1/3(Hardrock)

It's Hardrock time!  The last time I ran it was in 2011, so I had no idea how it might go 14 years later.  I've never been fast but I've always felt young.  Not sure if that last statement matches reality anymore.

The best part was our next set of Colorado compatriots - Kip and Jason!  We were super stoked that they traveled to Silverton just for this weekend.

Even funnier was the idea that Team Vignette was back together in the San Juan Mountains.  Here's our Primal Quest expedition race finish in 2002, and I think we all look about the same except for John's hair:

I was invited to be part of the "Women's Panel" so I joined a bunch of inspirational ladies on stage to talk about our experiences in various matters, racing-related and otherwise:

All checked in, with a tracker on my pack shoulder, at the start/finish line and probably thinking "I have no idea what this weekend will hold!"

Team Vignette in the gym for the pre-race presentation:

Team Vignette at the starting line!  July in the mountains = at least it's not hot outside:

A fire engine carrying some Hardrock legends led the charge off the starting line:

And we're off!  With a gentle run up the road, in my case:

I can't recall why this photo is blurry, possibly because someone captured it on the race webcam and sent it to me:

Kip took a video of the race start, and I'm pleased to see a red vuvuzela in the mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl4uz15ICa4

As in 2011, I started in the back of the pack and ran my own race.  It was fun seeing the same terrain, finding it especially helpful that Robyn and I had trekked the same ground in our Softrock week in 2022.

The trail was straightforward, one easy creek crossing, then onto the mining road that climbs for awhile.  It really felt like I was the last one in the race field, as I saw nobody below me.  Occasionally I caught glimpses of guys above me, and I even passed a couple of them briefly on the trail up high before they ran by me down the other side.

Long switchbacks down to the Cunningham aid station, hello awesome crew!  They moved me through quickly, as I knew I needed all the extra time I could gain by having short stops, and we were an efficient team.

Jogging with Kip toward the next trailhead:

A 2nd excellent video from Kip, with an special appearance by Chester Cheetah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWE0kyke91E

Another long climb, because that's what this whole experience is about.  My legs and lungs were fine with it, and I was glad for all the "just in case" training I had done.

It was beautiful up high.  I remember a group of people sitting in lawn chairs greeting runners, and I don't think I hallucinated that.

Just following course markings, on little trails across big scenic expanses.  I tried to take it in while still giving a solid effort.  I do remember being happy to be there that morning.  More spectators who had driven and hiked a long way up to cheer for people.  I've enjoyed that side of the race myself once or twice.

The course drops down to the Maggie aid station, where a few runners were still there.  I didn't need much, just a water refill, so I was able to get out of there quickly.  Which I was glad about, because there was a woman sitting there saying something about training so hard for this and now her race was over, but I didn't stick around to find out why.

I was starting to wonder about my aid station splits.  My times were well ahead of the cutoffs but significantly behind my 2011 times and my slightly looser estimates for 2025.  Well, maybe I can make up some time on the run down to the Pole Creek.

That certainly didn't happen, partly because my downhill running felt fairly slow, and then because the course had been rerouted at the bottom.  It circled way around before climbing back toward the aid station.  I even took a sit break to eat a spare bar I was carrying to keep from getting too hungry.

I managed my aid station tasks only slightly slower than I would have liked, trying not to lose even more minutes to where I thought I should have been.  The aid station guys explained the course reroute.  I might have seen it with Robyn during Softrock but I completely forgot, that was the one surprise for me about the course.

OK, nothing to do but soldier onward and upward!  My body still felt reasonably peppy and I felt like I was giving a solid medium effort (without overdoing anything).  I just couldn't explain why the result was so much slower than I had expected.  I may feel young, but there's a chance I'm actually not...

Up to the high point of this part of the course and then over to a long undulating field.  There were probably little creek crossings and maybe some muddy spots, nothing that stood out as a major obstacle.  The course was in amazingly good condition overall this year.

The side of my lower right leg was twitching.  It felt like it was thinking about cramping.  This is not a new phenomenon for me - various muscles in my legs and feet tend to cramp at about this point in races.  Usually it just gets on with it, cramps a couple times, makes me sit for a minute while it sorts itself out, and then it mostly goes away.

This was different, no cramps, just twitching.  On the long run down toward Sherman aid station, it actually started hurting.  That's a new one!  I wrapped it in an Ace bandage and that helped a little.

I wasn't sure what to do about it, so I asked if a medical person could take a look.  She was great, finding the aggravated spot and discovering that it was a knot in my tendon.  She did what she could - massaging it and taping it up.  Maybe that would be enough?

