Courtney Dauwalter Headlines 2024 Hardrock 100

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For the final two years, Courtney Dauwalter has gained the Hardrock 100. And for the final two years, she has set a course document. What else does the ultra-trail working famous person probably need to show on this impossibly difficult course?

We’ll discover out on Friday. The 2024 Hardrock 100 begins at 6 A.M. MT on July 12, 2024, and as soon as once more Dauwalter will toe the road.

However this time, she gained’t have the trouble of a course-record-setting win on the Western States 100 recent in her legs.

Talking of Western States, if that race is the Tremendous Bowl of ultra-trail working—that’s, the middle of the universe for American ultra-trail runners—Extremely-Path du Mont-Blanc is the World Cup, the largest and most necessary ultra-trail occasion on a worldwide scale. And that makes the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run akin to the Ryder Cup, that quirky biannual Europe versus America golf competitors. It’s an honor to easily be chosen to take part within the small subject. And its status and media consideration outweigh its measurement and competitiveness.

But nonetheless, right here we’re speaking about it. That’s partly as a result of this 12 months’s Hardrock 100 is headlined by Dauwalter, who owns the ladies’s course document in each instructions from her 2022 and 2023 wins, and fellow path working icon François D’Haene, proprietor of the counterclockwise document from his victory in 2021. It’s partly due to the aesthetic nature of this excellent 100-mile loop by means of a few of Colorado’s most breathtaking terrain. And it’s partly as a result of the Hardock fantasy transcends materiality, underscored by an old-school vibe tied to nineteenth century mining historical past with a paradoxical streak of modernity.

“The parable and lore surrounding the occasion is why individuals listen,” says Joe Grant, a six-time Hardrock 100 starter and three-time finisher. “It’s just like the Barkley Marathons. Individuals lose their minds over it.”

Why do individuals “lose their minds” over an occasion with simply 146 individuals, a few of whom can be strolling off the beginning line in downtown Silverton? Right here’s every little thing it’s worthwhile to know concerning the 2024 Hardock 100.

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It’s the Excellent Loop

The Hardrock 100 presents that elusive 100-mile circle, logically connecting the outdated mining cities of Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride by means of Colorado’s postcard-perfect San Juan Mountains, over metaphorically and actually breathtaking terrain.

In one of many occasion’s many eccentricities, the course route alternates every year. This 12 months, the loop can be run clockwise, beginning in downtown Silverton up and over Grant Swamp Cross and Oscars Cross to Telluride, up and over the well-known Kroger’s Canteen help station perched on the rocky ledge on the high of the 13,000-foot Virginius Cross, to Ouray, over Handies Peak to Lake Metropolis, and again to Silverton. With steeper climbs and extra light, runnable descents, clockwise is usually thought of the sooner route.

Wending its manner over singletrack, Jeep roads, and talus fields, the course climbs greater than 33,000 toes over 100.5 miles for a complete elevation change of 66,100 toes. Along with the geography, runners should take care of the basic smorgasbord of Colorado’s summer season alpine monsoon season circumstances, starting from warmth to snow, hail to lightning. Oh, and there’s the 14,058-foot summit of Handies Peak for good measure.

“Hardrock has the San Juan mountains,” Grant says. “There’s a 14er. It hails, it snows, it’s tremendous scorching. It’s epic.”

GPS watches, on-line maps, improved course markings, and even a extra firmly trodden path from years of use might tamper the mystique of the occasion. And but, merely finishing the loop inside the 48-hour cutoff is a rewarding accomplishment, even for one of the best ultrarunners on the earth. Grant has set data on the mythological Nolan’s 14, the 500-mile Colorado Path, and the Colorado Fourteeners—a month-long self-powered effort. However he’s dropped out of Hardrock 3 times, the identical variety of occasions as he’s completed it.

The crimson and violet mountains, blankets of wildflowers, and piercingly turquoise alpine lakes don’t harm in elevating its attract, both.

RELATED: The Keys to Courtney Dauwalter’s Continued Dominance

It’s Not a Race, Variety Of

Hardrock touts itself as a run, not a race.  Type of.

“It’s each a race and a run,” Grant says. “Philosophically, the thought is to finish the loop. It’s much less about competing in opposition to different individuals. The course is the problem. That’s sufficient to have an journey.”

And but, right here we’re speaking about earlier winners, course document holders, and high contenders. To grasp that ever-growing paradoxical ethos, now we have to return to the start.

