Next in the Leadville series are thoughts from Gordo, posted to the Google minimalist group shortly after the run…  Gordo paced me up and over Hope on the return, as well as up and over Powerline, both tough sections.  In the photo above he’s carrying my bottles (muling) and generally telling me to keep moving.  🙂

From Gordo:

I did the first leg, from Winfield to Twin Lakes. With a really miserable warm up. There was the mother of all traffic jams going up the Winfield Road. We thought that we left plenty of margin, but sat on the road just watching it erode. We expected Sean to hit the turnaround at 3:45. At 3:15 we hadn’t even gotten to the Hope Pass trail head, which is still 2.5 miles from the aid station. I couldn’t stand it any more, jumped out of the car, grabbed some food for Sean, and took off running up the road. After maybe a half mile I passed the point where they were doing traffic control, only letting more cars in as cars left. That was at the trail head. I’m looking at my watch and thinking about how screwed we were. Another half mile uphill in the hot sun breathing clouds of dust raised by exiting cars, and I hear cars behind me. They’d let another group of ten or so through! I had my thumb out before they even got around the corner. The first two cars were packed full, but the third car picked me up. We picked up two more pacers on the way, and had three big(I was the smallest by far) sweaty guys jammed into the back of a small compact car. It turns out that the two women that picked us up had completely missed their runner and that their pacer had done what I did and they were just going up to see whether or not their pacer had made it or needed a ride back down. Anyway, when we hit the traffic slowdown in Winfield, where the runners were running a bit of the road down to the new trail, we all jumped out and ran for the aid station, which was maybe a quarter mile farther. I’m watching for Sean all the way. At the entrance to the AS, I asked the woman who was checking runners in if 228 had arrived. She said that she didn’t think so. WTF? (He had and was actually about to leave again.) I sprinted to the tent, sighed a waiver and grabbed my pacer tag. I’m sweating like a pig and thirsty already. Great. Ran to the food tent, looking for Sean, grabbed a cup of water and ran for the check in point again. This time I found a woman with a clipboard that had a list of numbers written on it. I look over her shoulder and see 228 near the bottom. So I say, “228 just got here?” and she says “No. 228 left three runners ago.” Crap. Sprint back down the road through Winfield, dodging cars and runners. I caught Sean just before he cut into the woods onto the new trail that runs over to the base of Hope Pass. We got into Twin Lakes about 7:45.

I jumped back in again at the Outward Bound AS and went through MayQueen and on to the Tabor Boat Ramp with Sean, so I got to do Powerline too. It’s a good thing that I used to like hills. LOL That was the midnight to 5:30 shift. We didn’t do a whole lot of running on that stretch, but it wasn’t particularly easy, either. Sean power walks a 15 minute pace on level ground at 10,000 feet in the middle of the night when he’s tired. My Trail Gloves had gotten wet in Twin Lakes crossing the river and I didn’t want to risk the Vapor Gloves or wear wet shoes, so I wore my Tough Gloves. They took some hits. Trying to make time on rough trails by headlamp is harder than it sounds. I was really happy to have full toe coverage a couple of times. I was wishing for real cleats most of the time(Merrell, are you listening?) but managed to keep the rubber sides down, although it was close a couple of times. But the time we got to Tabor, I was done. Sean is still going like the energizer bunny at this point, locked onto that 15 minute pace. Sean’s wife took over from me at Tabor and took him in the last 7 miles.

I had a blast. Sean has a great family and they were all really nice to me. As to me trying 100? I don’t think so. I might try a 50 someday though. I’ll need to get into a lot better condition 😉