In the meantime I got all my drop bag and nighttime stuff together, ate and drank some aid station vittles, and decide to at least make my way up the road to the Burrows aid station.  Thank you, wonderful people at Sherman!

While I was at Sherman, runners kept popping out of the woods behind me.  I guess I wasn't actually running in last place, even though it felt like it much of the time.

It would have been lovely if I could have run much of the next road section, but every time I tried my leg said "ow, no thank you."  Speed-walking it is then!

Quickly through Burrows and onto the trail toward Handies Peak.  It started fine, with big steps, and a flat foot placement was OK.  Higher up when the trail turned to an actual slope (and a steep-ish one at that) my leg immediately told me it was not OK.  Knowing how big this climb was and how it was about to get dark, it was an easy decision to turn around.

I got some comfort when my leg was also "ow, ow" on the steep downhill slope, so nothing about the Handies Peak section would have worked out.  As much as I wished to get to my crew on my own two feet.

Back to the Burrows aid station where I hung out for a while, chatted with a woman from Tucson (wish I could remember who that was), and eventually coordinated an extraction with another runner who had dropped.  His family was coming to retrieve him and they had a seat in their 4WD vehicle.  I also eventually got ahold of John to let him know not to drive over there.

There was more adventure to come, meeting the runner's family and hired Jeep driver, and experiencing a nighttime crossing of Cinnamon Pass.  Eventually I made it back to Silverton, happy for a shower and bed.

So I finished the "Hardrock 50K" which ain't nothing.  Of course I'm disappointed, especially wondering how my slower speed would have played out with upcoming aid station cutoffs.  I had been looking forward to spending time on the Hardrock course with my teammates, chatting about Primal Quest and everything else we like to talk about while we're out in the wilderness.

In the end, it's all OK.  I got to spend more time with my friends and family and we ended up having a fun weekend together.  I'm grateful for the whole experience and it's all good!

And that's enough of that  :)

More Colorado adventures

The days before Hardrock were filled with friends and fun.  I was on the waitlist for the race, so we went to the area just in case.  It was a great delight to have other adventures to keep us entertained and to work on my altitude acclimation.

We got there early enough to score a lovely campsite at South Mineral Creek:

I noticed a nearby FKT (because of course I did), and was surprised that it overlapped with the first section in our recent John Cappis peakbagging day.  We had a few days before our next set of friends arrived, so John and I decided to go for it.

Setting off from Little Molas Lake campground:

It was another beautiful day to climb up high:

On top of Spencer Peak, at almost 13,000 feet:

It was peak #1 of our quest (and apologies for the occasional less-than-stellar picture from my little camera):

Pointing toward the valley with the dark and red areas, where we had climbed up at the start of the Cappis route:

Grand Turk was peak #2 (13,150'), and we hit the easternmost point of the ridge to be certain to reach the actual highest point:

Squeaky pika!  Good morning, oh adorable little one:

And a marmot for good measure:

I was trying to maintain a solid uphill push, while John kept up seemingly effortlessly.  He suggested we might get to the turnaround spot within 2.5 hours, so I pushed the last climb and we just made it.  The final summit, Sultan Mountain at 13,327' (good time for a snack):

Checking out the view down toward Silverton:

John captured the moment when I started back (we were still on the clock, gotta go):

John bounded down the hill after me:

Pretty flowers (we weren't in so much of a rush that we couldn't enjoy these):

Lovely lake that might be worth a closer visit someday:

The traverse below Grand Turk was surprisingly interesting, so we took a moment to look back at that pseudo-trail.  Somewhere in here we heard elk bugling far below us in the valley to the west, super cool.

I had noticed these colorful ovals embedded in the rocks a couple times now, and I finally decided I needed a photo of them:

We found a decent way down along Molas Creek (there isn't a trail through this section) and soon John was suggesting that we could break 4 hours to the finish.  Sure, I'm up for running!  It took a bit of effort, worth it because we just made it within our newfound and arbitrary goal.

It's Party Time again, baby!

