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The 12 Hours of Sunlight was yesterday and I’m sure everyone who was there would agree– it’s nice to have that done.
The 12 hour race requires skiers or boarders to ascend, on foot or skins, 1,500+ vertical feet up Sunlight Ski Area and then ski down and repeat, for half a day. It can be done as a solo, duo relay, or a four person “firedrill” team. Christy and I decided to give the “Sunlight Endurance Challenge” a go, now in its second year in the 12-hour format, as a co-ed duo.
And though the overall field was relatively thin this year– there were only 24 different solo/teams registered and just 3 co-ed duos– the presence of our friends Adam Frisch and Lyndsay Meyer as one of the three in our category meant that despite the small number of competitors, we would likely have a real race on our hands. And that is exactly what it became, proof of which can be seen in the fact that in the end, after half a day and 20 laps completed by both of our teams, only 3 minutes separated us. read more>>>
 Christy, Lisa Fichman, Larry Siu and me before the race. The oldest ultra run in the country, the JFK 50 miler, took place last Saturday.
Its start dates back to 1963, eleven years before Gordy Ansleigh first ran alongside the horses at the 1974 Tevis Cup, which later evolved into the Western States 100, a race which many people incorrectly believe to be the country’s first ultra. For comparisons sake, that same year that Ansleigh ran by himself with the horses, a staggering 1,355 people lined up for the JFK 50, which is a record number even by today’s standards.
And the 1963 race isn’t really where the story began, it’s merely the year the JFK 50 miler became an official event. Its origins actually go back much farther.
As the story goes, sometime back in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt issued an executive order from the White House that “all Marines should be able to cover 50 miles in three days,” requiring the last half mile to be done in military double time– an early twentieth century sprint finish. read more>>>
It’s been a few years since Christy and I ran a major city marathon. I think we forgot how much fun they are.
Usually planned as a fall event because it’s just too hard to log miles during ski season, our last run on a paved city course was in New York in 2007. The combination of an overbooked calendar (our wedding last year and a Himalayan expedition the one prior), and a focus on more ultra-distance events just hasn’t allowed for it recently, so with a more open schedule this year we looked around for a fun fall race. Having heard favorable reports about the 26.2 mile course from Minneapolis to St. Paul, and after learning that Christy’s sister Jen and her friend Tristan Scott would be coming in from Missoula to give it a go, we decided it was time to check out the Twin Cities Marathon.
The course itself is pretty flat, and with a field in excess of 8,000 runners, it’s a good size– not so big it feels crowded, but with enough people around you that it never gets lonely. And despite connecting two metropolitan areas, it follows a surprisingly scenic route, winding its way around lakes and through parks or park-like neighborhoods almost the whole time.
read more>>>
 Even at 12,000 feet it was hot. Christy, on the left, and another woman cruise above treeline with Mt. Elbert, the tallest peak in Colorado, behind. The annual 50 mile run, part of the ever growing Leadville race series, was on Sunday. Surging in popularity and now in its third year, more than 300 runners filled out the field, including Christy, who has now run the high altitude course every time. Falling a week after the Hardrock, where she crewed for me, I sat this one out and took the opportunity to return the favor.
Unlike last years string of passing rain and hailstorms, Sunday’s weather wasn’t cold and wet but was instead unseasonably hot and very dry, hitting 80 degrees in the afternoon. That doesn’t sound like much compared to the 90′s and 100′s reported around the country, but it’s definitely hot for Leadville, and on a course that hovers between 10,000 and 12,000 feet. Thankfully, aid stations are in good supply which meant that staying hydrated wasn’t too difficult, at least according to Christy, who also said it was only towards the very end that the high temperatures became an issue.
 Rocky Kroeger, right, and a fellow runner who's likely wondering "who is this guy and why does he talk so much?", traverse Ball Mountain on their way to the halfway turnaround. Elbert(L), Massive(center) and Turquoise Lake(R) round out the views. Click all pics to enlarge. read more>>>
 Island Lake and Ice Lakes Basin - just another one of the awesome views out there on the course. Click any photo to enlarge. The 2010 Hardrock 100 is done and now, a week later, I’m still trying to put it all together.
In the days that followed, as I embraced my “recovery”, mostly in the form of sitting on the couch and watching repeats of the days Tour de France leg, I fought the urge to procrastinate and attempted to post something about the event. But as I sat with my laptop open, I just couldn’t seem to put anything into words. Now a week later, still feeling challenged with the task of reconstructing the day in my head, I’ve come to realize there was so much packed into the 30+hour effort that I can’t do it justice in a simple blog post. The memories I have from the day range from visual images of steep trails, creek crossings, and distant mountains that moved position with every pass I gained, to faintly recalled bits of conversations with pacers, fellow racers, aid station volunteers or myself in my own head(which comprise the majority), to broader moments like the sunset on Engineer Pass, Handies Peak at midnight, dawn in Pole Creek, and more acute imagery like the sickly elk we came upon at dawn, the passed out runner above Maggie, and the finish and kiss of the rock– it is for the third time now, the most unique experience I’ve been a part of. So for that reason, I can only really sum it up briefly, and then hope the photos fill in the gaps.
 The expansive view forward from Virginius Pass. The route to Ouray heads right down the snow to the pinch leading to the valley below. Click any photo to enlarge. read more>>>
8 works for me.
The gun goes off at 6am tomorrow and if all goes well I’ll be back here in Silverton sometime on Saturday, the earlier the better. You can follow the race through the Hardrock Live link on the homepage here.
I’m trying to stay optimistic about it but the weather [...]
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