—–

I can think of maybe a half dozen things that someone focused more on winning than having fun could have yelled at me about. Things I would do differently next time, mostly on the crewing side. It’s scary how many times we almost dropped the ball through inexperience only to recover at the last second. A couple of times we did drop it and managed to snag it before it got out the window. I’m glad you were good with flexible, because that’s what you got. 😉 That took a lot of pressure off me and let me relax and have fun. Thanks. I learned a ton. You can read about this stuff, but until you do it, you won’t really understand it. I thought Ben’s binder was a little OCD, but when your crew has been awake for 24 hours straight off a bad night’s sleep, I can see where the step by step instruction sheet and detailed map lets them just execute mindlessly. Then they can focus on being flexible because you’re off plan rather than because they are. You were so solid on your plan that it let us get away with a lot of errors. I’m glad that none of them cost you the race. The only significant error(that I noticed) with my pacing was not being pushy enough about the jacket when we got to MQ. But then I’ve got more experience than I’d like with midnight epics. 😉

Note:  This is the final post in the series including all of Kelly’s emails and photos to families and friends…

I have a few more pictures to share now and a few closing comments to share that slipped my overtired mind last night.

The photos:

Gordo’s shot of us coming up the hill to the finish (thank you!), plus Sean’s awards blended with what the kids made him.  As you know, the awards were not his focus, but they did give him a really nice belt buckle, a finisher medal, and a jacket.  Of course I made him put the jacket on this morning for a photo with a background view of Twin Lakes/Hope Pass. :-).  I doubt that I can get him to ever wear the belt – I have the cowgirl boots in the family – but it’ll look nice displayed in his office or workout room.

Some remaining thoughts and tidbits…

God’s perfect timing was clearly evident the entire race, especially in those hiccup moments!

WINFIELD – If you recall, Gordo hopped out of the car and began trekking up the road through the line of traffic for an unknown distance in hopes of meeting up to begin pacing in time for Sean’s turnaround.  He ran nearly 2 miles and then also resorted to hitchhiking the remaining road distance with some gals who had picked up some other pacers also under a time constraint.  Gordo got to the checkpoint tent and inquired if Sean had passed through yet.  There was no record of him in the computer yet.  He waited around for a few minutes and then went back to the table only to notice that Sean’s number was hand written down.  He immediately investigated and the lady told him that he had come in and was already on his way out.  Gordo made a mad dash and headed to the trailhead, literally catching up to the back of Sean!  I know that seeing Gordo gave Sean a huge boost after not meeting his crew (still thankful that Allison was able to help fill in).

WEATHER – Race day weather began in the 30s and reached the upper 60s/low 70s with a mix of overcast and sunny skies.  Around 1-2 PM yesterday about 3-4 hours after the race, just after Paul and I were dealing with the AAA arrangement, inclimate weather started rolling into Leadville.  It rained and even had some fine hail coming down.  By the time we got back to Twin Lakes (~25 mins from Leadville), there was a thunderstorm over top of Mt. Elbert, which is just above Twin Lakes and 2 peaks from the Hope Valley Pass.  That kind of weather would have brought drastic change and dangerous conditions to the runners and pacers.  So thankful that this did not happen!

The last stretch, as a pacer:

I mentioned that Sean was hurting all over, but mainly in his quads and hips.  He said that really started after the intense elevation gain and descent from Twin Lakes to Winfield (up and over Hope Pass) and then back to Twin Lakes.  (He thinks incorporating more weight lifting and downhill training could have helped – I say it would’ve been tough no matter what!  I think trekking poles would have been worth bringing.)  Up until this point, he was really strong and holding an average between his best and worst case time estimates.  I enjoyed witnessing the impact of pacers and was amazed at how many runners did not have at least one – hence why there are several volunteer ones that show up at Winfield each year.

Gordo was the main pacer for our crew.  He totaled around 27 miles of the 50 inbound mileage!  (Winfield to Twin Lakes – 10 miles, Fish Hatchery to Mayqueen – 10 miles), Mayqueen to Tabor boat ramp – ~6.5 (guessing, not a checkpoint), PLUS the extra 1-2 (off course) miles to find Sean in Winfield!  Sean only had 13.5 miles to do solo.  I’m so glad for that.  By the time I paced with Sean, he really did not want to move anymore.  His body was ready to be done, but his willpower to finish was determined to overcome his discomfort.  I tried to keep talking about everything to distract him from how he was feeling.  Like I said before, reading your emails and texts was a huge encouragement tool.  I also tried to reach out some to those who we passed or passed us, too.  Some runners were down to a snail pace or were stopping for breaks.  It was great to see the role of pacers – one was carrying a cold Coke to have his runner get a boost.  Others were packed down with their runner’s gear to lighten the load.  It was an amazing display of teamwork!

