.png){kind=logo}
Local Runners among top finishers at Colorado's Hardrock 100
| 16 July 2010
...I ain't going up that d-mn mountain.” It was Saturday afternoon, more than 31 hours since 140 runners had begun the Hardrock 100 at 6 a.m. Friday morning in Silverton, Colorado. Tim Stroh, of Arlington, Washington, was just coming into the Cunningham aid station, just past 90 miles.
Stroh saw Bobby Biles sitting there, at odds with the last climb known as Little Giant Peak. He was done with these mountains; but it was okay. He’d paced his runner through 40 grueling miles. “I couldn’t have done it without [Bobby],” says Terry Sentinella of Anacortes, Washington.
Sentinella is the president of Skagit Runners; his curly hair (sometimes it’s shorn, or blond, or blue) can be found most weekends, either race directing, racing, or training. Tim Stroh of local Plain 100 fame, is the calm to Sentinella’s exuberance, but both equally, and most obviously, love this sport. They both demonstrate the best of trail running: dedication and humility, extending encouragement to new runners.
Ouray aid station, mile 44, Friday, 6 p.m. The pair – Terry & Tim, Sentinella & Stroh – finally part ways. Racing with another person helps, but not always in the long haul: one runner is always “sub-optimized,” as Stroh puts it.
But on this Friday, Sentinella and Stroh put in 44 miles together, climbing over 14,000 feet and descending almost 13,000 feet during these first 12 hours of the race. They describe themselves as well “matched,” but the opposite is also true. Sentinella is faster, accelerating on the downhills, but Stroh’s endurance propels him on the uphills.
Although they trained together before the Hardrock 100, their plans to race together had never gelled. But the timing was right, says Sentinella, “running together allowed us to work together so we didn’t overdo it during this crucial time.”
February 6, 2010, Huntington, Texas. After only 18 hours, Terry Sentinella had just finished the Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Endurance Run; and he had also just gotten the news that in five months he would be running this year’s Hardrock 100.
At the same time, back home in Washington, Stroh had just answered his ringing phone to a cursing Randy Gehrke, long-time friend of Stroh (and well-recognized as the race director of the Cascade Crest 100 prior to 2006). Gehrke had been wait-listed to this year’s Hardrock – 236th on the wait list to be exact – but was calling to congratulate Stroh in a most gracious manner.
Was it grace that would move both Stroh and Sentinella through scree-scattered trails and allow them to persevere through the altitudinal pressure? “It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but worth every minute.” Sentinella’s words echo that of a first-time 100 mile finisher; although Hardrock would be his fourth such 100-mile finish just this year.
Sentinella had dealt with running in altitude before – and he would deal with it here. Every time his heart rate peaked, Sentinella sat down until he regained normal breathing; this technique allowed him to run the descents and carried Sentinella through the entire race.
Sherman aid station, mile 72, Saturday, 4 a.m. Stroh’s troubles with altitude began early Saturday morning after 22 hours on his feet. He had just spent more than five sub-freezing, wind-blustering hours on a “tortuous trek” up Handies Peak (altitude 14,048 feet). Sunrise is known as the time when runners “perk up,” but this morning Stroh’s breathing was becoming labored. Until now he had somehow stayed within his “pipe-dream schedule,” however he was quickly losing his grip on the clock.
Would Stroh quit? Not on his life. But his stubborn heart rate would not slow down. The feeling “was very disturbing,” admits Stroh, suggesting that he would quit, but only if his life depended on it. So just as stubbornly, Stroh continued slowly walking the uphills, and running with whatever speed his body would grant him on the downhills and flats.
It’s not as if Stroh and Sentinella didn’t know Hardrock would be this hard - even an observer can glean this much from the 80 page Hardrock Runners Manual (of which at least 15 pages are devoted to course description). Just reading the preliminary “jargon table,” i.e., definitions of terms used to describe the Hardrock course, is enough to conjure up images from Touching the Void.
Maggie Gulch aid station, mile 85, Saturday, 9:15 a.m. Sentinella had just left the second to last aid station. Three minutes later and 15 miles ahead, Jared Campbell would be the first runner this year to “kiss the hardrock.” Campbell was likely sitting down to some “real food” while Sentinella, for at least 10 miles now, had been thinking it might be a good time to go off his gluten-free diet and have a “big fat juicy hamburger.”
It was lunch time when Sentinella walked out of the final aid station, waving goodbye to his pacer Bobby Biles. Less than 10 miles back to Silverton now. Almost two hours later, Biles would watch as Stroh also left the Cunningham aid station on his way to a finish.
Silverton, mile 100.5, Saturday afternoon. Delores Sentinella and Jolane Stroh watched their respective husbands kiss the Hardrock within an hour of each other. Sentinella finished in 33 hours, 33 minutes. Stroh got his climbing legs back and finished soon after in 34 hours, 17 minutes. They placed 19th and 22nd out of 100 finishers.
Stroh’s synopsis of events cannot be improved upon:
It is truly mind-boggling, and very humbling, to realize what the human body can do if properly trained and given a chance. To me, thinking that our bodies just "evolved" to enable this type of effort is silly. I believe God created us and His awesomeness enables this type of effort for His glory. For me, that explains why I was able to climb one major pass after another, all day and all night and all day... And the Hardrock aid station folks are the Angels!
Among multiple other scheduled 100 milers this summer, Sentinella and Stroh will both be running the Cascade Crest 100 in Easton, Washington on August 28-29.
Check out a slide show of phtos from the Hardrock 100; photos courtesy of Terry Sentinella.
July 16, 12:48 PM
Seattle Trail Running ExaminerShawn McTaggart