September 18, 2023 - What If You Never Get Into Hardrock?

There has been a small wondering. What if I do this whole High Five By 55 thing, spend the next 7 or 8 years collecting Hardrock lottery tickets, volunteer at Hardrock to boost my lottery chances, and still don't get picked in the lottery? What if demand for Hardrock continues to skyrocket and a 5-10 year window for likely selection becomes 20 years? Will this all have been a failure since it all began with the idea that I wanted to get into Hardrock and run the race, not just volunteer and crew and pace?

No. Definitively no. Absolutely no. Purely pragmatically, if I've run 7 or 8 years of qualifiers and have done all the learning I hope to do, I should be absolutely ready to run and finish High Five 100 irrespective of whether I run Hardrock or not. I could simply jump into Ouray 100 in place of Hardrock for that final preparation race, and probably wouldn't require that anyway. So no, this will not have been a failure from that perspective.

But far more importantly, no. No! Because that final race isn't really the point in the first place. That running of High Five 100 is a nice, juicy, exciting carrot that should keep my attention for the next decade. But it's just a little bit of sprinkle on top of the real purpose of this all, spending the next 10 years on various mountain adventures encountering all kinds of life experiences I might not have experienced otherwise. It's about spending time with like-minded individuals, friends who want to help me build the skills I need and want to also go on mountain adventures. It's about helping those same individuals on their similar adventures. It's about experiencing new places, new mountain ranges, meeting other runners along the way. It's a trite banalism, but it's about the journey. Plain and simple

Not getting into Hardrock in the next decade would certainly be a disappointment at some level. I do want to run it after all. But that disappointment would be a small hiccup on the overall adventure and project. It will not mean failure or take anything away from the 10 years of experiences. 

This project is about living, experiencing, being with others, struggles, setbacks, and accomplishment. It's about squeezing a bit more juice of this short and inconsequential life. And that, to me, is wildly exciting and fulfilling all on its own.

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