2021 Hardrock 100 Storylines to Follow

by Chase Parnell — July 7, 2021 — 📸: Ben Wyrick

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I love writing these pre-race articles because they give me a great excuse to do a lot of “research”, or in other words, spend hours nerding out on Hardrock history and watching films from years gone by. If you have some time, definitely go watch Billy Yang’s The Unkown following Tim Olson’s 2016 running of Hardrock as well as The Gathering, which followed the lead pack at the 2017 race, the year Kilian Jornet dislocated his shoulder at mile 13 and went on to win. While I’ve never been to Hardrock myself, it really feels like Billy captured the spirit of the race that we’ve all heard so much about over the years. 

Hardrock hasn’t been run since 2018! In 2019 the race was cancelled due to historic snowfall and of course the Covid-19 pandemic took out the 2020 iteration, so it will have been three long years since this community has come together in Silverton, Colorado. The race goes off next Friday at 6am, July 16, 2021.

My job here is to tell a few stories (inject some drama) so you have some more context when following along on race day. I’m feeling pretty spoiled in that we all got to binge on Western States mania and now Hardrock is already imminently upon us. Below are a few of the biggest storylines of 2021, although this is not an exhaustive list by any means. For the rundown of all the contenders, check out iRunfar’s preview.

Sabrina Stanley vs. Courtney Dauwalter

This is such a fun match-up. We have Sabrina Stanley, a resident of Silverton, Colorado, the reigning Hardrock champ from 2018, and the Nolan’s 14 supported FKT holder. She’s super competitive and doesn’t shy away from saying it. She probably hasn’t quite gotten the attention she deserves after all she’s accomplished, but one thing is certain, that will end if she pulls off a win against Courtney D. Sabrina ran a time of 30:23 in 2018 but she has really developed as a runner since then; she won the HURT 100 and Diagonale de Fous on Reunion Island where she took down a solid international field on another rugged mountain 100 mile course. Then we have Courtney Dauwalter whose list of accomplishments is a mile long. She’s aggressive in a different way: she has an insatiable appetite for big challenges and she relentlessly pushes her limits, almost to a scary degree. That said, she does it all with a smile and a laugh, all chill. Courtney feels unbeatable but she has had her vulnerabilities over the years. She had to drop at the 2019 Western States due to injury, acute bronchitis forced her to pull the plug on her Colorado Trail FKT in 2020, and then some thought she’d do a little more at Barkley earlier this year. But when you look at those efforts, the commonality is that she arrived at situations outside of her control. And it sort of feels like that is how it will play out at Hardrock. She can be beaten but it’s probably not going to happen because she didn’t have the juice or the pace to get it done. The course records at Hardrock are not to be taken lightly, but I have to think that Diana Finkel’s 2009 counter-clockwise record of 28:32 (they alternate directions each year) has to be in jeopardy. Sabrina ran almost two hours slower in 2018 but she’s come a long way since then and the sky’s the limit with Courtney. Dauwalter has won Western States, UTMB, Madeira Island Ultra Trail, Tarawera 100k, Big’s Backyard, and on and on. Perhaps more importantly, she appears to be super fit in this moment in time. On June 26, she ran the San Juan Solstice 50 miler, a race that’s been going on since 1996, and lowered the course record by 41 minutes. There are other very strong women in this field, even past winners of the race, but I really think the winner will be Sabrina or Courtney. Neither one will go down quietly. 

Francois D’haene finally runs Hardrock

Arguably the planet’s best mountain 100 mile ultra runner, Francois D’haene of France, is set to finally make his Hardrock debut. After beating Kilian Jornet for the win at the 2017 UTMB, I imagine Francois will have the confidence to aim for Kilian’s counter-clockwise course record of 23:28. While Francois will have some competition, he’s definitely the clear favorite to win. Francois spent some time in 2019 scouting the Hardrock course with Jim Walmsley and has been out there recently to put the finishing touches on his fitness and recon. He has won just about every other major 100 miler out there apart from Western States (his best finish was 2nd place in 2018). I’d also like to use this opportunity to give credit to Francois for something I’m sure he’s lost a lot of sleep over since this year’s Western States. See, Jim wore a bucket hat during the race and the world went bananas over it, but really, take a look at this picture from 2019 and tell me where Jim might’ve gotten the idea. Props. What’ll be really interesting will be to see how Francois decides to run the course. There were years when Kilian deliberately slowed down in order to have company with other runners late in the race. Will Francois take it out hard with the intention of running his fastest possible loop? Or will he sit back and let others dictate the pace and make it more of an outlast game and ramp it up late? Who knows. And really, that’s what makes this thing exciting. A lot can happen. 100 miles is a really long way, especially when you have to climb 33,000 vertical feet en route.

