Thursday, July 10, 2014

Jones Pass Loop And Hardrock

Jones Pass Loop and Hardrock

Got up and ran the Jones Pass loop for the first time this year. This is a great loop that spends a fair bit of time above 12,000' (about 9 miles), so although one wants to move fast, it takes effort. I started out good, but then my effort level waned and I simply plodded along. Apparently I'm still feeling my race effort a bit - when you don't do much speed running, doing a fast race can really take it out of you. I still got it done in 3:27, but I'm thinking on a really good day it can go sub 3:00 - there are still some snow fields to navigate around, which slowed things a bit as well.

 Run up the ridge in the center of the photo
  Looking at Pettingell Peak from Hassell
 Run north on the Divide - Vasquez is on the right with Longs directly behind it way in the back
 Looking at the run from the north - Hassell is the small summit directly in the center in the far back

Lot of stuff coming out this week on Hardrock. So far, I like this video on Darcy the best:



And of course, this article on Kyle Skaggs' course record run in 2008.

2 comments:

  1. That is a good vid. I like the tracker they threw in there to indicate the relative distances between the two of them throughout the race.

    Did you catch the interview with Darcy before this HR by irunfar? I found it interesting how she opened with not wanting the race to change (pointing to the media hype around the front of the field this year) but then nudged to see changes around the women participation numbers.

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    1. Yeah, the tracker is cool. It really shows how Diana Finkel was killing it until she had medical problems. I hope those are resolved this year.

      I agree, the interview was interesting. There is a good point about women in 100s, and even TK made mention of that in his UD post. However, as for the media hype, this year is over the top. I've been "observing" some of the twitter/instragram photos and it looks to be a genuine circus down there. Lots of people just there to hang out and see the race (which, other then the start and maybe one quick aid station, one can observe better via online thanks to iRunfar and other outlets). Unless there is another stacked field, I think next year it will be toned down. This year, because of the European presence, the media level seems to be quite high. I'll take it, but it would be a shame to see the race turn into an ultra (pun intended) exclusive club/race that is at the same time hyped to the masses. I mean, the Denver Post and Daily Camera even had short blurbs on it today, simply because of KJ.

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