Brian, Daley, Tim and I all stayed in Frisco which is about 30 minutes outside of Leadville. The night before the race we rendezvoused with Patrick and Francisco for a pre race carbo load dinner. The food was good as was the pizza that we ordered to go. The pizza would come in pretty handy during all hours of the race. We managed to get back to our rooms and settled in by 7PM. We did the usual gear check and set our alarms for 2AM (actually Tim set his for 2AM and I set mine for 2:20AM) for a 2:45AM departure to Leadville. At about 11:30PM a bunch of jackasses in the room adjacent to ours decided that they would have a party. Tim got out of bed and called down to the front desk asking them to come and tell them to keep it down. That did not work. As a rule of thumb it's generally not a good idea to f*** with someone who runs 100 miles for fun. 15 minutes later I got out of bed and called down to the front desk barking at the night auditor telling him that if he didn't fix it quick that I'd be calling the police and press charges against them for disturbing the peace as well as against the hotel for allowing this to happen. Needless to say, in a few minutes the party was disbanded and we were able to get back to sleep at around 11:45PM. Nothing like a relaxing evening before a big race.
At 2:20AM my iPhone alarm went off. Tim's 2:00AM alarm never went off. This added to the pre race excitement. I was packed and ready to roll out of bed and go. Tim jumped in the shower while I ate a slice of pizza along with a peanut butter sandwich. We managed to make it out of the hotel and into Tim's truck at 3AM sharp, still plenty of time to make it to Leadville for a 4AM start. I'm not a big believer in getting to the race early. Five minutes before is just fine with me. We left Brian and Daley back at the room while Tim's crew met us at the race start. The plan was for me to use Tim's crew till Twin Lakes outbound at which time I'd meet up with Brian and Daley. I wanted Daley and Brian to be fresh deep into the race. It was a good plan.
At 4AM the temperatures were about 40F, a little chilly. I was dressed in my underarmor bottoms and top along with a stocking cap, gloves and a light wind breaker. I knew that we'd be heating up fast so I dressed light, at least for me. Most people were in shorts already, something that I'm not comfortable doing in low temps. Nervous excitement is everywhere at the race start. I'm usually more nervous than excited, which is a good thing when it comes to the Leadville 100. This is not a race to be underestimated or taken lightly. Temperature swings, erratic weather patterns, altitude and terrain make it a very challenging race. There is no substitute for preparation.
The first 13.1 miles were non eventful. I came in at 2:23 which was about 10 minutes slower than I wanted to, primarily due to the congestion and number of racers this year. It was 6:23AM and the sun was rising upon Turqouis Lake. I made a mental note of the timing as this would be the approximate timing of my return, if the running gods permitted. So I ran through the aid station, gave Patrick a high 5 and headed up the 2.5 mile climb through the gnarly wooded terrain up to the fire road that would take us up to the top of the Power Line before a 5 mile descent to the base of the mountain. I was in front of Tim, Greg, Marge and Francisco at this point and passed Nancy on the climb. Ken was out in front leading the pack...a lead that he'd maintain to capture the elusive Leadman title. The ascent up the mountain was pretty easy as was the descent. I made up time heading into Fish Hatchery arriving at 8:35AM. I changed out of my clothes, sucked down some water and repacked my camelbak for the trek to Twin Lakes which was 17 miles from Fish. On the way we'd pass through Half Pipe.
The road to Half Pipe and onto Half Moon aid stations are challenging. Arguably this should be the easiest stretch of the entire race as it is very flat and runnable. For some reason it never plays out that way. At Fish I waited for Tim to come in which gave me an extra 5-10 minutes to rest and hydrate as I was running low on hydration. It would take me till Twin to get my hydration levels back on track. Tim and I agreed to run every other telephone pole from Fish to Half Pipe. We both were hitting a little bit of low but plodded on. When we got to Half Pipe we were greeted by Scot Hartman. We got an update from Scot that Francisco and Greg were about 30-45 minutes behind us. This was really not that big of a deal as Tim and I were shooting to get to Winfield, the 50 mile turnaround in 12 hours. This would leave us a 2 hour comfortable cushion with the 14 hour cutoff. In the past FCO finished the race with less than an hour cushion. He's pretty experienced and knows how to manage the course and the cutoffs, so no worries. It was really good to see a familiar face at Half Pipe. It had been a year since I had last seen Scot and that was in Chamonix France when we conquered Trail du Mont Blanc together. So, we snapped a few pics, grabbed some snacks and pushed through this aid station and headed onward to Half Moon.
