Monday, September 5, 2011


Leadville Trail 100 Run
So far in 2011, I had run 430 race miles and all were in preparation for August 20th. My plan was to use races throughout the year as my long runs, which made training a lot more fun than just going out and running ungodly amounts of miles on my own. Unfortunately, I was unable to get in any runs over 4,000 feet of elevation but ran a lot in the heat and humidity of the Southeast. I felt prepared and since I was able to run the second half of the race last year, I knew exactly what to expect. My goal was to finish, but I really wanted to finish under 25 hours.

After a few hiccups on our way, we arrived in Leadville late afternoon on the Thursday before the race. After Dee Dee, Heidi, Tallie and I checked into our rental house, we drove to the aid stations to make sure the crew knew where to go during the race. It was a bit intimidating to see the mountains we would be climbing in a few days. We ate dinner at a place called Tennessee Pass Cafe, which was very good especially the $1 PBRs. After dinner, we went to the “Kum and Go” to pick up some beer and other supplies. Yes, that was the “Kum and Go”. The girls had a lot of fun with that and had to pick up some souvenirs.


The medical check in was the next morning where I was weighed and received my race number. We also had the Pre-Race Briefing that morning and then hooked up with Kevin and Karen at the Golden Burro for lunch. That afternoon, I arranged my drop bags and rested as much as I could. Laura drove in from Boulder after work and arrived just before dinner. We decided to eat Mexican, which may not have been the best idea. I got about 4 hours of sleep that night before the 4am start of the race. It had rained hard for most of the night, but luckily it had cleared up and was just a little cold out. Once everyone was ready to go, we walked down to the start line.

The starting corral was packed and I wanted to get close to the front so I could get off to a quick start. I gave Tallie a kiss and she told me, “Good luck.” I made my way up to the front of the corral just in time for the National Anthem. There was a giant clock counting down to the start and I kept looking up at it every 5 seconds. I couldn’t wait to get started. When it hit 10 seconds, the announcer started the countdown and then we were off.


The first mile or so is on a paved road through town. At one of the houses, there was a huge party in the front yard with people in robes swinging around glow sticks with the “Eye of the Tiger” blaring. I then hit what is called the Boulevard, which is a dirt/sand road that had a nice decent over the next few miles. I wanted to run this first 13.5 miles as fast as I could without getting hurt or causing a melt down later on. After about 5 miles, we finally hit the trail that circles Turquoise Lake. I got behind a girl that was maintaining a great pace. The trail had nice little climbs and drops, but there were a lot of rocks and roots. I’m guessing at about mile 10, my left shoe got hooked on a root and I had the hardest fall since I started trail running. I landed hard on my right knee and left thigh. I popped up quickly because there were so many people right behind and started running again. My knee was killing me, but I kept running. I could feel the blood running down my shin and I just knew my race was over in the first 10 miles. I kept running and trying to bend my knee as much as possible to help work it out and after about a mile, it started feeling much better. As I ran into May Queen aid station, I quickly found the crew and I think my knee freaked them out a bit. It looked much worse than it actually was. I switched out my handheld bottle for a full one and started off for Fish Hatchery.

After leaving May Queen, I started running on the Colorado Trail for about a mile and then hit a gravel road that took me up to Sugarloaf Pass at 11,071 feet. The next couple of miles were down hill along power lines. This was a fun run, but I knew it wasn’t going to be fun coming back up. As I was running down towards the bottom, there was fog and it looked like runners were disappearing into the fog. It was an awesome sight. At the bottom, I turned right on a paved road heading to the next aid station. I noticed I was having a hard time seeing out of my right eye. The bottom part of my right eye was fogged over. This happened to me last year with both eyes towards the end of the race. I thought it was my contacts last year and that’s one of the main reasons I had Lasik. I was kind of freaking out thinking that I may not be able to see very well soon. As I came into the Fish Hatchery aid station at 24 miles, this was a real low point for me in the race. I was still great on my time, but I had fallen, half my right eye was fogged over and my stomach was starting to feel upset (remember Mexican for dinner). I checked in at the aid station and then sat down with the crew. I cleaned out my shoes as Tallie rubbed some of Dee Dee’s magic lotion on my legs. I spent a little too much time in the porta potty, but felt much better afterwards. I told the guys about my eyes and luckily Dee Dee and Laura had eye drops I could use and they also suggested running with sun glasses. I was very negative coming into this aid station, but thanks to my crew I came out with a great attitude.


