Leadville 100 2010

Leadville 100 2010 is in the books, filed under success. But the only reason it was a success was due to the brilliant execution of a brilliant crew. I’m not just blowing smoke either, I can actually provide scientific evidence upon request that I had the best support crew of the 1300+ racers.

Crew Roster:

Mom, Dad, Emily, Luke, Jane, Talise, Noah, Tate, Lydia, Sophia, Uncle Gary, Aunt Ardith, Todd, Julie, and Brooke. I think that’s everyone……Oh Wait…..What about the MVP (Most Valuable Pit-Crew-Chief):

MIKE “the electrolyte slinger” FISHER.

At 4am Mike was down at the starting line reserving for me the pole position for the start of the race. His natural pit crew chief demeanor commanded such respect and exuded such authority that other racers assumed he was a race official; whereupon Mike proceeded to “run with it” and singlehandedly staged the first 500 racers who showed up to reserve spots at the front. He operated the rest of the day with surgical precision and skill providing support for me and half the field at each support station and even improvised an unexpected support stop 80 miles into the race that literally saved my bacon.

I went into the race with little sleep and a bit of a cold; I had proven, based on not finishing the last 3 Icup races, that I was burned out from a season of racing too much. We stayed optimistic that the legs would be there on race day.

The goal was 8 hours and top 25 overall, I had the required split times needed to finish at 8 hours taped to my top tube. By the first support station I was dead on pace. I fell 3 minutes off pace at the second support station which came at mile 40. At mile 42 begins the 3000 ft climb up to Columbine mine (elevation 12,500ft). The climb was long, the air was shockingly thin, and while I couldn’t mentally process it at the time I remember there were two men almost at the top of the climb dressed in suits, one with a cloth draped over his arm like a waiter ceremoniously offering a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and the other presenting hot dogs on a silver platter. If I hadn’t heard other people refer to them after the race I would have thought it was a bizarre hallucination. I got to the top of Columbine which is also the 50 mile turnaround point only 7 or 8 minutes off pace.

Leg cramping was the single largest factor dictating my pace. It began at the start of the columbine assent and continued to the bitter end of the race 6 hours later. On 3 or 4 occasions the cramping was so intense that my legs completely seized causing me to coast to a stop and fall over unable to even clip out to brace myself against falling. The cramping would subside after a minute to the point that I could go back to spinning and willing away further cramp attacks.

The rest of the race was a blur of long exposed straighaways, fighting headwinds and steep climbs that never ended. Not knowing the course I would ask other racers on occasion how much was left of a particular climb, to which they would offer some very helpful and informative data like “It goes all the way to the sky”, or “There’s a $#%t load left.”

Eventually every climb would peak and I would start a welcome decent. I found myself chanting “please keep dropping, please keep dropping.” When I came to the bottom, I would start shouting, “why, why, do you have to go back up??!!” Any bystander hearing me would have thought, by the sincerity of my desperate cries, that I genuinely expected an answer. Like the terrain would actually offer me up a response, probably something to do with erosion or plate tectonics.

I knew in the last ten miles that I was not going to get my goal but having gone in with less than peak form, a cold and suffering almost constant muscle twinging and cramping, I was thrilled with the day. Finished 22 minutes over my goal and 52nd overall. If I can just remove one of those inhibiting factors for next year, a sub 8 hour time will be there for the taking.

Thanks again to my brilliant crew!!

^Why Yes, that is Ned Overend^