The trail from Half Pipe to Half Moon till about 3.5 miles outside of Twin Lakes is a slow steady climb. There are a few rollers which are runnable, but this part of the trail plays well to the speed hikers like Tim. I lagged him for most of this section. He stopped at Half Moon and I ran through. He caught me right before the 3.5 mile descent and picked me up. I was able to kick it into another gear and we ran it into Twin. We were about 15-20 minutes behind our target, which was going to potentially put us off our 12 hour goal for hitting Winfield. The trails were dusty and I was taking a lot of dust into my lungs, which caused problems for many of the racers. Tim and I ran it into Twin Lakes, the 40 mile point in the race. He ran through the town to meet his crew while my crew was about 3/4 way through the town and ready for me. I was able to sit down and rest for 5 minutes or so while I sucked down some cola, which was a smart move buying it as the ever unreliable race organizers ran out of cola and soup from mile 50 forward. Not sure how that happens....but it did. Brian and Daley were able to get me in and out of transition pretty quickly. I met up with Tim on the way out of town and we were off to Hope Pass.
The trek from Twin to Hope is about 5 miles. The first mile is pretty runnable through the fields, across the river (which was low this year) to the base of the mountain. By this time is was about 1:15PM ish and the sun was out in full effect. Fortunately I was outfitted with a long sleeve white shirt and white ball cap to shield me from the sun. Many did not have the proper cover up and no doubt paid for it later. The sun can beat you up just as bad as the altitude, so you need to have the right gear. Tim and I decided not to run the first mile and conserve energy for the steep climb up Hope. It was just as long as I had remembered it to be. Tim did really well on this leg. He has a tendency to do well on the steep climbs and steep descents. The climb up Hope was littered with sick runners, most likely from poor hydration and a sodium imbalance. I caught Nancy on the climb and she then leap frogged me. It was not very pleasant hearing the guttural sounds of runners puking and dry heaving. I just kept my head down staring at the 3-4 feet of earth in front of me, never looking up. I tried my best to keep a steady pace, but was forced to stop from time to time to catch my breath and get my heart rate down. I was sweating profusely and knew that I had to keep pounding water and was burning a lot of glycogen and sodium as well. There are several false summits on the way to the top of Hope, this I remember as well. You're best served just to keep your head down and not look up as it can be demoralizing. When I reached the Hopeless Ais Station I sucked down some soup and kept moving to the top of Hope. It is always a great feeling to summit Hope, but I was more focused on getting back up to the summit as this is a major milestone in the race.
The descent down the back side of Hope into Winfield is fairly steep with scree fields to navigate with out turning an ankle or doing face plant. The single track down was super crowded. I was more than happy to lower my shoulder into a pacer that thought he had the right of way coming up Hope as I was descending...jack ass. He was walking almost two abreast on the single track blocking the way. It felt good to give him a nice hard shoulder. It got my adrenaline going allowing me to pick up my pace and run the descent. This section of the race changed, an important note to make. Instead of running down to the road as in years past, the trail banks right towards Winfield and serpentines its way to about 1/2 mile to the road from Winfield Station. This was a bit of a wrench thrown into my race plan and was a surprise. It seemed to take forever to navigate this section of the course. I was pissed and anyone near me was hearing about it. At this juncture the 12 hour goal was shot and I was fighting for a 1 hour buffer. Making the way into Winfield Station was a complete cluster F***! The race directors should be shot for this mistake. They are lucky that a runner didn't get run over. It was extremely congested and dangerous for racers and volunteers. I met up with Tim here who was into the aid station about 5-10 minutes before me. Needless to say there was no cola at the aid station and only soup, which I sucked down and reloaded my camel bak with water. I was in and out of this aid station. I asked around to see if there was anyone willing to pace me back up Hope. It was such a disaster with mass confusion at Winfield I just said F*** it and ran out and down the road till I hit the trail head back up the mountain. Tim and his pacer Steph were still at Winfield. I figured that they'd catch me on the way back up Hope.
