Hardrock 100 Grouse to Sherman

(over Handies Peak)



Sherman 71.8mi 12:50-13:25 35 minutes in the aid station (2:26)

Grouse Gulch to Sherman (over Handies)


I saw Dave Terry looking rough here; normally he would be hours ahead of me. I knew he was having a bad day but he showed himself a true champion by forging on ahead (and returning to his more normal form, I didn’t see him again)
I had some chafing starting that I needed to fix before it became major. I was hoping for a port-a-john but no such luck. Since it was already light, I had nowhere to hide. One of the volunteers had a camper and was nice enough to let me use the restroom in it to take care of business.

After I had been there for a while I heard the volunteers hollering…it turns out Roger Ackerman and John DeWalt were having a bit of a footrace to the aid station!
I rounded up all the gear I needed from my drop bag and left all of my lights from the night before and headed back up the road for about 50 yards to the trailhead, where the dozen or so switchbacks up the side of the hill began the ascent up the gulch to Grouse-American pass.

The sun started rising in the sky, and its light and warmth were welcome, as they brought me back to life. I caught up to Craig and his pacer again, as well as Liz and Scott. As we crested the pass, we got to do some more glissading down into American Basin. I was really glad the race ran this direction this year as it made for more glissading and less climbing up the numerous snow fields. It seems like I was constantly adjusting my gear for the change in warm/cold as I ascended Handies from American Basin (as well as actually taking the camera out every now and then to take more photos. All this time I kept going back and forth with Craig, Liz and Scott. The good news was that I was still climbing as well as the rest of them and could catch up without too much extra effort. At the summit, I took the time to eat and take some rocks out of my shoes. During this break, everybody I had been with finally passed me.

I finally got rigged to continue and started down the Grizzly Gulch side of Handies intent on catching back up to everyone. I did finally catch Craig and his pacer at the first large snowfield, and the glissade was invigorating to say the least. Hikers were dumbfounded that we would be doing something so seemingly crazy, and with the lack of sleep, perhaps it wasn't the best thing we could have done at the time. In any case, once I got back to some more runnable trails, I tried once again to catch Liz and Scott. I didn't catch them but I did manage to catch up to Greg Loomis again. We stuck together for a while until he told me to go ahead since his stomach wasn't feeling all that well at the time. I knew he would be fine so went on again as fast as I could on the sometimes treacherous downhill (a reoccuring theme on this course, right?)

After what seemed like 30 or more minutes than it should have, I arrived at Burrows park. I crossed the bridge then refilled my water bottles with the water they have cached there. I saw Peter Backwin waiting for his buddy Paul Gross (I think I passed them on the last couple of miles of downhill and mentioned that they were just a couple of minutes behind me.) As I was getting ready to leave, they showed up. I started down the road toward Sherman aid station and was frequently passed by jeeps and quads, some of which actually slowed down so that they wouldn't dust me (fewer slowed, but most of those folks gave a wave; perhaps they didn't realize how much dust they were kicking up...) On the road I finally caught back up to Liz and Scott. I stayed with them for a while but they slowed a bit as it was starting to get a bit warm. At least it wasn't Valley of the Sun warm (or Death Valley warm) but I wasn't really heat trained this year. I decided to just keep on chugging along at whatever pace I could without overheating and hope for the best. After a while I came to the turn off the road. I remember this last year, in the other direction, as one nasty trail to climb as it twisted and turned going up and down (but not quite as bad as the section from Ouray to the 550 tunnel.) Going down it, however, didn't seem quite so bad, and I knew that Sherman was just around the corner. Finally get to the road and turn right and it seemed like the road section to the aid station was longer than last year (I noticed a lot of this, can you tell?) When I arrived at Sherman I checked in and Annette Anthony said hello. It was great to see her again. I also saw several other runners I had been going back and forth with (for the last day or so) and was glad to be there, sitting in the shade and getting what I needed out of my drop bags. I had really planned on being at Cunningham (the next drop bag aid station) before dark, but figured that I probably wouldn't have made it, so I had to pick up my lights and warmer clothes at Sherman. I saw Beth Simpson there and asked why she was still there. She said she had paced Larry throughout the night and that he had just left and she was about to go to Cunningham to pace him to the finish. I wished her well and knew that Larry was behind his schedule. As I was sitting there, Peter Backwin showed up and shortly thereafter his buddy and his pacer arrived. I knew I had been sitting too long and tried to stay focused on eating, hydrating (since the next stretch was about as long as the last one) and getting ready to move out. Dave Goldberg arrived and was on pace to get in and out of the aid station in short order. I asked him where Michelle was and he said that they had mutually decided that she would probably be better stopping at Grouse. I was dissapointed Michelle didn't make it, especially seeing how tough she was last year (after going so many miles with some damage to her knee that she sustained descending into Cunningham so early in the race.) Finally I decided it was time to go.