Llamas at the trailhead:

Since this FKT already had fast times set for the female and male categories, we needed each other to set the mixed gender time.  Basically we were each other's token male and female (commemorated by our shower "tokens" we just happened to have in the truck):

The webpage for this effort:

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-john-beard-spencer-grand-turk-sultan-traverse-2025-07-01

Andrew and Squid came over from Flagstaff to play in Colorado for a few days, nice!  John had a hankering to see more of the Cappis course, and Andrew was interested as well.  I was not so curious, so I dropped them off near where our group had finished at checkpoint 2 and they climbed up toward Beattie, Vermillion, and Fuller.  I'm glad they took pictures so I (and you) can see all the spectacular colors and rocks:

Andrew loved learning how to glissade, and Squid is a natural in the snow:

A beautiful shot of Island Lake, near the Hardrock course:

Meanwhile I spent some time in Silverton for the July 4th celebrations.  I was most excited about the duck race.  People buy stakes in the plastic ducks, and whichever duck crosses the line first wins money for their associated human.

But first, the mascot leads off down the creek:

And the race is on!

The finish line net, where all of the ducks are carefully scooped out of the water (after recording 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place).  It's hard to see in the picture, but the finish line people are tossing ducks to everyone on the bridge and on the bank.  Ducks everywhere!

I saw a pink one with the number 520 on it, and since that's the area code in Tucson I took it as a sign that I should adopt it.  Duckie came with me as I continued my run around town:

Admiring the old Hardrock rock (in worse shape then ever):

One of the tourist trains from Durango:

This appears to be a residence now?  Certainly is unique:

The new Hardrock rock, where I happened to be walking when I got a call from Dale - would I like to run Hardrock this year?  Why yes I certainly would!!  That's what we came for.  Just a little shocked and surprised to get in one week before the start of the race:

That didn't change too many things - I had been planning in case I got in - but it did add some urgency to figuring out my drop bags and race plans.  Hey friends and family, I'm in Hardrock!

The next day John and Andrew headed up for the next Cappis section, accompanied partway by friends Steve and David from Denver.  I came a short way up the Ice Lake trail to check out the creek crossing for the race (it didn't look too challenging).  Also got a photo of some flowers:

The guys went up to Grant Swamp Pass (yes, the north side is indeed part of Hardrock) and then over to a saddle to the Clear Lake basin.  We were in this area during Primal Quest in 2002, so it was interesting to see their pictures:

Steve and David went down the road from the lake while John and Andrew continued on the Cappis course up to V5 peak.  John's shoes amid more wildflowers:

Their view of the avalanche gully descent route (free of snow, no avalanche danger) plus some scenic peaks across the valley:

They eventually got down to the road, and Andrew was suitably impressed with the Cappis course.  John later finished it out with a climb of Bear Mountain, with possibly the slowest (and most unofficial) finish of the John Cappis 50K ever.

Finally a calmer day, heading over to Ouray to wander around town.  Strolling up to check out the via ferrata course (no pictures of that, will try again next time):

A water spigot for creating a winter ice climbing wall (someday we'll come see this spectacle in the winter, maybe):

Another part of the Hardrock course - a bridge and a tunnel through the rock:

Thank you all for some excellent early July days around Silverton and Ouray!

John Cappis peak-bagging

On to Colorado!

I was on the Hardrock waitlist, so we decided to go to the Silverton area early to explore and acclimate.  Happily there were other reasons to be there and the best part was that other people joined us for a variety of adventures.

Adventure #1 was the John Cappis "Endurance Peakbagging" event.  We very much enjoyed Sky Pilots' Lost One Standing last year and figured it was worth trying another of their outside-the-box concepts.  In this case they provide a map and gpx track for a set of peaks (different, to some extent, year-to-year).  Everyone starts at the same time/place and we head into the hills to reach the top of as many peaks as we can.

This year there were 13 peaks, 3 checkpoints (which were also awesome aid stations), and approximately 50K of distance.  And a bunch of elevation, of course.

This is right in the middle of John's wheelhouse.  I was tagging along for training and sightseeing.  We invited Robyn and Leslie to join us and were stoked when they agreed it might be fun, so they were in.  As long as we were sticking together and not trying to race as hard as we could (fine by both of us!)

We started at the back of the pack, up the road and onto a little trail.  One minor glitch at the first intersection, quickly sorted out by checking the track on the phone.  Yes, we could see how that track was going to be useful.  Up switchbacks and then off trail, contouring around in the woods.  We stepped over a few logs but nothing too crappy, vegetation-wise.

We reached treeline and negotiated some talus rocks.  Getting from there to the ridge was our most challenging section (because, spoiler, we didn't get to the difficult second half).  We could have saved time by dropping down to the valley grass earlier.  John knows how slow I am on more difficult footing, while Leslie is still calibrating our team's relative strengths and weaknesses.