The Ascent up the backside uf Hope was about a 4.5 miles of which the first 2 were some what runnable...rollers. Then the last 2.5 miles is nothing short of a bitch of a climb. It is very steep and I was prepared from having ascended this trail at least 10 times over the past several years. Both Greg and Francisco passed by on their descent. I wished them well and continued with my own death march. Once again, head down and the focus was on the 3-4 feet of earth in front of me. I started feeling it on this stretch of the course, which is pretty consistent with years past. The cumulative distance, altitude, heat and terrain were beginning to takes its toll on me. I was worried about making it into Twin, protecting my hour buffer that I still had. As I summited Hope I was in a very bad place. My core hurt. My quads were like lead weights. Worst of all my nutrition had gotten off track somewhere and I was nauseous and sick. I took a seat and the volunteers asked if I needed anything and I just said "no, I'm fine, just beat up and need to collect my thoughts." As I was starting the involuntary reflux of dry heaving I was scrabbling in my mind to figure what was causing the nausea. Usually glycogen deficiency causes you to get light headed and super tired/lethargic. Too much sugar and it can cause you to get sick to your stomach. I hadn't over consumed any sugars so i checked this off of the list of causes for my nausea. I knew that I was hydrated pretty well also, so this left sodium. I had a cup of soup at Winfield, however, the push up both sides of Hope left me a little deficient. I stood up and hobbled over to the aid counter and asked for some soup. Their reply, "sure you can have some but we don't have any more cups." Hmmm, how the f*** do you run out of cups? I was pretty tired of drinking my gatorade so I dumped out the rest of it and they filled up my 20 ounce bottle with chicken noodle soup. I returned to my seat and tried to sip it but couldn't. It was about 5-10 minutes after I had reached the top of Hope that Tim and Steph ran into the aid station, looking pretty strong. I was in full bonk mode and tried not to show it. I was negotiating in my mind all of the reasons for dropping out of the race. I didn't think that I was going to make the cut of at this point and was battling some heavy duty demons. I needed an exorcism. I got my exorcism with the help of Tim's pacer, Steph. She told me to just drink my soup and then she scored a cheese stick. She was pretty excited about this find. I couldn't gave two shits about the cheese stick, but she was excited so i thought that maybe she was onto something. She talked to me about the benefits of the slow burn of protein and that's when it dawned on me that i had consumed little to no protein so far in the race. I ate the cheesestick and told them not to wait for me and that I'd catch up with them, all the while I was thinking F*** this I'm done! Steph however was able to convince me to get up and at least try to run with them. Running was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to make it to Twin, collect my hard fought DNF and pack it in. I knew that Daley and Brian were waiting for me and I started feeling guilty that I flew these guys out to Leadville to only quit. My mind wandered from my nausea induced self pity party to thinking about the cutoff time at Twin Lakes. My nausea dissipated and I began to run down the mountain. I began passing other runners and had made it to the other side of the BONK! For those that have made it through a bonk, know the runners high that accompanies the other side of it.