Sean’s finishing time:

Despite him not wanting to have to walk as much of the last 1/4 of the race, Sean hung right in there with his time!  He was walking briskly enough that he still finished right between his best and worst case time estimates!  He was 261out of 497 finishers – (approximately 1,000 registered in this 31st annual event).  Way to go, Sean!!  (And I’ve got to tell you there were some super fit, hard core gals in the race too!)

Just for humor:

After some sleep and rest, Sean chose a quaint little Thai place last night for dinner in Leadville.  The service was really slow, but there was no doubt that everything was freshly prepared.  We were convinced that the waitress was also the cook!  Anyways, I’ve attached a picture of Sean’s fortune cookie message.  I can only imagine the realm of prediction to that!

Lastly, Sean assures me that the Leadville look – rugged hair and beard – will probably not make it back to PBO.  He even found a master shave barber in Denver, but that doesn’t seem to be working out scheduling-wise.  I suggested the barber here in downtown Leadville for an extra authentic effect!  🙂

Today, he is moving around quite well and taking Ibuprofen.  I am treating him to an outing at the hot springs in Buena Vista today.  While none of us packed a swimsuit, we figured we can make do with some running clothes for a nice warm soak!

Signing out from Leadville,

Kelly

Note:  Continuation of emails and photos from Kelly during and after Leadville…

Several hours have passed since my last race update.  If you followed the race site, then you know that Sean finished the ultra-marathon around 8:00 AM this morning (28:02 official race finish, woo-hoo!).  I would have liked to update you sooner, but we were way out of commission by the time we got back to the house.  Saturday night and the wee hours of Sunday were quite eventful for everyone…   

After the inbound Twin Lakes checkpoint, Gordo shifted from pacing to crewing again.  (Sean did the next 13.5 mile stretch solo.)  Gordo helped the kids and me with carrying the race cooler, medical bin, fuel bin, clothing bin, and our dinner back to the car.  (Paul was resting at the house so he could help crew thru the night and pace some.)  After I got some things restocked for the car and got the kids settled into bed, Paul convinced me to rest before we would take off again.  (I had been up and moving since about 1:30 AM Saturday.)  I closed my eyes for a few minutes on the couch then jolted up when I started doing some time recalculations with what our crew had decided would be our plan for the next checkpoint (Treeline).  We overestimated!  I told Paul that we needed to get going.  Gordo, who was resting outside in his truck, was ready within minutes, too.

As we were transporting the two crew cars, Sean called and said he didn’t see us at Treeline – my gut was right!   It worked out though because we just handed him some warmer clothes along the road.  Paul also jumped in to pace for the 3-4 mile paved road stretch.  By this stage of the race, Sean was only feeling energized enough to power walk.  This gave Gordo and I ample time at the next checkpoint (Fish Hatchery).  Gordo boiled water at the back of his pickup and had oatmeal and hot tea ready and waiting for Sean.  This was one of the chaotic parking areas though, so we decided to save our energy by carrying the bins and food over to the barbed wire fence by the road and then get gear and ourselves under or over it.  This saved a lot of time as Sean and Paul would come straight by us just before the checkpoint/aid station.  By the way, it was around midnight and rapidly dipping into the cold of the night.  Brrrr….