Dylan Bowman Double

I’m going to go on the record and say that D-Bo deserves credit for the infamous Western States — Hardrock double. No, he didn’t actually run Western States this year but the prep, pre-race interviews and 30 hour livestream coverage he did with Corrine Malcolm had to take a similar toll. Looking at his Strava during Western States week, he took a hit but still managed about 60 miles with 11k vert. Not too bad! Other than that little dip, Dylan’s training has been out of this world, just bonkers. Big memorable efforts were the Joshua Tree Traverse FKT, Backbone Trail FKT, back to back 35 mile training runs out of Mammoth in late June, the works. Really a world-class build that should give him a ton of confidence. To me, Dylan is one of maybe three or four guys that could give Francois some trouble if the stars align. Julien Chorier of France has a great record on this course (2011 champ and 2014 2nd place finish). Ryan Smith (2019 Leadville winner) lives in Colorado and will be very comfortable in that environment. And then there’s Dylan, who has proven he can run with the big euro boys on several occasions: 7th UTMB (2017), 2nd TDS (2018), 1st Ultra Trail Mount Fuji (2018), 3rd TransGranCanaria (2020). Dylan also has big Colorado connections, growing up in Boulder and living in Aspen for a time. He’ll get the most cheers out on the course no doubt; hoping they’ll rally him to a really special day. Go back and listen to this Pyllars podcast episode where Dylan interviews Joe Grant. They relive their experience when Dylan paced Joe at Hardrock. Joe said he was going to return the pacing favor and I know Tyler Green is also on pacing duty so he’ll have some good dudes to help him through!

Streaks and Uniques

Kirk Apt, 59, will be attempting to finish his 25th Hardrock. Blake Wood, 61, is going for his 23rd. Betsy Kalmeyer, 60, 5-time Hardrock Champion, will be going for her 20th finish. Another Betsy, Betsy Nye, 56, will be chasing her 17th. These feats are superhuman and need to be recognized with each passing year. There are 16 women and 130 men running the 2021 Hardrock 100. Without a major revamp to the lottery system, this great divide between male and female participants at Hardrock will only marginally improve over time. The question is how the race can increase female representation while also maintaining a lottery that honors past finishers of the race. Rock and a hard place. There are no runners under the age of 30 starting the race. There are four over the age of 70. The oldest is Drew Meyer of Fort Worth, Texas who will be 74 on race day. The oldest female is Liz Bauer of Charleston, South Carolina at age 62. I don’t want to hear anyone in their 40s or 50s saying they’ve aged out of ultrarunning. There will be seven countries represented this year: USA (140), France (2), Sweden (1), Canada (1), Peru (1), and Great Britain (1). Right now, the ten-day forecast in Silverton, Colorado is showing a high of 71 degrees, partly sunny, with isolated thunderstorms. But don’t let that alarm you, when are there not isolated thunderstorms in Colorado?

Wrapping Up

I have six years of tickets into the Hardrock 100 lottery but I might still be a decade away from gaining entry. I’ll keep trying despite it being a course that terrifies me. And frankly, I’m in no real hurry to get in. I feel like I need to develop some more mountain skills and comfort before actually trying to race Hardrock. I do want to try my hand in a mountain range like the San Juans though. I ran UTMB, a challenging landscape for sure, but you feel pretty safe out there. I get the sense that you really need to be able to take care of yourself at Hardrock. It’s just part of the deal. I have tremendous respect for each and every runner toeing the line next Friday. They are braver than most. While watching Billy Yang’s Hardrock films I was reminded of just how closely ultras parallel the journey of life. As corny as it may sound, there are indeed highs and lows, long rough patches, agony and pain, but there’s also the highlight reel, moments of elation and pure joy. A race like Hardrock allows for the full spectrum of human emotion; it’s something like experiencing all that life has to offer over the course of a day or two. Many of these abbreviated lives will be cut short by injury, timing out, or plain old physical, mental and emotional fatigue. But most will persevere and inevitably make it to the finish line, kiss the rock, and earn a memory to last a lifetime and a story to tell that they’ll never get sick of telling. May it be so.

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