I was able to catch Steph and Tim and we were killing it going down the mountain, passing scores of runners. It was now dusk and getting hard to see, which I failed to ever contemplate and was without my headlamp. It was about 2.5 miles down the mountain that Tim caught a toe and had a vicious fall. He hit a tree and bounced off a large rock. Shit! Not Good! Anybody else, other than Marge Hickman, would've called it a day. Tim and Marge, I have to say, are two of the toughest monkies that I know. Steph and I gathered around Tim and he was complaining about his ribs and kidney. At this point the runners that we had passed were now passing us. I told everyone that everything was ok and we had everything under control. One eager runner who didn't listen stuck his head lamp in Tim's face and said "hey man are you ok? Is there anything i can do for you?" In Tim Engel charm school fashion he replied "yeah, get that f****g headlamp out of my face you F***!" I knew that Tim was ok to still run. Steph scrounged up two headlamps and gave them to us, while she ran without one. An angel. We made our way to Twin Lakes and only had a 35 minute buffer now. Damn, there would be no rest from here till the finish line. With that close of a buffer between the cut offs meant that we were going to have to stay focused.
Daley and Brian were well prepared when I made it back into Twin Lakes. I could see the anxiousness in both of them to get me in and out of Twin. Time was no longer our friend. Daley and Brian changed out my wet socks and sneakers like I was a two year old. A pair of dry Swiftwick merino wools felt good after the last river crossing back into Twin. I fueled up and loaded on the cold weather gear for our trek back to Fish. I didn't wait for Tim, so Daley and I headed out of Twin to be met by a 3.5 mile climb up the side of Mt Albert. The good news was that after the first 3.5 miles the rest of it is either downhill or relatively flat all of the way back into Fish. Daley's legs were fresh and he kept me going at a nice steady pace. By the time we made it to half moon we had built back a 1 hour buffer with the next cutoff!!! Happy Days...but not for long. After we made our way out of Half Moon, without any cola, we headed towards Half Pipe. Daley asked all of the people through this aid area for cola as well but there was none. I'd just have to wait till we got to Fish, where Brian would be waiting with pizza, pasta, gatorade, water and coke. As usual the walk form Half Pipe to Fish takes forever and I swear that the temps dropped 20 degrees. I got chilled, but we kept moving forward. This was probably my best time for this part of the course compared to years past. We made it into Fish and had lost time though. We had eaten into our 1 hour cutoff buffer and now only had 40-45 minutes again. This is not much buffer when you have a 4.5 mile steep climb up Power Line. When I got into Fish Brian gave me my Syracuse heavy jacket and put on my rain pants over my underarmor tights. I couldn't hold heat and knew that I was getting into trouble. The soup that they had at Fish tasted like bad water. Again, no soup...WTF??? Thankfully we had our own Cola. Brian and Daley got me in and out of Fish albeit I think I was there for 10 minutes, leaving only a 30-35 minute buffer. It was put up or shut up time. Off to Power Line, the turning point in the race for many.
I had what seemed like 10 layers of clothing on to keep warm. As we got further away from Fish the air temps began to rise again and I started to shed the layers at the base of Power line. Daley quickly went form pacer to mule. No worries, he's young, somewhat fresh legs. I knew that he could handle it. The trek up Power Line was a bitch and seemed to take forever. I kept asking Daley the time as my watch quit at mile 75 or about 22 hours into the race, which is unbelievable! Doing math in my head kept me focused and awake....barely. I hiked up the mountainside like a zombi, just wanting to get to the top. My legs were hurting, my feet started to hurt and my abs were surprisingly sore. Fortunately I had my trekking poles, which I consider a must for this race. By the time we had gotten to the top of Power Line we had both concluded that we could get to MayQueen, the last cutoff by 6AM which would drive us 4.5 hours to do the last 13.5 miles of the race. Not really sure how we both concluded this but it was only 4 hours and to do this we were going to have to run the 4 miles from the back of Power Line down to MayQueen. So, this is what we did. I was a bit panicked thinking, there is no way in hell I've run this far to miss the last cutoff. I knew that Brian was down there waiting for me. I told Daley that I was not going to stop and to run ahead and get Brian prepared for my arrival and in and out.