Gordo jumped in again to pace from Fish Hatchery for what would be a 10 mile stretch to the Mayqueen checkpoint at Turquoise Lake.  Paul and I got the truck reloaded then transported the two cars to Mayqueen.  We hit more checkpoint traffic (ugh) so we sat in our running vehicles for awhile until we could get parked.  After I got Gordo’s truck situated in an ideal spot for the next checkpoint, Paul remained and rested there.  Meanwhile, I tried to get myself out of the lake area and return to the house to rest briefly and then awake the kids so they could experience the race finish.  I was not familiar with the lake area (especially in the pitch black and with intensely curvy, heavily wooded mountainous roads), so it seemed like I was never going to get out of the lake area.  I eventually found a familiar road and an escape, but then I still had to resort to my phone’s GPS to really get me out of there and onto the main highway!  This set me back on time, getting back to the house around 2:45 AM.  I laid on the couch from 3:00-3:30 AM then got the kids up and moving (not easy) to be out the door by 4:00 AM.  Paul texted and said they just saw Sean at Mayqueen (4:10 AM) and Gordo would continue with him to Tabor Boat ramp, at which point I would pace with Sean until the finish.

Things were right on time for me until I got turned around again in the lake area.  I was following the signs for Tabor Boat ramp, but then got confused by a sign pointing left for Turquoise Lake Nature Trail.  I took the left that it pointed to (thinking it meant the lake and not a trail – this is what lack of sleep can do!).  Anyways, I went up a hill and after about 1 mile onto this road, realized I had entered a campsite with tents.  I decided to make a quick turnaround, which became a turn for the worse.  The left back tire of the Ford Explorer slipped off the asphalt and next thing I know the entire SUV was shifting backwards out of my control.  I didn’t know that I was sliding into a ditch until I got out of the car and saw that my front right tire was off the road!  I panicked – lost with the kids in the woods and risking my pacing with Sean or even seeing the finish!  I called Paul right away and tried to explain where I thought that I was.  He attempted to get out of the Tabor boat ramp only to experience a delay with a 4WD setting preventing from him getting the truck going.  He got that fixed and then started taking every possible right hand road to find me.  Meanwhile, I walked a ways out to see if I could flag him (too far – so I turned around) then I attempted to see if I could roll the car further into the ditch to get it parallel to the road and then use its 4WD to get back on the road.  The chances of that greatly diminished when the right tire met a miniature pine tree that got caught up under the car.  Thankfully Paul found us, gave one try to see if he could get the car out of the ditch too, and then we all resorted to rushing to move gear (mainly pillows and food for the kids plus my running outer wear) from my car to the truck.  We left the car in the ditch and hoped for the best later!

We arrived at Tabor… I rushed to get layered up – hat, gloves, fleece, etc.  Forgot my GPS Garmin watch though.  We walked down to the ramp and no joke, Sean and Gordo arrived within 30 seconds!  Talk about perfect timing!  Gordo gave me his head lamp, but I forgot to ask to transfer the “pacer” tag (no biggie).  Sean and I continued on the rolling lakeside trail.  By this point, he was really exhausted.  I, on the other hand, was operating solely on adrenaline.  And boy did I have some stories to distract his mind during our mileage – car in the ditch, checkpoint chaos, etc.  He could walk briskly, but had no desire to run anymore.  His body was really hurting – quads in particular.  He did snack and drink some.  It was quite cold (in the 30s), but it started to warm up more as we were moving and the sun was rising.  Gordo loaned him a down jacket so he had that on and off (mainly on).  The final journey felt really long to Sean, but he hung in there.  We think the total distance from the ramp was around 7 miles.  There were some nasty downhills and uphills (loose large rocks and powdery dirt).  Plus, the final stretch to downtown Leadville would be all up.  As we were walking, I received several texts and even a phone call from my Mom.  I tried to encourage Sean with all of your texts and emails. Thank you!  They helped a lot!  Paul also showed up near the beginning of the paved section to help encourage him up to the finish.  Then Gordo and the kids joined in about 1/2 mile from the finish.  Sean, to my amazement, wanted to shuffle/jog across the red carpet finish.  I was so proud and excited for him!  What an incredible accomplishment!

His first stop was the medical tent – required – followed by the food tent.  Ben finished 1 hour 10 minutes before Sean, but so kindly hung around the finish for us.  It was great to see him and congratulate him as well.  He and Sean have been close friends and racing buddies for a long time now.  They are pictured below both wearing their finisher medals and Hokas (big shoes, which make me laugh, but very popular for brutal distances by saving distance runners’ legs and feet.)  I have included a couple other race shots.  I’m looking forward to seeing the finishing stretch shots of all of us via Gordo, the Reeves, and the official race photographers.  We were still clad with some gear on or in hand (head lamps, hats, jackets, cell phone), compared to the posed team photos below.

