Sucking wind at Leadville 100 Miler

Photo by Brett Rivers

Leadville 100 mile run was the first ultra that I remember wanting to do. I'm not even quite sure how I heard of it. I do remember when I first moved to Bend (and had not run a marathon yet), telling local runner Curt Ringstad that I was going to run Leadville. I remember the slight rolling of the eyes (rightfully so) and him telling me I had some work ahead of me. I also remember another local, Jason Moyer, had run Leadville in 26 hours or so and I thought he might as well have been the toughest and fastest dude in the world.
Well, now with well over 50 ultra marathons under my belt and nine 100 milers, I figured it was time to get it done. I had talked about doing it in the past but always had a reason I couldn't do it. But this year, I burned it in my brain to get it done at last. I didn't know how fast I would be able to go but I knew I would finish it up.
But, I digress.... more importantly, this race really brought me back to why I run these races. This spring, I put everything I had into Western States 100. I raced extremely well all spring which had a highlight of running Miwok in 8:29. I really thought I would kill it at Western States. I didn't. I did well but 18:19 was not my goal at the race and I suffered for many hours out there and really did not enjoy myself at all. It was a sufferfest and at the end, I felt a bit deflated and just kind of burnt out. In fact, I could never quite get in a rhythm of beating myself up with training between Western and Leadville.
However, a cool thing happened this spring. There were 3 other guys in Bend training for the race. None of them really had much experience at ultras and for some reason, a real bond was created between us. I'm not sure if it was the hazing on our training log (online) or their frequent visits asking questions at Fleet Feet. However, a common respect was built among myself and Dave Town, Todd Chester, and Mark Postle. I had met Mark and his wife Sierra a couple years ago as he was one of my guides when I went out to climb Grand Teton. I have so much respect for Mark and Sierra as they truly are some of the most generous, hospitable, and modest people I know. For that reason, by the time I toed the line of Leadville, I had three friends who shared a common goal and we will all be friends for a long time. Very cool.
The trip to Leadville also reunited me with two of my oldest and dearest friends. My buddies Chris Csordas and David Easa (who I grew up with in Hawaii) both took time off work, took planes, rental cars, etc. to come and help me fulfill a dream. We had an absolute blast both before, during, and after the event. And, really, for that, I felt like a lucky guy regardless of the outcome of the event and that made me feel at ease in the days leading up to the event.


pacers extraordinaire: "Big" Dave Easa and Chris Csordas
Okay, here we go... I arrived in Denver on Wednesday afternoon and quickly rented a car and headed to Denver to meet up with Chris Csordas. I got him and we had so much to catch up on that the night quickly passed with lots of great conversation, too much laughing, and probably staying up too late after a great meal at The Med in Boulder. In the morning, we headed over to visit the fine folks at Pearl Izumi which are truly some of the best guys in the shoe biz. They gave us a tour of the headquarters and I even walked away with a shoe being released this coming spring which is AWESOME!
We then headed out of town and stayed at my cousin's house in the mountains in Wolcott, CO. Other than the fact that I almost got eaten by their dog, Wiley, we had an amazing time soaking in the views from their house and preparing for the weekend. In the morning, we shot over to Leadville and did all the pre-race stuff. Had a great lunch with my friends Ken and Denise who were going to cheer me on in the morning before heading out to the Transrockies race. The day was wrapped up as we hung out with Mark and Sierra who BBQ'd us a great meal before we headed back to the hotel.

pre race meeting. Photo by Chris Csordas
We got in bed a bit later than I would have liked (as the race has a 4 a.m. start) and I then couldn't fall asleep because I knew my other pacer Dave was going to get there late. That was a slight bummer and after it was all said and done, I didn't fall asleep until about 11:45 and wake up was at 2:15 a.m. Not ideal but whatever......

