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. 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. And it sort of feels like that is how it will play out at Hardrock. But when you look at those efforts, the commonality is that she arrived at situations outside of her control. 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. Courtney feels unbeatable but she has had her vulnerabilities over the years. That said, she does it all with a smile and a laugh, all chill.

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. Then we have Courtney Dauwalter whose list of accomplishments is a mile long. 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. 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. She’s super competitive and doesn’t shy away from saying it. We have Sabrina Stanley, a resident of Silverton, Colorado, the reigning Hardrock champ from 2018, and the Nolan’s 14 supported FKT holder. 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. I’m feeling pretty spoiled in that we all got to binge on Western States mania and now Hardrock is already imminently upon us. My job here is to tell a few stories (inject some drama) so you have some more context when following along on race day. 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. 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.

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. 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.

Backbone trail fkt