Given the SUV situation, we had to make some adjustments to get back to the house now that we were down a truck and 6 people.  Gordo, again, was our hero.  We packed everything and everyone into his truck so he could get us back to Twin Lakes (about 25 mintues away) before he would continue home to Colorado Springs.  (Let me add that he is also a saint when I learned that he also contended with both of my kids getting car sick -thankfully timed out the door – as he and Paul were getting out of the lake area to park near the finish while Sean and I were on the course!)  So we got to the house, where everyone was eager to get inside and settled, but…  “Where’s the house key?”   Yep, that’s right… in the console of the car in the ditch!!  Oh my!  In all the hustle and bustle to get to the Tabor Boat Ramp, no one (especially me) even thought about the house key.  So… again in perfect timing, I got in touch with the house rental folks and they had a key ready and waiting on a Sunday morning!  Gordo was able to help us get the key.  Then we unpacked his truck and he headed south for home.  Sean got cleaned up, the kids and I fixed him breakfast, and then he was in bed by 10:00 AMish.  Meanwhile, I had the car-in-the-ditch matter on my mind.  Paul would be leaving with his rental car the next morning.  So I called AAA and waited for their tow truck service to call me on a Sunday afternoon.  I managed to get showered and rested on the couch for about an hour before it they called.  Paul and I hopped into his rental car and then met the tow man who followed us into the campground.

So the final pictures are of the SUV situation and its rescue.  The tow man was awesome – so confident that he’d get it out without a problem.  And he did!  On the way out of town, Paul and I stopped to pick up Sean’s belt buckle award and Leadville 100 finisher jacket (already stamped with his name and finishing time on the sleeve!).  We drove the cars back to the house and I slept for 2 hours, uninterrupted!  And now, I’m calling it a night and an official closing to the Leadville 100.  Thanks for sharing in this journey with us the past couple of days.

Note:  The continuation of the Leadville series from Kelly…   Two emails were sent on this section.

Email #1 – no pics

I am writing quickly to let you know that Sean made it to the 50-mile mark around 3:40 PM.  Sadly, his crew was not there.  I was quite disappointed.  😦  We spent 2+ hours in the car trying to get up the 15-mile dirt road to the checkpoint.  We gave ourselves nearly 2 hours to get there, but that ended up not being enough with the amount of extra cars (no yellow “crew” tags displayed) and very little parking available.  Apparently this is the place for volunteer pacers to show up.  It was a line of traffic each direction and a thick dust bowl.

Anyways, Gordo left the car around 3:15 PM to start trekking an unknown distance to the checkpoint in hopes of still meeting Sean.  Meanwhile, Reece and I started walking in hopes of seeing Sean off – but had no idea what kind of distance we had before us.  Soon, we saw Allison driving down the mountain and she informed us that she saw Sean at 3:40 PM, but not Gordo… So we began hoping that Gordo cranked up the mountain to Hope Pass and caught up to Sean.  Reece and I hopped into her car and then stopped where Paul and Riley were, only to suddenly be stuck with no car within seconds.  Just as we were getting out the traffic guards released the hounds – Paul and Riley were in the line of cars permitted to go further up the road.  We ran as hard as we could to try to tap the back of the car, but to no avail.  I got desperate and hitchhiked (figured it was safe).  :-0  Reece and I got squeezed into a van with a bunch of people, including volunteer pacers.  They got us up to the parking area and we spotted the NY plates on our rental… i.e. back to where Paul and Riley were.  We had to circle the entire crazy checkpoint.

Fast forward a few hours… The kids and I nervously waited for what we hoped to be 2 guys at the Twin Lakes checkpoint – Sean and Gordo.  Yeah, they arrived around 7:40 PM and Sean was off at 7:50 PM.  He is definitely wearing down, but he is going to finish.

