Between a Hardrock and a Hard Place

The Hardrock 100 Endurance Run happened this past weekend. Ludo won for a third straight time. Courtney kissed the rock in first place for a fourth time. Both set new course records. Incredible achievements by the both of them. Their main competitors either DNF’ed or were no real threat for their entire run. This happens in trail races with small entry fields. And maybe this year felt like when a team becomes a dynasty or driver, or rider, or player wins too many times in a row. Things start to feel a bit stale. Some folks have expressed this feeling. Hardrock felt a bit boring this year. This questions is something that Dale and his team will have to wrestle with. Are they gonna tell Ludo he can’t come back next year? Make it far for other runners? But this is not what I want to comment on. What I wanted to comment on is the – some fairly dramatic – DNFs, and the runners who finished but we heard later that maybe they pushed themselves over the edge. Again, I’m not here to tell anyone what they should do with their bodies.

The point I wanted to make is one that Hardrock has been trying to make since its inception and that it’s a RUN and not a RACE.

Especially, since Hardrock is so shortly after Western States, which while also billing itself as a ‘run’ increasingly has become a very serious race. Folks are coming of a high that is Western States weekend. There the top of the field really raced and competed. The atmosphere felt professional and elevated in many ways Hardrock feels like the very antidote to all this hubbub. But rather than billing Hardrock as “less than”, the way I thought about this event is that it’s really a mountaineering challenge, more so than a race run. Yes, there are no crampons or ropes but when looking at the folks who failed, or put themselves into serious danger I get the comparison to what it feels like following Mount Everest climbers. Yes, Hardrock might feel like a far cry from that, but when I put this event into the category of a mountaineering challenge the whole endeavor shines in a different light. I wonder if the media should cover the event differently. Get away from the comparisons to Western States, from the matchups and potential storylines that still make it very much sound like a competitive race, but rather embrace the unique mountain challenge that Hardrock offers instead. Hardrock 100 – a mountaineering challenge in the San Juans. Now I’m interested.