2012 Hardrock 100: The Responsibilites

Well, the week of the HR100 is upon us and I'm departing for Silverton, Colorado early Wednesday morning for a full day of driving through the gorgeous Texas panhandle.

My responsibilites for the HR100 have shifted a little bit and I'm now responsible for pacing Joe P. from Grouse Gulch to Cunningham. It's a beautiful 32.8 miles with 10,438ft of climbing and 10,840ft of descent.

I originally was going to sweep/clean from Sherman to finish but I just could not pass up the opportunity to pace someone like Joe P. on a course like HR. I'll be in Silverton for a few days after the race and available to do any further course sweep/cleaning that's required.

I'm driving up with my brother (who's not known for his camping skills) and we're camping pretty much IN Silverton. There's a campground just southeast of town that's a .8 mile jog to the HR start line.  The plan is to head out of the DFW area round 8AM Wednesday morning and drive straight to Silverton hopefully arriving around midnight. (all pending stops along the way)

I'll be brutally honest here and say I'm slightly concerned about bringing my brother along. He's not a runner AT ALL, so I'm not really sure what he's gonna do while I'm out playing in the San Juans everyday. He doesn't have any of his own camping gear so he's borrowing a lot of stuff. I'm just hoping he doesn't become a liability/hinderance. I don't think he really knows what he's about to experience. The HR100 is difficult explaining to a regular ultra runner, much less a non runner.

The plans while I'm up there have shifted a little bit since I'm gonna be pacing Joe now. I want to be as prepared as possible for Joe. Which means trying to limit doing anything too stupid before my pacing responsibilities. No matter what, I'm going to be mentally prepared to take Joe all the way to Silverton if the need be. If I'm gonna be hiking up 13-14K peaks in the San Juans, I couldn't imagine a better person to "show me around."

I hate to be so dramatic, but this is what all my athletic ambitions so far in my life have led to. Me spending my first week in Silverton (of hopefully many). I love the way everything comes around, and my path has led me here.

I think my biggest fear for this week is that I'm going to fall in love with the San Juans. I'm gonna get exposed to some of the most majestic mountains in all of the world and then have to come back to Dallas. (Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the state of Texas)

I'm such a n00b when it comes to races like this. This whole HR experience is something I know very little about. I know that I'm probably pretty naive in my plans for my week in Silverton, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. (which probably means sucking air at 13,000ft with Joe hard on my heels, one step from disaster)

Day 0/Wed: Drive to Silverton
Day 1/Thur: Run from Cunningham to Silverton (Suck air on Little Giant)
Day 2/Fri: Grouse to Ouray (EASY, nothing stupid)
Day 3/Sat: Pace Joe Grouse to Cunningham
Day 4/Sun: Grant Swamp?
Day 5/Mon: Hamitite Lake?
Day 6/Tues: Up in the air... Drive home around 2pm?

That's a pretty rough draft still depending on how well I acclimate, but you get the idea. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are up in the air depending on a bunch of stuff.

To everyone that's given me advice for this trip I appreciate it! Now let's just hope I make it back in one piece.

_Jacob_

This video (series) makes me laugh everytime. I can only hope I'm as tough in the San Juans as the "guy on a buffalo" is!