Now, 9:22 PM, we are preparing to leave in a bit to meet Sean at Treeline again.  This will be after he runs a solo 13 miles.  Then Paul will take 4 miles or so, Gordo will take 10-16 with him, and then I’ll take the last 6-7.  He won’t be alone the rest of the way!

Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement.  You probably won’t hear from me until we’re done.  Anyone is welcome to text me though.  I’ll send more pictures soon, too.

Email #2

A few pictures to complement the email that I sent earlier.  (Tried to sleep a little – too nervous as we are in the hardest stretch.)

The line of traffic into Winfield (FYI – that’s the race director walking down the middle!) and then a photo of some of the madhouse in the parking area… where the runners are crossing in and out of the checkpoint plus picking up volunteer pacers.

The other photos are of the kids (and me) waiting at Twin Lakes and then big cheers for seeing our two guys coming in together!  Gordo was my hero for pushing it to find Sean and keep him encouraged.  Way to go guys!

Note:  This post continues with Kelly’s emails and photo’s to family and friends.

Hi everyone,

Appreciate all of your emails of cheers, prayers, and cyber hugs!

This email will go out much later than intended due to no internet connection now.

We got setup at the next checkpoint, Twin Lakes, which is just below our house.  We were one of the handful of lucky recipients to have a special parking permit that got us all the way into town with a secured parking spot right out front of Black Wolf Lodging.  We parked, setup, and were surprised to see Ben and then Sean soon after.  They both got refueled and on their way.  Sean’s coach also had a chance to speak some words of encouragement before the hardest 20 mile section begins… up and over Hope Pass to Winfield.  Sean is starting to hurt some – quads in particular.  He grabbed some real food so hopefully he’ll get a surge of energy for what’s next!

For humor, I included a picture that Riley got of our crew and some of our setup.  (The plate of food was actually my lunch – ran out of time to eat at the house and then didn’t even finish it at the checkpoint since it went so fast!)  We were packed up and getting ready to load the back of the car at our parking spot – which, might I add, involved about 6 or more cars all tightly packed into a driveway!  We had to wait for a car to be moved to get ours out.  No complaints though – we were able to avoid the long walk from the roadside parking (no sign of the race shuttle for so many people though :-(.

It’s 2:00 PM and we are getting ready to depart for Winfield, about 45 minutes from our house.  At that time, Gordo will begin pacing with Sean – helping carry water and gear, encourage him, and just keep him moving up and over that mega hill!

Note:  Part 3 in the series of emails from Kelly to friends and family…

Hopefully everyone received my first email about the Race Start and photos.  This is my second attempt to send the next update.  I had to retype/input email addresses because my laptop won’t show the addresses in a “reply to all” from the last email.  My laptop has a low connection to Sean’s iPad, which has the internet connection, so it’s struggling a bit.  I’m going to have to try reducing the image size to see if that helps.

Anyways, here are some shots of Sean running the 4 mile stretch from the Fish Hatchery checkpoint to Treeline checkpoint.    Thankfully, our access into and out of Treeline was much easier!  A minute after he left our crew truck, he called for Reece to bring his glasses.  Reece was delighted and zoomed out there faster than any of us could have!

The temperature is warming up – the race started in the 30s and it was into the upper 50s by this time.  The sun gets pretty intense here, especially without the trees.  Soon, he’ll be entering the forest and some trails – I hope!

He was again in his target time zone and looking good!

Note:  This is a continuation of the Leadville post series which are email updates from Kelly to Family and Friends…

Hi all,

Just a quick update to let you know that Sean got a great start at 4:00 AM.  Paul and I saw him off then returned to the house for a brief rest (and to get the kids awake and ready).  Gordo handled the first checkpoint at Mayqueen.  He said that he was doing very well and right on with his estimated time.  Then we joined up at the next checkpoint, Fish Hatchery, which was around mile 23.5 into the race.   It was insanely disorganized – an overlap of runners coming and going, crews entering and exiting, all within the SAME entry point!  I spotted Sean and got him directed (as soon as he checked into the race tent) to Gordo’s roadside crew aid.  He was still right on target (mid-way between his best and worst time estimates – which is perfect).