The next few miles were on a paved road and then a dirt road. I was able to pick up my speed a bit in this section. I went through the Half Pipe aid station very quickly as well as a water stop at the base on Mount Elbert. Soon after the water stop, I could see Twin Lakes and I took off down the trail. It was almost all down hill into Twin Lakes. I was about 40 miles into the race and feeling great. I sat down with the crew and cleaned out my shoes again as Tallie rubbed on more magic lotion. I knew Hope Pass was up next after some water crossings so I put on a waistpack and decided to carry one handheld.

Right out of Twin Lakes, there was a huge field with a bunch of muddy spots on the trail leading to the water crossings. Most of the crossings were just big mud puddles, but there was a river crossing with a rope. The water was lower than knee level, but was moving fast and was very cold. It was nice to be able to wash the blood off my shin and knee. Not far after the river crossing, I was back in the woods heading up to Hope Pass. I was about to climb from 9,200 feet to 12,600 feet over the next 4 miles. I was speed hiking up to the pass and actually passing some people, but it seemed to take forever to get to the tree line. Just above the tree line was the Hopeless Aid Station. The aid station workers have to bring the supplies up with Llamas and they are everywhere. From the aid station, it’s still about ½ mile up to Hope Pass. At the top, at 12,600 ft I stopped to catch my breath and take a look around. The views were beautiful. As I started down from Hope Pass, the race leader was coming back up to the top. I made my way down the mountain to a gravel road which took me to Winfield. I came into the aid station with a great time (10:44), but knew I had to rest for awhile. I was weighed at the aid station and found out I had lost 3 pounds, which they said was good. I changed my socks and tried to eat something other than fruit and gels. I knew I wasn’t getting enough protein. If I ate meat, there were plenty of things to eat at the aid stations for protein. I tried to eat a PB&J sandwich, but it was just too dry. As I was resting, some lady sitting next to us got wet paper towels and cleaned off my legs. Nice, but a little strange. After resting and visiting the porta potty again, I was ready to head out with Heidi. I switched out my bottles for a backpack. Up until this point, I had run a majority of the race but I knew there was going to be a lot of speed walking going forward. As we walked out of the aid station, I turned back around to thank the lady who cleaned off my legs.


 Heidi and I walked/ran down the gravel road leading to the trail up Hope Pass. Just before we reached the trail, Kevin passed us heading the other way. Going up this side of Hope Pass is shorter, but steeper. We had to take several breaks to catch our breath, but we were still making good time. As we reached the top of the pass, it looked like some rain was moving in behind us. Heidi took a picture with her phone and then we took off down the other side.





We stopped for a few minutes at the Hopeless Aid Station and then continued down the mountain. After the water crossings, we had to cross the field to Twin Lakes. Heidi was keeping us moving by picking objects up ahead for us to run to. When we ran into Twin Lakes, we found the crew and sat down to change our socks and shoes. I switched out my sunglass lenses for clear lenses and I drank an Ensure before we took off to try and get some more protein.


As we left the Twin Lakes aid station, we had to climb this short steep hill to a gravel road. We followed the gravel road up until we reached the trail. My stomach was starting to feel bad again and I think it was the Ensure. I knew I had to eat some solid food, so I decided to eat a Balance bar. It took me about 30 minutes to eat that bar. I was not feeling good at all, but Heidi kept us moving. At the Half Pipe aid station, we stopped to grab some food/drinks and use the porta potty again. The next 6 miles were on dirt road and then a paved road. We walked most of it with a little running because Heidi kept pushing me to run, which I needed. As we got to the Fish Hatchery, you could tell the race was really thinning out because there weren’t that many people at the aid station. We sat down with the crew for a few minutes and then packed up and headed out. I knew this next section was going to be tough because we had to climb the power lines section up to Sugarloaf Pass. As we climbed the power lines, there were at least four false summits where we thought we were at the top, only to find out that we had more to climb. We had to take several breaks to catch our breath before we reached the top. Once at the top, a jeep road took us to a gravel road and then back on the Colorado Trail. Running at this point was almost non-existent, but Heidi kept trying.

