August 20-21, 2005
I ran in the highest 100-mile race in North America, the Leadville 100. It starts at around 10,000 feet and peaks at 12,700. It was a great experience.
A few hours after flying into Denver, I came down with a cold, including a cough. This really shook my confidence, but I didn’t let that stop me. At Leadville, the night before, I roomed with four elite ultrarunners (They finished 4th, 6th, 18th, and 64th.) I had great fun hearing their crazy stories. There were about 450 starters and 213 finishers. Matt Carpenter, who is a legend in high altitude running, smashed the course record and finished 1st in 15:42.
The race was amazing. It seemed like the entire city of Leadville was out supporting the race. I ran the first 23 miles with my coonskin hat. It was a big hit and I received huge cheers when I arrived at the aid stations.
The course is a 50-mile out-and-back and you have to do a massive climb up to 12,700 Hope Pass — twice.
I stayed on my goal pace for the first 23.5 miles (4 hours 45 min). After mile 23, I ran into problems. My congestion slowed me down and my throat was swollen from coughing. I had to back off, lost focus, and worried too much. I was still 1.5 hours ahead of cutoff times, but my determination had taken a big hit. As I started to head up Hope Pass at about mile 40 (9:30 elapsed time), I was shocked to see Matt Carpenter already heading back. He was 20 miles ahead and about 2 hours ahead of the 2nd place runner. Amazing. I had fun greeting my front-runner friends as I made the tough climb up the mountain.
I knew that historically most finishers had to reach the 50-mile turnaround point by the 12:30 mark. I soon knew that would be impossible. After I summitted the pass, I noticed that my fingers were very swollen and that my wedding ring was starting to cause a loss of circulation. I thought I was having bad water retention problems (I wasn’t), and I convinced myself that I was done, I couldn’t head back up Hope Pass again. I came down the other side slowly, wasting a ton of time and reached the 50-mile aid station at 13:30. The medical staff convinced me that I was fine. We worked on the ring, and got it off. I felt very good, but now was only 15 minutes ahead of the cutoff time. I knew that reaching the next cutoff point up and over Hope Pass again would be an almost impossible task. My determination returned.
I was now the last runner in the race to successfully reach that cutoff point. About 200 others didn’t even make it that far. OK, last place. I powered up the mountain, passing several runners, and then a rainstorm came in. Time was lost changing into warm clothes, but I didn’t let that stop me. I summitted the pass again as dusk arrived. At the “Hopeless Aid Station” near the top of the pass, where aid materials are brought up by Llamas, I was in pretty sad shape. They helped me get on my little headlamp. I had still had five miles to reach the cutoff with only 1.5 hours to go.
It was now dark. The trail was slippery with mud. I did my best to run strongly down the trail. I passed about a dozen runners on the dark, steep, forested trail. I knew it would be close. I pushed hard, but not hard enough. I missed the cutoff by about 5 minutes. The race director told me I had to stop. I was both sad and relieved. The physical pain could stop, but the mental pain wouldn’t. I covered 60 miles of the tough course in 18 hours. My cold was a big factor, but it was the mental aspects of the race that slowed me down. I still had plenty of energy to spare.
I fell victim to the very tough cutoff times of the Leadville 100. If I could have gotten past the next one, I would have been home free. Oh well. After coughing for an hour, I hitched a ride to the finish line in time to see my friend Joe Kulak come in 4th place in 19:28. Amazing.