Here are a few shots from the start.  Yes, it was very dark!

Note:  Over the next few days, I’m going to post the updates Kelly sent to family and friends during Leadville.  I’m sure I’ll get to my own race thoughts at some point, but for now I think she covered everything really well.  This first post is a bit of a prologue, as on Thursday Kelly climbed Hope Pass solo so she could get a preview of the perhaps the most challenging part of the course…

Good evening everyone!

We have had a couple full days since I last wrote from Twin Lakes, CO.  Sean got his race packet yesterday and had his medical check in downtown Leadville.  (He will be weighed and checked at certain checkpoints during the race, too.)

Overview of the race:

The race goes 50 miles from Leadville to Winfield (passing through Twin Lakes), then directly retraces the course back to Leadville for a total of 100 miles.  The total elevation gain is approximately 18,000′.  Sean can have a pacer (runner/encourager) from Winfield to Leadville, i.e. after the first 50.  Race start = 4:00 AM Saturday, Race cut-off = 10:00 AM Sunday.  (30 hour cut-off!)  There are approximately 1,000 competitors from 40+ states and several countries around the world.  I’m not sure how many have officially checked in.  The average finishing rate is in the 50% range – so this is indeed a character building event!  Being that this is a former mining town, the motto around here for this race is “dig deep – don’t quit!”  We are hoping that Sean finishes, stays healthy, and enjoys it the whole way!

Sean’s crew members (and pacers) consist of Gordon (“Gordo” – who Sean met online via ultra-runners), Paul (Sean’s Dad), and myself.  He also has a coach, Tim (“Lucho”) who has a total of 7 runners trained for this event.  And then he has the additional team cheerleaders of Riley and Reece.  🙂

A few updates:

Today (Friday), we attended a pre-race meeting in the morning.  It was rather unique and even emotional – quite a special tradition going on each year in Leadville.  We saw the array of highly coveted finisher belt buckles of various sizes for the <30 hour finishers, <25 hours, and then for multiple Leadville finishers who have completed X number of Leadville 100s for 1,000 miles, 2,000 miles, etc.  This year, the race founder handed the leadership baton over to his son.  It was also very informative with a doctor speaking (with a touch of humor) about important health considerations for an event like this.  I learned a few things!

After this meeting, Gordo and I attended the crew info session to get the latest updates on checkpoints and parking rules.  Then after lunch in the mining town, with the help of our good friend Ben (who has paced for 5 years and is racing the full 100 this year), we all drove out to a few of the checkpoints so we were acquainted with the exact location of some of these places.

Our plan, thus far:

We will get Sean to the race start around 3:30 AM.  We will then have crew members at each checkpoint ahead of Sean’s arrival – ready and waiting with food, hydration, sunscreen, etc. from start to finish.  This will require some juggling of 3 cars, going back and forth from our house with and without the kids (so they rest, eat, etc.), and lots of estimating, waiting, and probably some worrying too!  At Winfield, estimating 3:00 PM Saturday, Gordon will begin pacing the hardest section of the “inbound” with Sean (for approx. 11 miles) and then he’ll cover another stretch in the 10 mile range sometime early Sunday morning.  Paul, Sean’s Dad, is aiming to take a 6-7 mile road stretch in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  And I’m scheduled to take 7 miles with him to the finish from Turquoise Lake up to the start/finish in downtown Leadville.  Riley and Reece will hopefully get to jump in the last mile to help with a strong finish!

And just for fun:

As I bring this to a close, I wanted to share a few sneak peak photos of the course that Sean will cover.  Yesterday (Thursday), I got the nerve to do my first solo hike and into high altitude – to the top of Hope Pass.  Hope Pass is the highest peak that Sean will cross twice – once outbound and then again inbound.  It is the last hurrah before he’ll hit the 50-mile turnaround in Winfield (about 5 miles down from Hope Pass) and the big a-ha as he crosses back up and over to see this inspirational view as he heads back toward Leadville.

