Adventures in Onionism

It's Tuesday, I'm back in Berkeley, and I just ran my first Hardrock last Friday/Saturday in 34:42. I wanted to record thoughts immediately after the experience, because it was hard , and now that it's been a few days, I'm already forgetting the pain. [I don't want kids, so you'll have to insert your own reference to childbearing here if you so desire.] Start The race started at 6AM. I slept reasonably well the night before in my truck just behind the school gym where the race starts--Silverton is very low key, so it's easy to dirtbag inside the city limits. I did, however, have a bit of GI non-normality, but it didn't seem like a big deal. I started in shorts, T-shirt, and a windshirt. As expected, the windshirt soon became too warm, likely because of the clouds that were obviously going to bring rain sooner rather than later. First Climb I started maybe 30-40 deep in the field, going faster than I'd ever climbed in training, but not feel...

I'm just a few days out from my first Hardrock. It's probably the hardest non-Barkley 100-miler, with 33,000 feet of climbing. Wasatch used to have 26 or 27,000, I think, before a private property issue forced them to get rid of a climb towards the end. Most other hard 100's I've done have from 18-21,000. They also aren't at 11,000 feet elevation. Tahoe 200 only had 34,000 over 200 miles, so Hardrock is definitely hard. The Lottery It's also very difficult to get into because 70% of the fewer than 150 spots are reserved for people who have already run it. (Lottery system described here --basically, there's a never bucket, a 5-time veteran bucket, and everyone else.) I'm biased since I haven't run it before, but I think this system is absurd. Obviously the race directors can do whatever they want, as evidenced by the fact that they are , but the more important question is whether they should . Should a race on public land be largely limited to the...

2017 is shaping up to be a year. Bold typeface indicates I've already registered. February 4, 2017 Rocky Racoon 100 March 4, 2017 Way Too Cool 50k  March 11, 2017 Marin Ultra Challenge 50-Miler April 1, 2017 Barkley Marathons  Backup: April 1, 2017 Bone Tempest  April 15, 2017 Lake Sonoma 50M (Dec 1-15 lottery)   Backup: April 15, 2017 Grizzly Peak 50K  May 14, 2017 Quicksilver 100K  June 24, 2017 San Juan Solstice 50 (lottery Jan 15-22) July 14-16, 2017 Hardrock 100  August 11-15, 2017 Bigfoot 200  October 14(?), 2017 Euchre Bar Massacre That's about it. Rocky Racoon isn't really my style, but it's an excuse to visit friends in Houston, and I think I can wedge it into a multi-destination work trip. Barkley I'm not sure about, and I never am, but why not go balls out the same year I finally get into Hardrock and have already signed up for a 200-miler? That's right. I got into Hardrock on my fifth application. To be exact I'm f...