the last supper. photo by Chris Csordas
O.k., its race time. So, what did I think I could do at Leadville. The truth is, I had no idea. The town of Leadville is at 10,200 feet and I could easily feel the effects of it even as I walked around town. Living at 3,600 feet is basically irrelevant for this race. I knew the altitude would effect me severely. You want proof? Just look at the results of Leadville during any year. Despite all the great runners, the top folks are always from Colorado. You can't fake being trained at over 10,000 feet. You are either acclimated or you ain't. And, I ain't. So, what could I run? Well, originally I looked at others in my "league". Andy Jones Wilkins and Garrett Graubins ran in the mid 19's last year and I thought that was a good area to shoot for. AJW runs 100s faster than me but had run Hardrock last year. I *might* edge Garrett out in some races outside of Colorado but I knew that he trained on this trail a good deal, had run the race, and I thought his splits would be great for me to try and hit. I think he had run a 19:38. However, my coach, Paul Dewitt thought I could run around 18:30. This surprised me but I felt like sometimes someone from the outside has a more objective view so this buoyed my thoughts that maybe I could shoot for a bit faster of a time. However, and I say this honestly, I wanted to enjoy this run. I didn't want this to be the mental and physical anguish that I had gone through two months before at Western States. I was going to do my best to enjoy this race regardless of the outcome. Part of that was going to need to be taking it easy from the start. This is hard for me to do. I'm a competitor and I want to go out with the big dogs. But, I knew with my lack of acclimating, the way that I would have a successful race was to ease into a consistent pace and hopefully pick off folks on the second half of the race. I haven't had that experience in the last couple of 100 milers, so I was determined to try this theory.
A bit of background on the course. It is an "out and back" course that goes 50 miles cresting the 12,600 foot Hope Pass twice before heading back to Leadville. It is thought to be a "runners course" as there are quite a bit of dirt roads in between some of the big climbs. We'll see. This year the field was the biggest it has ever been. The field has inflated to about 900 due to all the exaggerated adjectives that were used by Chris McDougall in "Born to Run". Think how many would come if McDougall was even slightly a legitimate runner. Oops, did I say that? There were even some rumors that they were shooting some footage for a "Born to Run" movie or documentary??? Lord, help us....
Anyway, off we go.....

Photo by Chris Csordas
Although it pained me, I held myself way back and just relaxed. I listened as folks around me were talking about running sub 25 hours (to get the big Finishers buckle) and questioned if I was running too slow. Unfortunately, it didn't feel too slow so I just went with it. We quickly left downtown Leadville and the cheering crowds and headed down the "Boulevard" which sounds much grander than it is, which is a long downhill dirt road that we would have to ascend to the finish. I definitely didn't pay enough attention to how long this was and that would haunt me about 19 hours later! We then circled beautiful Turquoise Lake. The lake at mile 5 is an awesome piece of trail. Its just technical enough and I remember feeling really great here. I felt light, well rested, and mentally excited to be out on the course where every step on the course was new to me and I was savoring it. At the first aid station at mile 13.5, I came in in 25th place which is the lowest I have been in any race at any time this year. I was okay with it though. I soon started running with Neal Gorman from D.C. After talking, we realized he had passed me with about 3 miles to go at Western States and then had finished 2nd at Vermont a few weeks before. This really settled me down that I wasn't going too slow and we settled in together for a long while. (Side note: Neal passed me for good at about mile 44 and went on to finish in 4th place overall and give me a good ass kicking). We ran up Sugarloaf Pass which is a nice run as it is not too steep and allowed us all to just get in a good groove and get the day really going. We got some nice downhill running into the Fish Hatchery aid station at mile 23.5 and I felt okay. As usual, you are not as fresh as you'd like to be but I was still rolling along okay and prepared myself for a pretty boring 8 mile section coming up. The next section has several miles of super flat road running and then some slightly rising dirt roads for another few. This section is boring and it made me realize there would be some long moments today. My pace stayed okay and I just paced myself alongside Neal and tried to keep my pace steady.

cruisin' through Fish Hatchery. Photo by Brett Rivers
More pretty boring dirt roads to Boxcar aid station on Pipeline road. You just feel like you are burning time though here. It would be cool if the race could tie in some more single track trail in this section as this just isn't that fun.... however, eventually we made our way to the Colorado Trail and my spirits instantly lifted. I started passing a few people and just being on single track was awesome. Lots of aspen trees and a trail that rolled up and then down got me totally pumped up. I let out a few hoots out as I ran slightly recklessly into Twin Lakes and caught a group of 4-5 people near the aid station. Mile 40 and I was right on pace with Garrett's splits. It was around this time that I had come to the conclusion that I didn't think I would run an 18:30. I felt great but I simply could not exert myself too much in the thin, Colorado air. I would get to a certain exertion point and then I just could not go any harder. But, still a lot of race to go so who knows?
I was stoked to see my crew at Twin Lakes and friends Ken and Denise were there and they were so fired up that it was contagious. They told me I was now in the top 15 out of the 800+ starters and I was really feeling like my strategy was paying off.