Hardrock’s origins could be traced to when Gordon Hardman wrote a letter within the November 1991 concern of UltraRunning journal, soliciting assist in making a 100-mile race within the San Juans. Charlie Thorn and his good friend John Cappis bit, and due to a great deal of trial and error, the remainder is historical past. Forty individuals (six girls) toed the beginning line in 1992, and 18 (two girls) made the spherical again to Silverton underneath their very own energy.

Hardrock was born out of the curiosity of the human spirit—these runners toeing the road in 1992 weren’t certain the loop might be accomplished in a single go. That central tenant stays elementary to the occasion.

“I used to be drawn in by the badass mountain athletes,” 10-time finisher (and three-time winner) Darcy Piceu says. “Hardrock is suited to people who find themselves actually comfy within the mountains. That was actually attention-grabbing to me. It’s extra of a mountaineer’s race than a runner’s race.”

Runners don’t cross a end line. They kiss the Hardrock, an image of a ram’s head painted on a big block of stone mining particles. On the “commencement ceremony”—in any other case often known as the awards ceremony—race director Dale Garland honors each finisher, beginning with final place.

“I freaking love that,” Piceu says. “Dale has a narrative about everybody who has completed. That’s what makes it an incredible group. The individuals who hold coming again, the individuals who have completed it. Hardrock wouldn’t be the identical with out these individuals.”

Hardrock is constructed upon group—fairly actually.

“Volunteers run the present,” Grant says. “Individuals work tirelessly and unselfishly to make the race occur. That’s the spine of ultras. Individuals are there to assist out of ardour and love for the game. That’s a part of the ethic of the occasion. You’re taking and also you give again.”

For the final three years, Grant captained the Kroger’s Canteen help station, carrying on the custom of Roch Horton, who ran Hardrock 10 occasions earlier than captaining the help station 10 occasions. This 12 months he can be pacing his good good friend Jon Davis.

Whereas Hardrock stays a community-oriented occasion, lots of the world’s finest ultra-trail runners have made their method to this distant space of Colorado to present it a whirl. Each Grant and Piceu cite 2014 as a turning level. That 12 months, a 26-year-old Catalan runner you could have heard of named Kilian Jornet gained Hardrock on his first go.

“He introduced alongside a number of media,” Piceu says. “That’s when issues began altering. The entire vibe of the race has modified.”

Jornet’s media entourage and stamp of approval meant that abruptly individuals exterior of the Hardrock bubble paid consideration to the tiny occasion tucked away within the southwest nook of the state. Jornet flew over from Europe 4 extra occasions to win Hardrock—together with a victory after dislocating his shoulder 14 miles into the run in 2017, and setting the general course document of 21 hours, 36 minutes, and 24 seconds in 2022.

Hardrock has lately grown to much more prominence due to Dauwalter gracing the occasion together with her presence for the previous three years. Abdomen points pressured her to drop from Hardrock in 2021, proving that even the mightiest succumb to its wrath. However she returned for revenge and shattered the ladies’s counterclockwise course document in 2022 and the clockwise course document in 2023.

Diana Finkel, Scott Jurek, Krissy Moel, Dave Horton, Anna Frost, Karl Meltzer, Kalmeyer, D’Haene—the checklist of legends cemented into Hardrock historical past goes on and on. Yearly on the pre-run briefing, Garland honors these with essentially the most Hardrock finishes: Kirk Apt with 26 and Betsy Kalmeyer with 21.

It’s Practically Unattainable to Get Into

Like hottest ultras, runners should full a qualifier to enter the lottery. And anybody is welcome to take action. In truth, the pool of entrants is comparatively massive and ever rising. However that makes this occasion almost unattainable to get into. Final 12 months, about 2,800 runners vied for 146 spots.

The lottery is difficult. Primarily, there are two separate lotteries, one for many who have by no means completed Hardrock (the “By no means Completed” pool), and for many who have (the “Completed” pool). This 12 months, the 2 lotteries had been break up comparatively evenly, with 68 spots for these within the Completed pile and 78 spots within the By no means Completed. Each lotteries are weighted by variables such because the variety of occasions you’ve utilized, completed the race, captained an help station, and accomplished path work on the course.

As you may think about, extra individuals enter the By no means Completed lottery than the Completed lottery, that means that when you’ve run the race, your probabilities of attending to run it once more enhance. Objectively which will appear unfair. And if this was a government-sanctioned occasion pledging equal alternative, it might be. However—and this isn’t a protection of the system—Hardrock has by no means presupposed to be “truthful.” It began as a problem amongst associates, and because the problem grew in reputation, stated group of associates needed to proceed taking part in what they began.