This was a 10-mile hike for me, round trip with 3,300′ elevation gain.  The photos of me were done with a self-timer!  The standing shot is along the trail, a few hundred feet below Hope Pass.  And then the crouched shot is at the top.  Between the significant climb and the altitude (above treeline), this peak earns some respect!  I have a couple shots of the rugged trail so you can see how steep it gets!  I averaged 2 miles per hour going up (granted, some photos and a few breathers were taken along the way) and then 3+ miles on the way down (I ran what I could).  It is a lovely hike – Aspen, meadows with wildflowers, a stream with waterfalls, fragrant evergreens, and cool, but thin mountain air (it’s actually very chilly at the top – my hands were very cold!).

The trail (a “pass” between 2 mountains, both Hope and Quail are in the 13,000′ peak range) sits at 12,600′ above sea level with a view of the 3 lakes (our rental house is near the Twin Lakes).  The lake/pond that is in closest view behind me is where they will have a race aid station (crew members not permitted).  Sean will pass by the trail marker and ribbons at the top of Hope Pass (pictured, too – facing toward Winfield).  Also pictured, I had the pleasure of bumping into 3 of the llama teams coming up the trail yesterday.  They were hauling supplies, including 700 gallons of water for the racers.  The herd of 34 llamas will stay there for a couple of days, eating off the land and drinking from the pond.  Then they’ll haul everything back down the mountain after the race!

I’ll be in touch more soon… on race day!

This post is a couple weeks old, but better late than never!

As my last long training run, I wanted to tackle this run I found on the WNC wiki page:

http://wnctrailrunner.wikispaces.com/Tanawha+Marathon,+Half+Marathon,+50K

A 31 mile run with 7000′ of elevation gain — what better last run for Leadville could I find in North Carolina?

I had Kelly drop me off on top of Holloway Mtn Road at the intersection of the Tanawha trail, rather than the trail head start at Julian Price Lake.  It saved her a few minutes of driving, so I just ran to the Lake and turned around, so I could get the whole run in.

Strava data here… The GPS died around mile 24 though per the trail mile markers, this would have been closer to mile 28.  And then I ran another 7-8 miles after it died for a total of 35 miles.

http://www.strava.com/activities/70059595

I did modify the run as follows:

1) From Linville Cove I jumped off the trail and ran on the road to Beacon Heights.  I thought I might be late for meeting Kelly with a water and food re-supply.  Turns out I’d actually meet her back at the Linville viaduct visitor center where I got an apple, some chips, water, and water/grape juice mix.  I did run the trail back from Beacon Heights to Linville and discovered some really cool rock formation at Stack Rock.

2)  After the return up and over Rough Ridge, I decided to jump on the Blue Ridge and head back to Holloway Mtn Road for a couple of reasons.  First, I had already done this section of trail and it was *extremely* overgrown in some places.  Second, I had been power hiking an awful lot due to the technicality of the trail plus the steepness up and down Calloway.  So I wanted to get in a solid chunk of real running.   Turns out based on timing that I actually ran all the way down Holloway Mtn Road, around Church St. a bit, and to the Citgo at 105.

Screen shots from Strava:

Now, on to some photos:

This would be the trail blaze I’d be following for the most part, other than the climb up Calloway which leaves the Tanawha (feather) and the Mountains to the See trail (white circle):

The trail was very overgrown in some places — a bit of a bushwhack here and there.

Here are a few photos in and around the lake when I reached it early in the morning:

Heading towards Calloway from Holloway Mtn Road, you pass right through the middle of cattle fields!

Here are just some random shots along the course…

I only drank from one stream — I didn’t really mean to, but I had stopped to put cold water on my head and face, and found myself gulping down some water!  🙂

These ladders always tend to slow you down a bit.  🙂

The next two show you a bit of how overgrown it was:

Overall a pretty solid run of about 35 miles and maybe 6000′ of climbing…  Felt pretty good throughout, nutrition was good, and almost no DOMS afterwards.  I think Leadville will come down to how my body handles the altitude!