, 'yes, he gets all the ladies']. Anyway, as I found out later, Ernst was to drop at Grouse for reasons yet unknown, so Tom never got to do his job. I met up with Steve Simmons in the aid station, who had decided to enter the race a few days ago as an addition to the rest of the Grand Slam races he is doing this summer. Steve is tough. I also chatted with Corey, pacer/crew to Jay Hodde, for a few minutes before glacing up the trail to see a runner in black coming down the hill. It was Eric already! I ran to get my pack on so I would be ready, and jogged up to meet him coming into the aid station. He looked fine, if a bit drained. Of course, he had just come over a 14,000 peak, so that would explain it. hehe. He got his bottles refilled and went over to the car to sit for a few minutes in the infamous Chair. I will have a great photo of this available soon - I promise! :) Then we were all ready to go, and it was time. We left the aid station at 8:35, 2hrs ahead. (When I say "x hrs ahead", as I will frequently, it means "ahead of calibrated 48 hour pace", which is adjusted for both terrain and time-of-race) The first climb was Engineer pass, about 5 miles up the jeep road. We speed walked the best we could as it grew dark around us. Lights were coming on here and there as other runners succumbed to their fear of tripping. We refrained, and did very well picking out the light colored rocks from the dark, wet dirt road. At around 10pm, however, shadows appeared in front of us. We turned around to see the full moon rising over a peak to the east. I whooped and hollered, but I guess no one else felt much like howling. In fact, I think someone thought I had hurt myself and that's why I was yelling. Well, if I'm hyper, then I'm just gonna be hyper until it's gone. :) We met up with, and then passed a few runners on the way up, and met Jay Hodde and one of his pacers at the pass. Jay didn't look mah-veh-lous, but I found as the race went on that its very hard to tell what Jay is feeling by what he looks like during a 100. We left them at the top and began and the screaming decent down. That's what Hardrock is. Slow sluggish ascents and speedy screaming descents. If the trail/ground is good enough to run on, that is. Halfway down I stopped to pee, and found that trying to recatch someone on a downhill is near impossible, especially if they are over 6' tall. It took me about 5 minutes to catch up, and by then we were almost on the aid station in the basin. Engineer Aid Station. We stopped in, got some food/beverages, and were off. At this point I also chugged an Albertson's "ensure plus" knockoff, which was very tasty. More experimenting may be necessary, but I think I've figured that if I will be doing any type of running shortly after an aid station, its best to not consume dense liquids or any solid food. My stomach didn't revolt, but it wasn't happy either. But I knew I needed those calories. Out of Engineer at 10:55pm, 2.5 hrs ahead. We were making up time. I liked it, although I did make a comment to Eric about making sure he was there at Chapman (where I would start pacing again) to meet me. I was a little worried at the pace, but he seemed just fine, so I let it drop. We cruised down Bear Creek Canyon on a trail 9" wide with no "shoulder" on the left side. Meaning, a slip could send you down the vertical walls to the bottom. Eric had this to say about the trail, "well, at least you can never get more than 400 feet off course". Good one, Eric. He almost got to test that theory, twice. Both were missteps, one just made him stumble, one put him on the ground with his upper body on the trail and his legs hanging down the slope. Close call, that one. Sometime just after this we met up with Hans and his daughter Rona, who are two of the nicest people I met during those weeks. We passed them, then they caught us a few minutes later as I changed my batteries, then we had to pass them again a little later. I always feel somewhat bad about passing people, especially when they go out of their way to step off the trail and let you by. Thanks, guys. Eventually, the narrow exposed trail was coming to an end, and I hadn't found "my" copper dike I wanted to show Eric. On a training run a few weeks earlier I found a very obvious copper dike in a chute. Bright green and about 8" wide - pretty cool looking. Didn't spot it in the dark, though. So then we got into a "treed" (my word for "sort of woodsy, but not a forest") area, and diverged paths with Bear Creek. We then had a LONG descent ahead of us to the highway below, which was done on ~15-25 switchbacks carved into the rocky hillside, and "paved" with broken shale. Sounds very weird to run on shale, kind of like glass that doesn't break. About 10 knee and quad pounding minutes later, we arrive at the road and cross over the tunnel, descending to the river. Some minor bushwacking was involved to stay on course and we made it to the Uncompaghre. It was cool, not cold, and pretty deep - almost to the top of my legs. The rope was definitely necessary. Then some more bushwacking to get to another trail alongside a big pipeline, which you can walk on or next to. Next to it you have to step over several retaining cables, but only a few. Then we connected with Camp Bird Road, which would be run on later, passed through one end of Box Canyon park, and hit the town of Ouray below. All the way across town was the aid station, and we blew in at 1:24am, now over 4 hours ahead. Fast downhills will really help in this race. Eric consumed for 20 minutes straight (his longest stay at an aid station) and left