Our arrival into MayQueen was 6:09AM and we exited at 6:11AM. It was sunrise on Turqouis Lake. We had 3 hours and 49 minutes to cover 13.5 miles. To the weekend warrior you make think, no problem. Well at this point I had been up about 28 hours without sleep and had logged 87.5 miles, consumed over 600 oz of water, gatorade and cola. I had eaten many hammer gel packs, 6 slices of pizza, 4 bags of pasta, peanut butter cups, chips, shot blocks and cookies. My stomach was shot. I didn't feeling like eating another thing. It's a sketchy point in the race because all logic says "YES" i've done it, however, 13.5 miles in this condition is not gimme. We had to average an 18 minute mile in order to make it in under the 30 hour cutoff. That may sound easy, but a bonk now would result in a DNF. The hardest part of the course had been conquered. It was now just down to 13.5 miles. On the way out I did it in 2:23 on fresh new legs. Adding on an extra hour and 20 minutes was no chip shot. So we ran...actually jogged and tried hard to maintain a 15 min/mile pace to give us enough cushion, just incase the wheels came off. This was Brian's first foray into pacing and at 10,000 feet of altitude. Not to mention on trails. So keeping track of our average pace was my simple request. It turned out to be all but simple as Brian was getting used to his Garmin watch and accidentally reset the watch, which was really no big deal, other than I had to compute in my head the math again. Regardless I did this computation every three to four minutes just to make certain that my math wasn't wrong. We caught up with another racer and his pacer and got into the rhythm of doing a run walk 1 minute run 1 minute walk. We did this for a while and it seemed to be working till I did the math in my head and computed at this rate we'd only have 5 minutes to spare...no way I was taking any chances. So Brian and I did our own run/walk. When I saw the bend in the road that lead to the school and 6th street and finish line at 9:20AM an incredible sense of relief came over us.
The finish line. It was a sunny morning in Leadville. Word had gotten back to us that Francisco and Greg had dropped from the race as well as Tim. Marge was still a question mark. Brian was getting text messages from everyone. I was pretty bummed that they were unable to get another buckle. All of them are pretty tough which just goes to show you how difficult this race is. Mentally, physically it takes down the best of athletes every year. Without my pacers and the help of Tim's crew and especially Steph there is zero chance that I would have made it to the finish line. Brian and I were high fiving spectators along 6th ave on our way to the finish. When we got close to the finish line Greg came running out and picked me up and gave me a big bear hug....which actually hurt a little. His family was street side, I could see Daley, Patrick and Hawaiin Ray. All familiar faces and such an unbelievable welcoming party. It's hard to describe the rush of emotions and feelings that you have when you reach the finish line especially with the support of family and friends. It makes the pain and struggle all worth while. Nancy finished about 30-35 minutes before me and Ken smoked the course to get his Leadman title, which is so so hard to do. A huge accomplishment that all of us are collectively proud of. Marge ended up finishing the race just after the 30 hour cutoff...damn she is tough. She came across pretty banged up from a hard fall early in the race. Simply amazing.
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| UNBROKEN......... |
After crossing the finish line there were lots of hugs, high fives, fist bumps and excitement. Francisco greeted me with chocolate covered donuts, bananas and cola. I was exhausted, walked over to the grass and laid down. Francisco was force feeding me donuts and water as I was beginning to sink into a deep sleep. I was tired. I had been able to overcome adversity and obstacles that the race throws at you and finished. With great relief and a tired sense of satisfaction I slept as hard as I raced. I was woken up at 11:45AM to head over to the gym to collect my 2nd buckle.
I'm pretty proud of everyone that was involved in this years race and thankful for their support. Daley and Brian are officially pro's. That had the drill down and without them I would not have finished. Tim's push up Hope got me to the 50 mile mark. Steph's urging, support, cheese stick and headlamp got me back off of the mountain and avoiding a DNF in the process. Seeing everyone on the course gave me the motivation to push forward. Knowing that some of us had DNF'd made me that much more determined to finish. I knew that Carla was probably active on Facebook giving everyone a blow by blow of the race and that also gave me the drive to push on as well. People always ask us why do you do these races....it's hard to answer that question because there are many reasons. We just do.
Brian and Daley, we did it Brothers! You guys are the Best!
Cheers!
PT
