Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Hardrock race watching

We had not originally planned to be in the San Juans for the Hardrock 100 race, but doing Softrock with Robyn and seeing the race entrants list got me excited to hang around a little longer.  We towed our travel trailer to Silverton, found a boondock spot along South Mineral Creek, and got up to watch the race start.

Catching the front runners at the first road crossing, including Francois D'Haene (in the red shoes) and Kilian Jornet (in black):


I believe the women's field was the largest ever for this race (27 out of 145 runners), although that still doesn't sound like a lot:


Looking good, Ryan!


The Coury brothers ran together for a while:


Hey John Sharp, you got this!


Yay Jeff!


We hiked up toward Island Lake to watch everyone climb to Grant-Swamp Pass.  It was a lovely morning for race watching on high.  Kilian was leading the way at the time:


Followed closely by Dakota Jones (go Dakota!) and Francois:


Billy Simpson and his friend were out for a stroll in their mountain skirts (?), too funny:


Cheering on John Kelly of Barkley and FKT fame:


Wildflowers and race markings:


Go Courtney!!  She was climbing strong above Island Lake:


Maggie was not far behind - go Maggie!


A random excited runner, woo hoo!


We were having a good day too:


Doing great, ladies!


John Sharp making his way up through the willows, always fun to chat with him wherever we happen to run into him in the world:


Next we drove over to Ouray and up Camp Bird Road, pausing on the way when we spied the lead pack running toward us, hello!  Dakota, Kilian, and Francois were still running together at that point.  Dakota pulled away on the next climb while Kilian and Francois stayed together for a while.  Super fun and interesting to watch the happenings, both briefly in person and later on internet tracking.


We parked near the Governor aid station and started our next hike in the direction of Virginius Pass.  John Kelly was at the water crossing so we got to watch him dance across and then scoop some water into his bottle:


I believe this is Jeff Browning running smoothly down the road:


John took off ahead of me and made it up to the pass before starting back down.  I took my time and decided to turn around at the bottom of the first scree slope.  I caught a picture of John descending, with a couple racers on the "trail" above him:


It's a lovely afternoon for a splash through a shallow creek:


We were psyched to catch Maggie coming through the aid station - she was still moving well but dealing with some kind of blister issue:


What a great way to watch the race!  It's nice getting up into the mountains, doing our own version of a workout, able to impart some positive energy with zero crewing/pacing/volunteering stress.

We got some sleep, but less than normal - the leaders were on a smoking-hot pace to perhaps break the course record, and we were hoping to watch them finish.

And Kilian pulled it off!  He and Francois had reeled in Dakota, then Kilian turned on the jets at the end to return to Silverton in course record time (21:36), incredible.  My photos hardly do him justice, but he looks like he barely broke a sweat:


Brian from iRunFar conducting a finish line interview with Kilian:


Francois ran in soon after (21:51) and then everyone waited for Dakota's sub-24 hour finish (also amazing!).  It was entertaining listening to their conversation at the finish line as Dakota talked about making his big move and then not being able to hold off the other two at the end.


6th place overall, breaking the women's record in a time of 26:44, Courtney Dauwalter!  Yay Courtney!  So inspiring:


We would have loved to stick around for the rest of the weekend, but we had run out of extra time.  Congrats to all Hardrock runners, thanks for making us smile and cheer!

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