From the high valley it was a steep haul up to the ridge and then a slow climb toward the first peak.  Our reward was an excellent view of Silverton (and thank you Leslie for these first few photos):

John does a shoe clean-out at a stunningly beautiful location:

Finally we were all on top of Sultan Mountain, and we had accomplished our #1 goal - at least one peak!

The first 3 peaks were close together with not too much elevation loss between them.  A short time later we approached Grand Turk:

Peak #2 and we're having a good morning even though we're obviously in the back of the pack by far:

One more little down/up to Spencer Peak:

Leslie captured this funny picture of me and John leaning on each other:

We descended toward the next destination, West Turkshead, which we could see over yonder.  While climbing from the saddle up the next slope we ran into Fred Ecks.  I think he had trouble on the ridge up to Sultan (climbing too high too early) and was catching up to us.  John and I recognized him from Hardrock and he actually remembered us too.  So it was fun to chat with Fred for a while.

Peak #4 with our bonus team member Fred:

The next destination was CP1, and we had a few miles on and off trail to get there.  More fun talking with Fred as we dropped into the Molas Creek valley and admired the views:

We were briefly on the Colorado Trail and then back into the woods to descend toward route 550.  On the way to CP1, it was clear that we would make that cutoff time but not the following one.  Robyn and I offered to John and Leslie that they could go on ahead at their faster pace, we were happy roaming around on the course together.  John and Leslie both said they were there for the company and didn't need to maximize their peakbagging that day.

We reached the edge of the plateau and found the big drop-off we had seen from Tug-E on the way into Silverton.  Finding a way through the cliff band at the top was easy (the Sky Pilots track was a good clue).  The further we descended toward the highway, the steeper it got.  Fred ran on ahead while the rest of us picked our way down with various levels of flair and gracefulness.

After basically sliding the final few feet, a woman walking along the road asked if there was a hiking trail up there?  Not that we know of!

Ginny was waiting for us at the checkpoint, very glad to see us.  I had been running my InReach mini tracking, but she didn't have service to follow our progress.  We apologized for making her stay so long, which didn't seem to bother her now that she knew everyone was accounted for.

She took great care of us - chairs, water, delicious snacks, our drop bags, and good company.  I'm normally a lot faster through aid stations but we were having a lovely time and nothing we did at that point was going to affect our ability to make the next cutoff.

OK, we should get going.  Straight up the other side of the valley.  Welcome back to the course!

Big climb #2, that took a while.  Good thing we all still have plenty of topics to talk to each other about.

Eventually we were at the top of "E4" and peak #5, phew.  Sure is pretty up here!

Our final 3 peaks (including E4) were on a high ridge, so we made quick work of the easy traverse to E3.  Leslie is holding a rare summit register.  I'm not sure John realizes this is our 6th peak, or maybe he's excited that our 2nd of 2 big ascents is done:

And finally a traverse around to Jura Knob.  We saw some people on top when we were on E3, and something makes me think they were on bikes and not part of the Cappis event.  I do know that when we got over here I was thinking no way would I want to ride a bike up to the top.  Trekking was good enough for me.

Our 7th and final peak:

It's party time!

We dropped down to a nearby trail to work our way toward CP2.  On the Colorado Trail again for a short distance:

Cutting across the next valley, enjoying our day in high places:

Using poles to hop across a side creek:

We thought it was worth the effort to keep our feet dry, but little did we know just how many water crossings we had on the way down.  Nothing difficult, just increasingly impossible to stay out of the water.  Until it was a full-on wading experience at the bottom (calf-deep, but still).  Ah well, wet feet is good Hardrock training.

And it was worth it because Eric was making mini-pizzas at CP2.  We enjoyed some recovery time, eating and talking and being thankful (at least I was) that we weren't continuing on to the "increasingly serious" regular course to Vermillion Peak.

Robyn got a ride back to pick up Tug-E while the rest of us ran down the road.  We reconvened at Ice Lake Trailhead, where we picked up our friend John Sharp who just happened to be coming down the trail after timing out 3 peaks ahead of us.  He was with Megan Eckert, who is a Backyard Ultra phenome (she just ran 92 yards at Big's world championships to come in 2nd female!)  We had a great time chatting as we drove down the road to drop them off at CP3.

Another excellent DFL experience :)

Sky Pilots puts on great events, they make them accessible to elite runners and slow pokers alike, they are friendly folks, and they feed you well.  Thank you Eric and Ginny!

Full results are here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AzWw_c1K7ahh0wcPQg5g3Vu5XJNKmp4u5fV7hkhG8cw/edit?gid=0#gid=0