We arrived at May Queen at about 2:30am and the crew was ready to help. They had been up as long as I had and I’m sure they were bored to death, but they were there for us. I don’t really remember much about this stop except telling Heidi as we left that I was walking the rest of the race. There was no way I was going to complete the last 13.5 miles in 2 ½ hours for an under 25 hour finish and I didn’t want to do anything that would prevent me from finishing such as getting hurt or sick. The truth is I just didn’t want to run anymore. The trail around the lake seemed to take forever, but we kept a good pace going. Every once in a while Heidi would start running to try and get me going, but it never worked. Finally, we got to the end of the trail and were back on roads with about 5 miles to go. We really picked up our walking speed and as we were going up the Boulevard, we started passing people and it seemed like a lot of people. This road section was long, but finally we could hear the finish line. Heidi called the crew to let them know we were close and that I would turn on the red light on my head lamp to let them know it was us. Next we were on the paved road and I knew we were less than a mile away. There was one last hill until we could actually see the finish line.

At the top of the hill, we decided we were going to run the rest of the race. Heidi pulled out her I-phone and started playing “The Eye of the Tiger” at almost exactly the same place I had heard it the morning before. We ran down to the bottom of the hill, where Dee Dee started running with us. Dee Dee was ringing a cow bell and was very excited. There was a slight hill leading to the finish line and I so wanted to stop running, but couldn’t.



We finished in 26:13. As soon as I crossed the finish line, I was handed my metal and given a hug. I had to find the closest patch of grass to lie down to catch my breath. Tallie found me and gave me a hug and a kiss and said she was very proud of me. Heidi sat down next to me and it felt so good to be finished. Laura and Dee Dee were there as well and unfortunately, we didn’t get a group photo. After sitting there for awhile, I went to the medical tent to get weighed and they said I lost 9 pounds, which seemed hard to believe. The girls had gone to the “Kum and Go” for ice so we could do some leg saving ice baths. After getting cleaned up, I tried to get some sleep before the awards ceremony, but just couldn’t stay asleep. I was following Kevin on the internet to see if he was able to finish by the 30 hour cutoff. He was cutting it close at May Queen, but was able to finish in 29:53. Great job Kevin!

At the awards ceremony, they announced 625 runners started the race and 347 finished. So, about 44% of the runners that started did not finish and I admire every single person that crossed that start line. This was a very tough race and I worked my butt off preparing for it just like the runners who were not able to finish. I didn’t meet my goal of under 25 hours and I could have blamed it on falling, not feeling good or just not taking the race that serious. The truth is it was a hard ass race and I put everything I had out there. For someone to suggest that they can come out to Leadville and finish this race with little effort or preparation is condescending and disrespectful to the 278 runners not able to finish the race.

As I sat there waiting to get my buckle, I was thinking about the race and all my favorite moments:
-       The energy and excitement at the start of the race
-       Being able to recover from my fall
-       Running down the power lines into the fog
-       The way I felt coming out of the Fish Hatchery aid station
-       Summiting Hope Pass for the first time
-       Completing the first 50 miles in 10:44
-       Summiting Hope Pass for the second time with Heidi
-       Talking with other runners and laughing at Heidi for offering everyone potato chips and pretzels and toilet paper
-       Summiting Sugarloaf Pass the second time and knowing that I had the finish in the bag
-       Passing people in the last few miles of the race
-       Hearing “Eye of the Tiger” at the start and finish of the race
-       Running across the finish line
-       Getting a hug and kiss from Tallie at the finish
But my favorite moment of the race was when I was lying on the grass with Team Bobcat (Tallie, Heidi, Dee Dee and Laura) knowing we had finished this incredible race. They all made big sacrifices in order to obtain this finish and I couldn’t have done it without any of them. Thank you so much Team Bobcat!

Now, I’m ready to focus on directing the Duncan Ridge Trail 50K/30K and running some local 50K’s and 50 Miler’s.

Race Video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_DV5mfj0Lc&feature=share