One Blurry Week

The San Juans in the Rearview a few weeks before Hardrock

In typical fashion I am a bit slow in updating, but just over a week ago I finished up a whirlwind trip to St George, UT and Silverton, CO. I went to St. George to work with UltraSpire on a new video commercial they are working on for Outdoor Retailer. I met fellow Elite Immortal ( that's what Ultraspire calls their athletes), Krissy Moehl in the airport and from the moment we got off of the plane item was just a whirlwind of filming, product testing/feedback, voice over interviews and all around good times. We were able to see some amazing areas of St. George, the even had me considering moving to that area. In what seemed a blink of an eye we were headed back to the airport to fly to Grand Junction and then drive in to Silverton, where both of us would be serving as pacers at the Hardrock 100.




Aid station shot of Matt's gear

Just being in Silverton for Hardrock was awe inspiring. It was the first time I have helped crew or pace, and I had the privilege to be part of the team for Matt Hart. The night before the race we had a great dinner and spent sometime going over splits and plans for the next day. In typical fashion we went to bed early, just to lay in bed waiting for the morning to come. The whole house was up early, Matt and Dakota eating breakfast and the rest of us lazily getting ready. The start was super exciting, but weird being on the outside of the line.



Darcy Africa looking strong coming into Ouray

After runners went out we headed to get caffeinated, eat and then drive around to the first aid station. Pretty much the rest of the day was a blur of driving rough roads, seeing Matt and the other runners for a few brief moments and then repeating. In the early evening a got ready to run with Matt from Ouray to KT, around 35 miles.



Jared Campbell looking out from the pain cave, about to leave Ouray



Dakota showing the weight of 50 more miles



Matt eating a small feast of "real" food at Ouray



Great picture of Ellen Parker as she described Matt's status coming into Ouray

Matt was in good spirits when he got to the aid station but was feeling the effects of the first 50+ miles of Hardrock. We made constant forward progress all night, at times it wasn't much more than hiking pace. Just before the dawn Matt got really cold because of his inability to consume calories, he was wearing both of our jackets, gloves and a hat, yet was still having a hard time staying warm. Just after dawn I sat him down and made him eat before descending into Chapman aid station. At the aid station he rested for about an hour and then rallied pretty much the rest of the way to KT where I passed him back to Ellen. I hitched a ride back to the start finish to wait for Matt. He came in just under 35 hours thoroughly worked but happy to be done.



Matt actually running into the finish to get under 35 hours



FINISHED!



All the UltraSpire athletes that either ran, paced or ran an aid station at Hardrock, there was lots of solid product testing going on, you should start getting anxious to get your hands on one of these packs!

The next day Tanae and I ran back up to Ice Lake to get one more taste of the San Juans before having to head back to work in New Mexico. Overall it was an incredible trip, with list of running, friends and good time. In a side note overall training has been going well with 147 miles of running in the 8 days following Hardrock. Things should start coming together for a very solid Wasatch 100.
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La Sportiva X-Country Review

I'll admit that I am a long time fan of La Sportiva running shoes. In many ways it seems as though their shoes are built specifically for my narrow, low volume feet. For several years now my go to shoe has been the Crosslite. This spring Sportiva introduced a new lighter weight cousin to the Crosslite- the X-Country.



At first I was a bit skeptical about this new shoe being too minimal for a true mountain running shoe. It is several ounces lighter than the Crosslite, yet the fit is surprisingly familiar. It is immediately noticeable that it is much lighter than the Crosslite and after the first run my lower legs tell me it also has less foot drop.

As I have run in the X-country for the last month I have found myself reaching for them more than any other shoe in my closet. I am always surprised with how well the shoe protects from rocks. Even on wildly fast and rough descents the minimal midsole seems just enough to protect my now callused feet from jagged intrusions of trail. The aggressive tread pattern works very well in all conditions, even scrambling on hard granite slabs, part of one of my current trade routes, the shoes grip very well and have yet to let me down.

Over the last few years I have ran many pairs of Crosslites into oblivion, normally good for around 300 miles. I now have 350 on my first pair of X-Countries, and they look to have at least another 100 on them before they need to be retired.

To be totally honest I haven't really found anything that hasn't been up to par on this new shoe, the only negative, which turns out to be personal opinion only is the color selection of the shoe. Sportiva is well known very rocking yellow, so it isn't a surprise and after a few dusty or muddy trail runs the bright yellow is muted to a very tolerable shade.

Here is the link on La Sportiva's website to the X-Country: http://www.sportiva.com/products/footwear/mountain-running/x-country

If you have any questions about the X-Country, or any other La Sportiva shoe for that matter, leave a comment below and I'll try to comment back as soon as possible.


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