alone at 1:44. His parents were not hip to his speed, and showed up about an hour later to pick me up. I saw and spoke with several of the runners that were near us on the course: Jay & crew, Rona and Hans, Ralph Adolphs, and Steve, who was now having noticeable foot problems. Two weeks wasn't enough for that skin to heal from Western States. But he went on, as did everyone else I saw. I studied the chart on the wall for a long time, checking out when the leaders had been in/out, and was glad to see that Randy Isler was holding his lead, but it had shrunk a bit to only 10 minutes. When Eric's parents arrived, we returned to Silverton (a very bad idea... we should have just went to Telluride, since we were halfway there in Ouray) for about an hour of sleep before waking to go to Telluride, then bagging the idea for a later start and meeting Eric at Chapman instead. I made the drive to Chapman in 2 hours, which I think is pretty decent. Eric's parents probably left fingernail marks all over the inside of the car. ;-) We thought anytime after 11am for his arrival, so that's about when we got there. Eventually we found out he had left Telluride at 7:44am, and based on other people that had left around the same time, he wasn't expected until after noon. The bugs at this aid station were terrible, and it was also getting hot, so the sunscreen-or-bugspray war was on. I went with sunscreen. I still have blotchy arms after not quite peeling fully after my last sunburn. And I am still itching my mosquito bites today. Jodi Nute was there waiting for Chris, who was doing Hardrock as his first 100. One caveat, however, is that they live in Silverton, so he can train on the course anytime. He had lost speed over the course of the race, so now he was just ahead of Eric. He came in and spent some time refueling before heading out w/pacer. As this was going on, reports were coming over the Ham that the first runner was crossing Mineral Creek (2mi from finish), and that it was Ricky Denisek(sp?), not Randy. :( Ricky, it must be said, has had the perfect training for this race: he has the record for the speed ascent of all Colorado's 14'ers - 12 days. The excitement was pouring from that radio, and everyone perked up a bit in the aid station. A few minutes later, Eric came in looking slightly beat. He had been planning on running the long downhill just before the aid station but he now said that the trail was too rocky most of the way. Bad for the quads. We did all the normal pit-stop things: water, another baggie of nilla wafers (Eric's new sworn-by race food), check for damages, and reasses clothing. He wanted to get rid of his pants and just have shorts and a shell for the rest, but I talked him out of that. We would likely be finishing in the dark, and he would be cold. So the pants stayed. We left Chapman aid station at 12:30pm, 6 hours ahead. According to 48 hour pace, we should take 11.5 hours to finish the last 19 miles, but due to Eric's speed, we had 17.5 hours to play with. The new mission was: finish by midnight. It shouldn't be hard, even with the end-of-race slowdown. There was now the feeling that only a very unusual mishap could prevent him from finishing. Out on the course, we were ascending another canyon towards a pass. Familiar pattern, no? We missed the trail turnoff from the road, but Eric quickly realized it and we found it. We began another long slog, this time heading for Grant-Swamp pass (not the official name). We passed on trails through lots of woods and some grassy inclines before getting to the nitty gritty (the Shitty Gritty comes later) of the low boulder fields. I am amazed at how runners can pick their way across these rocks without twisting an ankle somewhere. Even my mental capacity was diminished, and I had only logged a fraction of the racers' miles. Lots of slow scrambling brought us to the Shitty Gritty, a 100% grade (45 degree angle), 500 meter long rock/dirt slide. The last thing between us and the pass. So up we went, half a step lost for every one placed. A looong time later, we made the top and wasted no time getting down the other side, a similar loose slide area, but a lesser grade so the "glissading" down wasn't quite as terrifying as it would be the other way. When we hit (literally) the trail below, we stopped to do a shoe dump (neither of us wore gaiters) before continuing. Eric discovered at this point that the reason he was getting blisters on his heels was he had worn holes through his socks. I think he'll be a gaiter convert next time, as will I. On-on! Down past Island lake, which was almost frozen over a week ago - now completely melted, and down more to the Ice Lake trail. This was a very runnable trail, so we did. Or, actually, Eric ran and whenever I noticed he had started running I took off after him. He is quite fast on the downhills. My pre-race fear of not being able to keep up with him was coming true. So I was doing all I could to motivate myself to keep up. Telling myself he had been out all day-night-day doing this and that he felt worse than I did, didn't seem to convince me. My brain just kept repeating to me, "I don't care what he feels like - YOU feel exhausted and tired". But I kept up. That was my job. :) We bottomed out at a creek crossing (of course) and started uphill again, now on the Kamm Traverse, a section added after a suggestion from Ulli Kamm. We ascended a little ways and curved around a hillside until we reached the long bench leading gradually down to the aid station. It was too rocky to run, but we walked at a good clip all the way down, which felt good. KT