August 20, 2016
Leadville Trail 100
Leadville, Colorado
100 mile run
2am. Get up, lets go! From the cabin near Alma, Brian,
Big Momma, Laura and I headed out for the 6th event of the 2016
Leadman Series, the trail 100. Both Brian and Laura were competing in the
Leadman series for the second year.
Leadman consists of a trail run marathon, 50 mile mountain bike, 50 mile
run, 100 mile mountain bike, 10k run the following day and 100 mile run the following
weekend. You have to complete all events within the cutoff times to be
considered a Leadman, something they had both done the previous year and fully
intended to do again this year.
So in the car we sit, 4 am start time quickly approaching
and Laura is complaining of stomach pain and being sick. Who else to comment
than the one who probably knows her better than herself, her brother Brian.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. You’re just doing that to fuck with people, and
then you’ll go faster than ever”.
4 am comes and off they go, along with over 1,000 other
runners hoping to limit the suffering and finish within the 30 hour
cutoff. Laura was going for the big belt
buckle by finishing in under 25 hours, having missed it by only 21 minutes the
previous year.
Big momma and I went off to the first aid station and I
caught a quick nap before Laura came hustling in complaining about how far off
her 2015 splits she was. What she didn’t know is how I had calculated
everything from last year and knew exactly where she really was and at what
pace she needed to go to make the 25 hour goal she had set for herself. I gave her some specific times to hit for
areas she’d soon pass in the run and Big Momma offered cookies, Gatorade and a
healthy dose of support as she always does. Not too long after Laura headed
off, Brian showed up and the routine was the same. Splits from last year, food,
drink, support.
Off to the next aid station down in Twin Lakes we went,
setting up for what was to be a long wait for the brother, sister duo.
As I had suspected, Laura pushed her pace thinking she was
behind in the initial stages of the race.
She was now almost a full hour up on her 2015 split. Feeling solid
through the first 40 miles of the run, she took off for what is the most difficult
section of the race. Up and over hope pass at 12,600 feet, down into Winfield
at 50 miles and then back up and over hope pass to start the long trip back to
Leadville.
The best part about the second half of the 100 mile run is that you
get to have a pacer to run along with you. Some competitors have many pacers
each running just a few miles, some have 1 or 2 and some none. Last year,
Laura’s pacer was new to running and had trouble keeping up. Laura says “it’s a
lot to ask someone to go out and run all night in the dark with you, and he
tried and had good intentions, but I ended up leaving him at the final aid
station so I could keep moving to the end of the race”. This year Laura had two
pacers, her friend Stacy and me, the non-runner.
Stacy was going to run with Laura over hope pass and down past twin lakes and then I was to meet them and run the final 25 miles into Leadville with her. Stacy and Laura made good time running together for the
first miles back toward hope pass, but when the steep section arrived, Laura
took off, losing contact with Stacy, who is a strong runner in her own right,
but she, unlike Laura, is not part mountain goat and does notice when the slope
becomes rocky and extremely steep. Laura pushed her way to the top of hope pass
and saw Brian still running out to the 50 mile mark. Worried about her brother
missing the cutoffs but still needing to focus on her own race, she called me
from the top of hope pass.
I was lying in the back of the car, relaxing and waiting for
my turn to suffer in the darkness with the woman who never seems to have a lack
motivation. My first thought was “oh no, something has gone wrong”. I was
right, here is Laura telling me she feels great and that she has lost Stacy.
She said she was headed my way so I needed to get ready to run the final 40
miles with her. Huge problem for this non-runner, but like someone else that
day, my motivation was not lacking and I would do what I needed to to help
Laura meet her goal of finishing the race in less than 25 hours. I put on my
running shoes and headed up to the aid station where I would meet up with Laura
in just a few minutes. I told the news about her losing Stacy and let her
mother, aunt and uncle know I would run with her to the end. It was about 6 pm
when we took off thru the crowd of people at the aid station in Twin Lakes. The fans all yelling for Laura, “Go Leadwoman”, “Awesome job, Laura”. I was proud to be a part of this journey and I hadn’t even started.
For miles, we ran and talked about the morning run and how
her legs were feeling and how we hiked these trails when we had climbed the
14ers of the area. We watched a grand sunset to the west, over Mt. Elbert and
the skies turn orange to the east. Before I knew it, we were at our aid station
eating and drinking, the last 15 miles had gone by in an instant. Over the next
10 miles, Laura kept reminding me that I had just ran my first marathon and
that she was happy to have me out on the trail with her that day.
At one of the more difficult sections of the race, the run
up and over powerline, we met some other competitors who were taking about
wanting to do Leadman but didn’t because they didn’t know how to change a bike
tire and what if they got a flat in the 100 mountain bike. Laura overheard
their conversation and started laughing. She told the girls that she didn’t
know how to change a bike tire either but that she went for it anyways! They,
along with the weird alien music and people dressed in costumes were good
company for the long haul up powerline.
Through the night we ran, trying to stay positive and not
paying a lot of attention to time. We listened to our mapping app on the phone
telling us our split pace every few miles, roughly about 14 minutes per mile
most of the way. Through the forest, and around Turquoise Lake, it was getting
close to the end and we knew we were on pace to go under 25 hours. I had talked
about staying on pace from the first half of the race to go under 24 hours but
Laura was not so sure. Here we were with only 10 miles to go and she knew that
25 hours was well within reason, but that 24 hours was also attainable. We
calculated what we would need to do to go under 24 hours now and set our pace
to hit the mark. Both struggling, me probably worse than her, we ran up main
street in Leadville to finish the race in 23 hours 42 minutes. The goal met,
big buckle earned and Leadman finished. 
Laura ended up second overall among women in the Leadman
series this year and earned herself a very cool axe and Leadman uniform. We
went to the warming tent and had a cup of coffee, since it was only 4 am and we
had not slept in 26 hours. We decided to hang out and cheer Brian on at the
finish. We learned where he was on course and wondered if he had missed the
cutoffs. Driving up to Mayqueen aid station, we asked about who had missed the
cutoff but did not hear anything about Brian. What we did know is Brian does
not quit and we would be seeing him cross the finish line at some point. He
ended up finishing in 29 hours 21 minutes. A solid effort, especially without a
pacer, and a second consecutive Leadman series completed.
Leadville is an interesting place and a great setting to
have such a meaningful event. You learn about yourself and the people around
you when you have to push hard to meet a goal, even if it is only for personal
accomplishment. Laura still asks me why I decided to run 40 miles with her when
I had originally said that I didn’t want to run at all. My answer, “I did it because I didn’t think
anyone else could, and I was positive that I would not let you down”. I knew it
would hurt and I knew it would be long, but I also knew that being a part of
something so huge would be a memory I would never forget. Glad I had the
opportunity to experience something so great with someone even greater!
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