And but, whereas Hardrock stays entrenched in its old-school roots, it’s additionally tried to evolve with the occasions. In 2022, the race separated the boys’s and girls’s lotteries to make sure that no less than the identical p.c of ladies who enter the lottery can be represented on the beginning line. This 12 months, that’s 21 p.c, or 31 girls.

Along with the lottery, Garland reserves spots for his hand-selected  “Dale’s picks.” Based on the occasion web site, Dale’s picks go to runners who’ve met the lottery {qualifications} and are chosen “to right perceived omissions within the lottery, akin to a runner that has tried for a few years to enter, who has given distinctive service to the [event], or who the RD thinks will carry added curiosity to the run.” That last level, “will carry added curiosity” appears to carry essentially the most weight as of late. This 12 months, his six picks included Camille Bruyas, D’Haene, Tara Dower, Katharina Hartmuth, Zach Miller, and Ludovic Pommeret—all elite runners who’ve confirmed themselves on the worldwide stage. Extra on them beneath.

A Grassroots Occasion with World Attain

The weighted lottery and Dale’s picks—which successfully create a two-class system by which some runners spend their adulthoods attempting to get into the occasion, and others merely say the phrase and get within the subsequent 12 months—elevate the query: What’s Hardrock attempting to be?

“Hardrock is run like a grassroots occasion,” Grant says. “But it surely’s not grassroots by way of its scope and attain.”

Are these seemingly diametrically opposed forces appropriate? Can Hardrock be each a group occasion and an internationally acclaimed (cowl your ears, Dale) race?

Hardrock sits between, properly, a rock and a tough place. It stays rooted in custom and an old-school mentality. But it surely thrives on the worldwide stage. It straddles two worlds drifting ever additional aside in our more and more technologicalized and commercialized period. It’s on this liminal house that Hardock ruffles feathers, and likewise the place it captures the creativeness. It’s a style of the previous, accessible within the current. It’s an internationally-revered race with the customs of a small-town run. It’s a glance right into a group, preserved at an arm’s size.

“Hardock has by no means been a mass participation occasion,” Grant says. “It’s very completely different than UTMB, which is attempting to enchantment to an enormous crowd and promote out their occasions. They’re attempting to fulfill the demand. Hardock has chosen to maintain the race small for a wide range of causes. They’re not placing out that their objective is mass participation. It’s imperfect, nevertheless it’s unattainable to please everyone.”

And but, “profitable” and even touchdown on the rostrum of this non-race can catapult one’s profession, as we’ve seen with the likes of Piceu and Grant. Which brings us to who from inside this small subject we are able to anticipate to see main the cost.

Courtney Dauwalter Headlines Worldwide Ladies’s Subject

On Friday all eyes can be on Dauwalter and D’Haene, as they return not solely to kiss the rock first, however to additionally probably decrease their course data. They’ll be aided by a largely snow-free course and considerably auspicious climate (the forecast presently requires a excessive of 77 levels in Silverton on Friday, with an opportunity of afternoon thunderstorms). And within the case of Dauwalter, what can she do with out the trouble of a Western States course document in her legs from two weeks earlier than?

Should you thought Courtney Dauwalter’s really unbelievable 2023 marketing campaign, which included a course document win at Western States in June, a course document win at Hardrock in July, and a win at UTMB on the primary weekend in September, might have accomplished her in, suppose once more. She picked up proper the place she left off this 12 months, handily profitable the 78.9-mile Transgrancanaria in February and the Mount Fuji 100-miler in April. Dauwalter is notoriously non-public about her coaching, however all indicators point out she’s put down an enormous coaching block round her high-altitude house in Leadville, Colorado, and additional out west, making her the hands-down favourite to win the ladies’s race and likewise crash the boys’s podium.

It’s a better of the remainder scenario within the girls’s race—though the remainder stay formidable in their very own proper. Within the girls’s race, Katharina Harmouth of Germany will make her Hardrock 100 debut after a stellar 2023 which included taking second behind Dauwalter at UTMB and second on the lengthy course Path Working World Championships that June.

She’ll be joined by France’s Camille Bruyas, who took second to Dauwalter at UTMB in 2021. Final 12 months, she completed runner-up behind Katie Schide on the formidable Diagonale des Fous.

