The Thin Air Over There

Descending off Little Giant early in the race last year.

It seems as though everyone in my small world is in the San Juans, running 30 miles a day, enjoying the building energy of the little event that begins next Friday (13th) in Silverton, Colorado.  I prefer to show up fresh and have it all "new" for me (though I'm envious and wish I was there now); the adrenaline and excitement fill me with the energy to push through the difficulties and pain.  I've been thinking about it daily since my drive home after the race last year.  There are the massive landscape, the weather, and the thin air that has no filter of pollution or humidity, leaving the sun and blue sky to rip raw into your mind and heart, the wild-ness and harshness that remind me of something an ex-girlfriend casually mentioned when we were planning a 14er run, "The mountains don't care about your loneliness but they give you so much more in return."  I was in awe of her innocently poignant insight and cared more for her at that moment than any other women up to that day.

I think of that quote every time I think about Hardrock.  The race leaves no room for chest pumping or for the runner who seems to run long races as a means to say, "Hey, look at me!  Look at what I did!"  Personifying Hardrock simply cannot be done.  There are no human attributes deep enough to hold the volume of character the race and its environment possess.  

It gives you so much more in return.

This year is deep with competition, deeper than any previous year.  I'm eagerly awaiting Speedgoat Karl's odds for the race.  He certainly has to feel confident about his chances.  Having run the second fastest time ever on the course (and in the, widely considered, more difficult direction), he owns that race and comes in with a relationship with Hardrock that only a handful of runners have that I can think of, Apt, Simpson, Wood, to name a few.  Karl was forced to drop at mile 80 last year.  I remember arriving at Chapman Gulch last year and heard Karl had just dropped at that aid station with a painful back injury.  For some reason it upset me more than my own predicament (of course, I was a fragile-minded sap by that point).

I'll put together an overview of the contenders and others to watch for.  But Karl's insight is the de facto standard.