having a snack at Twin Lakes. Photo by Brett Rivers
The section after Twin Lakes is pretty cool. A few great meadows, several smaller stream crossings and the looming, big ass mountain are staring you down just a few miles away. "Bring it on", I thought. I think the mountains might have laughed at me for a minute before opening a serious can of whoop ass on me. Okay, before this point, sure, I felt the altitude a touch but really nothing too crazy other than not having a 5th gear. I remember Neal Gorman asking me, "Have you been on Hope Pass?". "No," I responded, "I haven't laid a foot on this course". "Man, are you in for something", he replied. I honestly wasn't at all stressed about Hope Pass. I figured its just a hike, what can happen. I can hike all day.... Well, yeah, Hope Pass just plain worked me over. It is about a 3,200 foot climb in about 5 miles and climbs to 12,600 feet. It is beautiful and unrelenting. I started getting passed by several folks on this section as I just could not seem to get in a rhythm. I pushed, huffed and puffed, and ran what I could but I just felt pathetic. By the time I hit the "Hopeless" aid station which is a several hundred feet below the pass, I was pretty worked. The scenery was amazing but I didn't care too much. At long last, I hit the top, took a few moments to look around at the view, and then started bombing down the other side of the pass. It felt great to be running downhill but I took my time and didn't overtax my body and legs as I knew there was a lot of racing ahead of me. It was great to see friend, Tony Krupicka solidly in 1st place and already blazing back up Hope Pass. That got me fired up and I continued on my way down. When I got to the road, I ran into "Bend" friends Jon and Karen Gnass who were also in the area to run Transrockies. Being the idiot I am, I thought that it was only a half mile or so to the aid station. When Karen told me I had over 2 miles, that really took the wind out of my sails. The next couple miles completely sucked. Lots of cars making their way to the 50 mile mark and spitting up tons of dust and some were coming very close to clipping me. I yelled at a few cars (reminded myself of my dad) and just tried to keep clicking along. By the time I hit Winfield aid station (mile 50), I felt like I had just, well, run 50 miles.

a face only a wife could love... maybe. Mile 50 and feeling the thin air. Photo by David Easa
I tried to eat a little extra food as I knew I had a long hike ahead of me. I was pumped to get my 3X pacer, David Easa and I gathered myself and off we went. It felt good and natural to run with Dave again and we hit the horrible, no good, very bad road back to the base of the climb to Hope Pass. I tried to lighten the mood as Dave and I are both HUGE San Diego Charger fans. I had my dad's "Charger Power" shirt from the 70's. Man, I forgot how much it sucks to run in a cotton T-Shirt!

Photo by Dave Easa
I was scared at how I would handle the climb up to Hope Pass and I was bummed to see on this "out and back" how close several other folks were to me... including the 1st place woman. Dang.
Well, I should have been worried. I'll lay this out there. Climbing Hope Pass the second time was the hardest thing I have done yet in an ultra. It just plain worked me. Yeah, now I felt the altitude. I had NO legs. They seriously were not moving. I tried to get going but I just couldn't. I got passed by 4 folks on this climb, including the top woman. (Don't worry, our hero will prevail and keep the 'un-chicked' streak alive). I struggled, struggled more, and then struggled.

struggling up Hope Pass. Photo by Dave Easa

But, what do you do? You keep plugging away. Near the top, I could tell that my savory Top Ramen lunch was looking to exit. I gave an entertaining show of liquid and sounds to some folks who were descending from the pass.


photos by Dave Easa
Finally, we crested the amazingly beautiful Hope Pass and even though I felt like dog shit, I then knew I was going to finish. The worst was over... let's head home. My downhill legs felt surprisingly sprite. We got down to the "Hopeless" aid station again and it was pretty much a scene out of MASH. Lots of folks still heading over Hope Pass for the first time (poor bastards) and many of them were suffering badly. I puked a few more times here as I tried to pop a gel. Finally, we got our stuff together and headed down. My downhill legs were good and we ended up passing a few more folks and struggled our way back to Twin Lakes. The next few miles were probably the roughest for me. I knew I needed calories and tried to eat a good amount at Twin Lakes. 20 yards out of the aid station and I was yelling at me shoes again and loudly puking all over the place. We had another stout climb ahead of us. It stunk but after Hope Pass, whatever, I just struggled my way up. Dave led the way and tried to motivate me as well as he could. I hung on just hoping that my legs would come back to me. It was nice to be on the beautiful Colorado trail again and we kept plugging away.

