The Leadville Trail 100 was the most difficult physical and mental challenge I have ever experienced!! This was my first 100, I probably should have chosen a less difficult course to begin my 100 mile career.
All this started last January when I was considering a "finishable" 100. I had finished several 50 K's, 50 milers and one 100K; time to move up. Among the contenders were Rocky Raccoon in Huntsville, Texas and Kettle Moraine in Palmyra, Wisconsin. I didn't consider these to be necessarily easier than Leadville, but I felt I had a more reasonable chance of finishing either of these the first time out. At any rate, Leadville was my choice.
I ran two 50K's, three 50 milers and one 100K from January through July as training runs. I also attended the LT100 Training Runs in Leadville in July, lots of fun and excellent training on the course. I highly recommend this weekend.
My weekly mileage varied from 40 to 70 miles, with either a 30+ or a back-to-back 20+ mile weekly long run. I had a one time weekly high of 110 miles. Most of my training was at 3,100'.
I arrived in Leadville two weeks before the race and walked/ran most portions of the course. Additionally, I ran at the summit of Pikes Peak and along the trails at Maroon Bells just North of Aspen. The weekend prior to the race I worked the finish line aid station for the LT100 Bike Race. Sidenote: After watching the mass start, it was pretty cool to see the cyclists and the expressions on their faces as they descended the Powerline (a very steep trail on 11,000' Sugarloaf Mountain).
My intention was to follow a ten part strategy, which I practically memorized it. But, sometimes the best laid plans fall apart, as did mine. The race started in the darkness at 4:00 am Saturday morning in downtown Leadville. I made it to Mayqueen, the first aid station, on schedule, missed the Fish Hatchery aid station by 5 minutes and things slowly dissolved from there. The run-from-one-telephone-poll-to-the-next strategy worked well along the road from Fish Hatchery to treeline. My running partners at that point, Dennis Thompson and Ken Chlouber, introduced the term “calf rope”. I think it means “I give up”, anyway when I heard the term it meant that I could walk.
I was still well ahead of cutoffs when I reached Twin Lakes, the fourth aid station. My feet were killing me, my appetite was nonexistent and my stomach was in knots, but I pushed forward. I slowly made it to the summit of 12'600' Hope Pass, but had lost a lot of time. I was moving so slowly, some probably thought I was a tree. Once over the top, I was able to run most of the way down.
By the time I reached Winfield, the 50 mile halfway point, I had only 30 minutes to spare. It was there that I first spoke to Dan Baglione (trail sweep), I would see him several more times before the end of the race. Very nice guy, but not someone you want to see much of at Leadville, at least until the race is over. He's the guy with the scissors and has the authority to remove your wrist band if you miss the cutoffs.
It wasn't until I was descending Hope Pass on the way back, that I realized I had made a big mistake, I neglected to put a light in my Winfield drop bag. As I recall, I thought I would surely be up and over Hope before dark!! Not quite. It gets very dark coming down the North side of Hope Pass without a light. Luckily, I latched onto a young lady (Joy Robertson) and her pacer and followed them for more than a mile.
I finally reached Twin Lakes with only 15 minutes to spare before cutoff. There I changed shoes and socks, grabbed my lights, some hot soup and headed up the hill towards Half Moon. I probably enjoyed this leg of the course the most. It was still a clear, starry night and I felt renewed because I now had a crew. Another runner had missed the cutoff at Winfield and asked if she could crew for me. It felt good to have someone who cared about me and was going to help take care of me; I wasn’t alone anymore.
Coming into Half Moon there he was again, smiling Dan. This is supposed to be a tight cutoff, but I walked every inch of it and still had 20 minutes to spare. Same thing into Fish Hatchery, I didn’t run an inch. Now up 11,000' Sugarloaf Mountain again. I’m pretty tired by now, my feet are still killing me, and now it’s starting to rain. I walked all the way to the trailhead off Hagerman Pass Road, jogged a little on the trail and hit the pavement running. I think daylight must bring energy with it. “Hello, Dan, nice to see you.” He informed me that it was two minutes to the aid station and 23 minutes until cutoff.
My crew person was waiting, with a huge smile. She told me I was gonna make it, but I would have to get to work now. I did lots of slow running on this leg averaging only a 15 minute pace. This leg was quite familiar to me, I had helped put the flagging out on Thursday morning so that runners would know where to go.
Finally the infamous two and a half mile "Boulevard", it's uphill at the start, very straight and very boring. The overnight rain had made it even muddier than it was almost 30 hours earlier. The sun was shining brightly now and it was starting to become very warm and humid. Luckily I had enough cushion that I could walk most of it; so did my fellow runners.
It was an overwhelming feeling when the finish line came into sight. The crowd was yelling and cheering, and there was my crew behind that pink and black tape. Everything I had done since January had paid off, it was a very emotional moment for me.
Summary:
-I was able to maintain a fairly high mileage base. I contribute that in part to my weekly massage sessions with Paul Weston. Only five days post race and my legs feel very strong.
-I finished in 29:43:58, only 17 minutes under the 30 hour final cutoff. My place was 188/398, exactly at 50%.
-This year there was a 53% finishing rate, typically it is less than 50%. There were 398 starters, 210 finished and 188 did not finish.
-The winning time was 18:47:31, fourth time winner Steve Peterson.
-The women's winner was Amanda McIntosh, 22:05:22.
-Seventy year old Ed Williams was the oldest person to ever finish Leadville, with a time of 29:21:49. This was his 13th Leadville finish.
-The weather was perfect, overcast, slight rain during the afternoon and night, kept it cool and kept the dust down on Winfield Road.
Good Running,
Jim O'Neil
Billings, MT