Hardrock Day 2 - Full day of exploring, crewing, and more exploring. The day ended with Tim Adams finishing his jaunt through the San Juan Mountains in 41:53. Only a few hours behind the winner Hal Koerner (24:50 - amazing!). More details about the race later.... Joe and I got up at 8am after 4 hours of sleep and wandered over to the finish line in Silverton. We had missed Hal, Joe and Dakota's finishes and we waited around for almost an hour with no one finishing. We got bored and decided to go check out the course. We pulled out the course directions and off we went. We made it to mile 5.5 before time ran out and we had to head back. In that time, we saw some killer views and experienced some easy trails and some not so easy trails. This course is not for beginners...duh. We topped out at 11,300 feet and were still well below the peaks.
T-2:30 (11 miles) 2700' vert After this warmup, we quickly made some PB&J and headed to Maggie Gulch to resume our duties. We had to park at the bottom (race rules) and hike the supposed 3.5 miles to the aid station at 12,000. Turns out they moved the aid station up the canyon more so it was actually 4.25 miles. We quickly settled into our power hike mode and got to work. Before long, we were deep into the pretty country and loving it. Everywhere you looked, it was a sight to behold. We finally arrived at the aid station worried that we had missed Tim, but luckily he had not arrived yet. That gave us time to rest and catch our breath. T- 1:31 (4.25 miles) 2100' climb Tim soon arrived and Jon was finished with his pacing duties after 12 hours of "being on the clock". He had traveled through some of the prettiest parts of the course and even hiked over Handies, the only 14'er on the course. He was able to catch a ride down the canyon to the car and drive to the next aid station and crew. I, on the other hand decided to become a random pedestrian on the trail and sight-see. I "ran" the section from Maggie Gulch over Buffalo Boy Ridge (13,214) and Green Mountain Pass (13,048) and down Green Mountain Valley and finally dropping into Cunningham Gulch (10,400). To put it plainly, it was gorgeous and I loved every minute of it. I took lots of pictures and even some video. T- 1:51 (6 miles) 1800' vert climbing 3300' vert descent Total: 21 miles (5:51) 6600' vert climb 6000' descent (all above 9400')
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