Hardrock 100 Chapman to Telluride

(over Oscar’s pass)

Chapman Gulch 18.9mi
12:30-12:39 9 minutes in the aid station (:11)

I arrived at Chapman and called “sixty in, that’s six-zero” and one of the volunteers asked if I had a drop bag. I said yes, and while they retrieved it, I grazed on the aid station table (had a quesadilla slice or two) and had my bottles filled. I had more maltodextrin in my drop bag, so set up one of my bottles with that and poured the rest into another zip lock bag for the trip. I also had a hand held bottle here, knowing that the climb up Oscar’s could be brutal. I saw Fred Abramowitz among the aid station personnel; while I was there, Rick Hodges, Steve Pero, Joe Prusaitis and Bill Losey, among others, arrived. I finally got everything set up like I wanted/needed for the next section and got ready to leave. I put some quesadilla slices, and some fritos in a zip lock back and headed out just behind Steve. I said ‘Thank You’ to everybody as I left (“sixty, that’s six-zero, OUT”) As I was leaving Chapman, I saw Bill Losey; he was having a popsicle. I motioned ‘let’s go’ to him and left, figuring he would be right behind me. After we started to climb, Craig Slagel came running back down the hill to the aid station; he had forgotten his trekking poles! More things to carry, more things to remember at the aid station, I guess.

I climbed most of the way up to Oscar’s pass with the same folks I had seen off and on since the start: Liz and Scott, David and Michelle and Steve Pero – he had an excellent plan of stopping in every shady spot he could (as we started reaching the upper edge of tree line) to let his heart rate come down. I figured that this was an excellent idea and joined him in the shade (every time I could keep up…Steve was climbing well!) Before long, I heard the familiar clicking sound of a person with trekking poles. This time it was Chuck Wilson, who was really looking for a finish after a few tries that went awry. He was literally blitzing up the hill! I figured that he was either very well trained or he had just ingested some rocket fuel (or perhaps was worried about the weather starting to change.) He passed like I was standing still and I wished him luck; he quickly disappeared above me. About half way up the climb, it got cloudy and the sky started to get darker. Cloud cover was like an answer to many folks prayers (and I didn’t mind it much either) but I didn’t want to see the ominous type of clouds that threatened to do bad (bright and loud) things. Steve said something like “come on, I hope it gets nasty, bring it on” or something like that. I looked at him like someone would look at their minister after he started cussing out of the blue…We kept climbing and climbing (you’re getting tired of hearing about it, I was getting tired of doing it ;^) but kept a pace that we could sustain.

Steve still managed to keep ahead of me, like during the 10k on the fourth. I saw him crest the pass and I looked at my watch. It didn’t look that far but he had made almost 5 minutes on me the last 4 switchbacks.

Once I got to the pass, I noticed a lot more snow than last year. The course went up a little higher and to the left on the ridge, above where the Blixt road was (under the snow) I kept moving and arrived at Wasatch Saddle. I remember climbing up to the saddle last year only to see somebody going Left instead of right. At least in this direction it was a bit easier to see. I started down the saddle into the basin, remembering more and more of the course from last year, except this year there was much more snow – in fact, there was some glissading – it made for a much quicker trip down. After a while I heard somebody behind me on the down hills; it was Craig. We stayed together for a while talking about this and that (probably Across The Years, where I had met him at the 2007/2008 race) I had to pull over for one thing or another and got ahead of him. I caught up rather quickly and he asked if I wanted to pass. I told him he was going a good pace (actually I didn’t want to take the lead and be the one to fall…)

Eventually, Greg Loomis caught back up to us and I passed Craig and kept with Greg. John Cappis was taking photos. I saw him, right after Greg and I crossed a stream, and said ‘and to think I used to be afraid of getting my feet wet.’

Greg and I caught up to Steve Pero just before the bridge, and we stuck together all the way into Telluride. I saw Rick Miller waiting on the side of the trail just before the aid station and gave him a high five. Coming in to the aid station I heard that familiar “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” and said hello to Bob Bachani by jumping in the air and clicking my heels – something I started doing this year at Old Pueblo.

Though I didn’t have a crew or pacer, I can’t say I did the race alone.

There must have been a dozen folks at the Telluride aid station who called me by name. I have been lucky to have met quite a few people in the short number of years I have been in this sport and they are all outstanding individuals. The one person who sort of ‘took charge’ with helping me was Linda Van – imagine going all the way to Colorado for a race and having a ‘local’ AZ runner there to help me! Really cool! (Though I did have to take her photo since I only met her once in person and didn’t remember so well what she looked like ;^)
I had clean socks in my drop bag (I used Smart Wool brand the entire race) and even applied some Desitin (thanks to Pat Homelvig and Karen Pate, who sacrificed some of their last remaining ‘original’ Desitin – the ‘creamy’ style is great for chafing issues but the ‘original’ has more Zinc and is better for the feet.) I had remembered Blake Wood’s photos from 2004 (http://picasaweb.google.com/HardrockEnduranceRun/Hardrock2004/photo#5074632890128048738 ) and how he said that he used Desitin on his feet (and later commented on the ultralist about the ‘original’ having more zinc.) It appears to have worked since my feet were hardly pruned at all – as opposed to last year when the bottoms of my feet were basically hamburger by the time I went over Oscar’s pass.

I knew that eventually I would hear the ominous words “You’re starting to grow roots!” like I did at Javelina in 2004 (the first time I met Bob)

and sure enough, as I stood up to get ready to go, there he was. There was another aid station person that thought this was rude but I explained to him that Bob was actually doing me a favor. At the last minute I decided to drop my handheld bottle in my drop bag since the weather was cloudy and cool. As I was navigating my way out of the aid station, I asked one of the volunteers which way to go. The reply I received was ‘the shortcut is that way’ to which I replied ‘I don’t want a shortcut, I want the real course!’ Actually, it was the course. Again I said ‘Thank You’ to everybody as I left (“sixty, that’s six-zero, OUT”) and crossed the foot bridge.