Why Hardrock 100

When I tell people about my ultimate goal of participating in the Hardrock 100 they often wonder why.  Let me tell you a little bit about this race.

The race is 100.5 miles long and takes place in Southern Colorado in the San Juan Mountains.  It is one of the hardest 100 mile races because it has extreme altitude and ridiculous amounts of climbing.  The race takes place at elevation.  The average elevation is 11,000 feet.   There are 13 passes along the course higher than 12,000 feet.

They give you 48 hours to finish, which is a lot longer than most 100 mile races (30ish hours on the average).  They do this for a reason....the race has 33,000 feet of vertical climb.  Think about climbing the Sears Tower.  22 times!

The main reason why this race is my ultimate goal is its beauty.  One of the many reasons I became interested in ultra-running is the opportunity to see places that other people seldom get to see.   You be the judge.

Finally, you get to kiss a big rock at the end if you finish....how cool is that?

So the course is hard.  Really hard.  To add insult to injury you have to run one of the other most difficult 100 mile races to qualify.  Next month I make my first attempt to do that at the Superior Trail 100, which I will tell you more about later.  One you complete a qualifying race you have to compete in a lottery with hundreds of other runners! 

Is it unrealistic to think that a road runner on the streets of Chicago could train for, qualify and ultmately get

Next week I am off to Leadville Colorado to crew and pace on of my running heroes, Tony Cesario in the Leadville Trail 100.  It is going to give me an opportunity to experiment more with running at altitude...something the urban-ultra runner doesn't get to do much.  Wish me luck!  I'm sure to have a report on that afterwards.