aid station, mile 89.1 We refuel and head off again, me with a turkey-mayo-bug sandwich, my first solid food on the course. The bug was good. It went for the mayo, but ended up stuck in it, and I had no real incentive to pick it out. We left KT at 3:55, 7.25 hours ahead. We were *still* picking up speed relative to the 48hr pace. One thing I did notice was that Eric never really slowed down. He was going the same pace up Engineer as he was up Grant-Swamp and KT. So even though he was getting more tired, the speed just never seemed to be affected. Which is why we kept gaining time on the finishing pace - it assumes a pretty massive slowdown at the end. Up Porcupine creek, we go. Towards a saddle and then a ridgeline which was our last real climb of the race. Going up to the saddle we met Chris Nute and pacer, and passed them at the top. Chris was going to finish, but he looked to be in some discomfort - he later told me his IT had flared up very badly in his knee. These last 2 climbs were noticably slow, especially the last "hill", which is fairly steep. Taking the classic mountaineering rest step was getting to be a routine every minute or so. I was really feeling the altitude and the lack of sleep over the past few nights (and general poor sleep for several weeks). But, of course, we made it, and the lovely Grenadiers were saluting us from the east. >From the ridge I pointed out the aid station to Eric, a small blue dot about 1.5 miles below. We cruised down to it over okay trails and arrived at 6:53pm. We only stayed a minute, even though the log chart shows 9 minutes, and left at 6:55. We were crooo-sin'. There was now the very real chance of finishing before dark, something we never would have hoped for at any other time until just then. I mentioned to Eric that he was now guaranteed to break 40 hours, but it would also not be hard to break 39. That lit his fire, and we were off. Well, he was off - I was chasing again, thinking that this was one of the toughest "workouts" I've ever had. We ran and shuffled over trail and boulder slide, walking very little, hoping for that fast finish and the desire to keep the flashlight in the pack for good. One tiring hour later, we hit Mineral Creek to be greeted by a crowd of people waiting for runners to appear out of the woods. We made the crossing while getting our pictures taken, and darted up the slope to the highway. Then up a little slope to Nute's Chute, a new trail cut into a scree slope in order to eliminate the 1.x miles of highway previously on the course. After negotiating it, Eric found the punch and clipped his number (to verify we had run the chute, not the road). Then up another small incline on Shrine Road as the city of Silverton is shown to us below. It is twilight, still very light out, as we turn off the road to cut down to 14th Street for the final 5 blocks across town. I take off at this point to get ahead for a finish line picture, and immediately feel like I'm in the last 100 yards of a 5k - my legs do not feel like my own, yet they keep moving. I am completely out of glycogen. No matter, its only 5 blocks. I had thought Eric would run fairly fast into the finish, but he doesn't, so I get a pretty big lead on him. He worries for a few moments about being passed in the final blocks by Gordon Hardman, who has gained on us in the last section. But Gordon is too far back, so Eric relaxes and cruises in at 8:32:43pm, a time of 38:32:43. Nine and one-half hours ahead of "schedule", and no need to slog through the dreaded second night. This time his parents made it on time and they are ready with cameras and big cheers. Eric is congratulated by everyone around, including Dale Garland, one of the RDs. We mill around briefly, then decide to get back and shower and sleep. Too bad we did that, since about 45 min later, Chris Nute came in, and since he is a local, there was a virtual gala for him - police sirens, huge crowds, fireworks, etc. He said he almost missed the turn to the finish because he couldn't see through his tears. Quite a nice finish for one's first 100'er. Congrats, Chris. Epilogue: I had a great time pacing, even if Eric did "run my ass off", as I was telling everyone at the finish line. I was very grateful to see the race from the perspective of a runner, and I was also glad to experience the pace required for a good finishing time. It helped me much more than cruising in at 48 hours would have. Eric finished 13th out of 38 finishers, btw. 82 starters. And I'm glad I went through and rehashed this after the Hotmail Fiasco this morning. This version actually turned out longer. Other people: Jay finished with pacer Corey in tow (and they both looked it at the awards ;) ), Steve finished despite his feet, Joel Zucker finished his 3rd straight with 23 minutes to spare, more than his "usual" 10, Randy Isler came in 4th with a PR of over an hour, and my dear friend Joe Clapper finished 6th with a 3 hour PR. :-) Congrats to everyone who finished, AND those who started. This is a race where showing up is admirable. I will leave you with a quote from a running-retarded sports writer for the Durango paper, who wrote a condescending editorial on the race for Friday's paper. He said one quotable thing, and here it is: "These nuts got guts." -Jeff Stegeman Respectfully submitted, Andrea, in Santa Fe ____________________________________________________________ | _/\_ "Learn to buck up" | Andrea Feucht | | \ / -Cake | foyt@hotmail.com | | |/\| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/2112 | ^------------------------------------------------------------^