French compatriot Claire Bannwarth returns after taking fifth right here final 12 months. Whereas she has expertise on her aspect, she definitely doesn’t have recent legs. Bannwarth took second on the Tahoe 200-mile Endurance Run only a month in the past, and that was after profitable the 268-mile Winter Backbone Race in January, profitable the TrailCat 200-miler in March, profitable the Lake Zurich 100K later in March,  putting third on the Istria 100-miler, and taking fourth on the Madeira Extremely-Path 115K, profitable the Path Menorca Cami de Cavalls 115-mile race in Might, and taking tenth on the 80-mile Scenic Path Extremely in early June. Simply final weekend, she positioned sixth within the 100-miler at Quebec Mega Path, working for greater than 32 hours, after which shortly headed to the airport to journey to Colorado. Will she have any juice left within the tank?

Through-hiker-turned-ultrarunner-but-still-a-thru-hiker Tara Dower burst onto the scene over the past a number of years. Whereas she lives within the thick air of Virginia and has spent a lot of the spring on the highway, Dower acquired out to the San Juans a couple of month in the past to acclimate and season her legs. The 2023 Run Rabbit Run 100-miler champ kicked off 2024 with seventh on the extremely aggressive Black Canyon 100K and a win on the Umstead 100-miler.  She’s squeezing on this little occasion earlier than trying a pace document try on the Appalachian Path.

Different girls to look at embody Claire Heslop of Canada, who’s completed progressively sooner within the high 20 of UTMB for the previous three years; Yitka Winn, who has gained the Cascade Crest 100-miler 4 of the final 5 years; Becky Bates, a Canadian who took seventh at Hardrock final 12 months; and Emily Halnon, ninth final 12 months and seventh the 12 months earlier than.

François D’Haene Leads Veteran Males’s Subject

Like within the girls’s race, one identify looms above the remainder. That identify, after all, is François D’Haene, 2021 winner (in a course document time) and 2022 runner-up behind Jornet within the third-fastest time ever. Whereas D’Haene has been vocal about how a lot the spirit of this occasion and the group means to him, we’ve acquired to additionally surprise: is the four-time UTMB and Diagonale des Fous champ vying for reclaiming the general course document?

RELATED: “Right here, You Really feel A part of a Household.” Why François D’Haene Returns to the Hardrock 100, Once more.

D’Haene’s largest competitors would have in all probability come from Zach Miller, the longtime ultrarunning standout who completed runner-up behind Jim Walmlsey at UTMB final 12 months. However in a merciless accident, Miller underwent an emergency appendectomy per week out from the race. He stays undecided on whether or not he’ll toe the road. Keep in mind, Zach, Hardrock isn’t going wherever!

Ludovic Pommeret of France will make his Hardrock debut at age 48. If something, time appears to be on his aspect for these huge mountainous ultras. The 2016 UTMB winner took fifth within the males’s race final 12 months at UTMB, simply two months after putting twelfth at Western States. He additionally gained TDS, a 90-mile UTMB Finals race, in 2022. Whereas he’s already proper at house within the mountains, he’s additionally spent the final month coaching out on the course.

Durango, Colorado native Jason Schlarb returns after his 2016 tie for the win with Jornet. The 46-year-old has overcome quite a bit over the previous few years, together with present process ACL surgical procedure from a snowboarding accident in 2021. He gained the Monument Valley 50K in March and appears to be rounding into type on the proper time.

Others to look at embody the Speedgoat himself Karl Meltzer, who at 56 is a bit previous his prime however has gained extra 100-mile races than anybody on the planet and is tied with Jornet and Kalmeyer for essentially the most Hardrock wins (5 apiece); Nick Coury, who took seventh in 2022; Diego Pazos of Switzerland, who cracked into the highest 10 at UTMB with seventh within the males’s race (eighth total) in 2021; hometown hero Jeff Rome, runner-up in 2018; and Paul Terranova, the highest returner due to his sixth place within the males’s race final 12 months.

Tips on how to Watch the 2024 Hardrock 100 

Whereas the sector measurement will at all times stay restricted as a consequence of allowing limitations, the occasion continues to develop in different methods. For the second 12 months in a row, the Hardock 100 can be livestreamed due to the tireless work of the manufacturing firm Mountain Outpost.

However the occasion can be livestreamed with limitations. For one, cell protection across the course is, to make use of the technical time period, abysmal. And as a consequence of allowing restrictions there gained’t be any birds-eye view drone protection we’ve gotten so spoiled consuming at occasions like UTMB and Western States. However there can be drool worthy views of flowery mountain vistas and turquoise alpine lakes. There can be coloration commentary—an abundance of it. And, finally, there can be weary albeit elated runners kissing an enormous painted rock on the finish.

Catch the 2024 Hardock 100 stay stream on the Mountain Outpost Youtube channel beginning at 5:15 A.M. MT on Friday, July 12.

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