Hardrock, Still Running

16 July 2022

Quick thought on the always excellent Hardrock100 media coverage:

In our excitement we follow every step of the top runners, and rightfully so.
But in the end Kilian and Courtney won, right? We expected that, more or less.

Courtney led from start to finish.
And when Dakota lead throughout the early parts of the race, Kilian was always in striking distance. We hoped for a bit more drama from Francois, but the 15min Kilian carved out in clinical fashion and there was never a tight back and forth.

These are top athletes and I don’t want to take anything away from their achievements. I stand in awe.

What I want to point out is that there’s actually quite a bit of interesting drama happening in the group currently in 10th-40th place, and probably further back even more. People blow up, like really blow up. People rally, find a second wind and overtake a bunch of people.

Sadly, by now the second day has started, it’s weekend and I’m busy with other stuff.
I did wake up at 3am (by happenstance, not with alarm) and checked who’d win the race this year.
But by now I’m busy with life again, while these amazing athletes still fight the good fight, still many miles and many hours from kissing that rock.

To bring the Formula One reference back, since that’s what everyone’s talking about, I remember the days when Michael Schumacher won everything, all the time. Watching the races became predicable and stale. And while we’re a million miles away from this in ultra running, I wonder what the media could do to make it worthwhile for the armchair enthusiast to stay invested in the runners beyond the top 5?