photo by Dave Easa
Once we hit the top of the climb and started heading down, things changed. Yeah, I was still puking ocassionally, but the legs were definitely coming back. We finally caught the first place woman again (whew) and wished her well as we pulled away. I wasn't really eating solids anymore and had switched to Carbo Pro which was working so-so. Definitely getting some calories. We started running the boring Pipeline trail again and then the interminable 4 mile paved road back to Fish Hatchery. We caught the last of the folks who had passed us on the climb. Fabrice Hardel of France had been battling us all day but was now walking the paved road and we sailed by him. Dave led us remarkably back to mile 76. In my opinion, he had seen the best and worst parts of the course by far. I now picked up my friend, Chris Csordas. Now, I'll be honest, I was a little worried about Chris pacing. He had never been to an ultra, let alone, paced before. He has 3 Ironman Hawaii finishes under his belt but I worried that he wouldn't know what to say or how to handle things if I went south. Straight up, Chris rocked. He gave me lots of mini goals to chew on and he kept me competitive and very into the race. I was pleasantly surprised and excited by what Chris brought to the table. At the last aid station, I had checked in in 10th place but was passed in the aid station as I sat down... bummer, 11th. So, we headed up the long climb up the Powerline trail. What Powerline trail does not offer in steepness, it more than makes up for with its plethora of false summits. Chris kept me running the smaller hills and complimented my downhill running which really helped keep me motivated. The 10th guy seemed out of reach as we saw him way, way above us on the climb. At the top of the climb, we noticed some guys were reeling us in. We kicked it in and ran the downhill hard, trying to put some distance on the guys behind us. It seemed to work and incredibly, we seemed to be catching the guys in front of us. This motivated us to keep hammering down the perfectly graded downhill. The guys ahead of us kept looking back which is a good sign as they were worried. We finally caught them right as the dirt road transitioned to singletrack. Once again, this motivated me and we started picking our way through the technical terrain. Though I didn't have a lot of speed left, my dexterity felt really good. I should mention that since Leadville allows muling, I had Chris holding ALL my stuff. So, he was wearing a small pack, my two bottles, and his waist pack, all while on terrain he is unfamiliar with and night running which he, well, never does. He handled it like a champ and stayed right behind me as I tried to pick up the pace. Now, that I was in 10th place, I wasn't going to give it up without a fight. We hit the last aid station a couple of minutes before the guys behind us and headed out. Okay, I'm not trying to be a wuss but seriously, having the last aid station 13.5 miles from the finish is a joke. That is just too long to be out there without any aid and without a goal. We ran along Torquoise Lake again and I think they made the lake about 5 X longer somehow during the day. Seriously, could that have felt longer? It is kinda technical and just bobs up and down as it follows the shores of the lake. You can see the lights of town far in the distance but you just never seem to move anywhere. Chris kept me motivated by complimenting my form. We finally hit some of the campgrounds which I knew was closer to the head of the lake. In fact, we were even greeted by a group of folks that included 4 topless girls cheering us on. They were actually helpful and filled our bottles! We tried not to linger too long and headed back out to finish off this dang lake. We finally (and I mean finally) got dumped off onto the road that would eventually take us home. The next few miles on a slightly uphill dirt road felt seriously torturous. I was pretty sure by that point that I would break 20 hours which seemed pretty darn good to me. I think this is the only point where I really was complaining a lot but again, Chris kept me on track and we ran, hiked, and walked until we finally could see the high school in the distance. At that point, we also noticed some headlamps behind us. Are you kidding me? This was not what I needed to see at mile 98.5. So, time to start busting ass. I'll be damned if I was going to be pushed out of the top 10 at mile 99. We ran as hard as we could and I asked Chris to look behind me about 50 times in the last mile. He dutifully did so and just told me we were okay but we had to keep running. Finally, we hit that beautiful, gorgeous, and almost mirage-like red carpet that leads to your hug by race director, Marilee. I heard that front runner Tony Krupicka had dropped and that I had finished in 9th place in 19:46:05. I'll take it.
So, what are my thoughts post-Leadville? I'm proud of this effort. Of the guys in front of me, every one of them is from Colorado except for Neal Gorman, and he had been out in Colorado training for a while. I think with my level of acclimating, I did pretty darn well. Sure, I now have a lot of "would've and could've" thoughts. If I trained out there, could I have been top 4 or 5? I'm guessing that everyone in front of me had been on the course before which, of course, is a huge advantage. Keeping that in mind, I'm very happy with my effort. Top 10 in the largest 100 mile trail race that has ever taken place by a bow legged 38 year old.... I'm proud of it.
This was the last year of the old race directors. I hope that the new folks will keep some traditions and maybe break a few too. There needs to be more aid stations. 11 is simply not enough for a trail 100 miler. It would also be cool to see if they could replace some of the road/dirt road sections with trail. Other than that, it was a great race.
I want to give a huge shout out to my crew of Dave and Chris. You guys are great friends and I truly appreciate your friendship and for pulling me through the rough sections. Also, a hearty congrats as 2 of the 3 Bend folks finished the race. Dave Town got in under 29 hours and Mark (as I knew he would) went sub 24. Solid. It wasn't Todd's perfect day and he pulled the plug. They'll be more races for him in the future. Thanks to my wife and kids for letting me chase my dreams.
Leadville is a classic. I'm glad I finished it up in a respectable time and I have the big ass belt buckle to prove it.

photo by some random old dude at the hotel