18 Comments
Oct 5, 2023Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

I'm the guy (Bill) who ran the first part of rabbit with you. Nice job, I figured you'd finish ahead of me but not by5 hours. Good luck getting in Hardrock this year, I've got my fingers crossed I can get in again before I get too old... I enjoyed your article

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Thank you Bill for finding my newsletter—it was great to start RRR with you. In case you didn’t see my RRR story, here it is https://sarahrunning.substack.com/p/from-bliss-to-nothingness

Congrats on getting another HR qualifier!

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Jan 3, 2022Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

Thanks for sharing the personal side of Hardrock for yourself! Very cool your grandparents were such explorers. All the best in the 2022 season, running wherever you run, and eventually good luck in Hardrock, it'll happen one day :)

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Dec 13, 2021Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

Thanks to your link I‘ve read today, 4 years later, your M2M report. You brought me back to that wonderful week, which I spent running mostly side to side with Sharon - not knowing you where not so far away … Enjoy your trainings! Best greets from the Swiss Alps, Roberto

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Thank you Roberto! I was remembering the Mauna to Mauna—and mentioned it in my prior post about Thanksgiving and Hawaii—because I returned to the Big Island in late November. I feel we were lucky to experience that event in its first, and likely only, year. Thank you for reading my posts and happy new year to you.

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Dec 10, 2021Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

I'd add the Divide 100 to your list:

https://divide100.com/

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Thank you, I just added it. I was confused because someone else recommended the Great Divide and I thought they were the same events. Do you know who's the RD or what outfit puts it on? Looks like it's just a couple of years old.

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Race Director is Guy Love, at "glove at vt.edu". Yes, it started out as a 100K

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Dec 9, 2021Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

There is also the Silverheels 100 in Fairplay during July and the Sangre de Cristo 100 in Westcliffe during September.

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Dec 8, 2021Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

Curious why the system isn't allowing more women for this race? Is it an old school lottery system that isn't allowing more equality?

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You have no idea how much commentary has been written & debated about this over the years. In a nutshell, the Hardrock board values the family-like community of runners (most of whom traditionally have been men) and therefore designed the lottery to give better odds for past runners to return. Please go to their website to read about how they designed the lottery. Their lottery is very detailed and carefully thought out.

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Dec 8, 2021Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

There is another new 100 in May at Mueller State Park, The Great Divide Ultra. https://www.revenantrunning.com/the-great-divide-ultra

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I hadn't heard of that, thank you!

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Dec 8, 2021Liked by Sarah Lavender Smith

Great read…. Been trying on and off since 2010 to get into Hardrock and finally got in this year. Took me 256 tickets though…. You should help clean the markers off the course after the run to get an extra ticket basically doubling your tickets for that year. It’s what I did to go from 128 to 256. Every bit helps.

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Congrats Shad! Persistence pays off :-). However I saw some other 256 ticket holders still did not get in, ouch.

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In my opinion, veterans should give more women a chance. There are some who have the luxury of not attending and reappear in the following year.

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