{"id":814,"date":"2015-08-23T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T03:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skelmo.com\/?p=814"},"modified":"2015-08-23T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T03:02:07","slug":"leadville-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skelmo.com\/?p=814","title":{"rendered":"Leadville 100"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday of this week I flew to Leadville in advance of Saturday’s\u00a0Leadville 100 Trail Race.. \u00a0I wasn’t running this event, but I was pacing my friend Mike in it.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, I was at the Mt Elbert trailhead by 5:30am and was on the summit of Mt Massive by 9:00am. \u00a0The wind was intense and I almost turned back since I had every piece of clothing I brought on and I was still freezing (see pic below). \u00a0I ran the 6 miles back to the car, refilled my water and set out up Mt Elbert. \u00a0My heart wasn’t in it and I didn’t want to face the wind again so I turned around at tree line. \u00a0I still got 20 miles and 7,000 ft of climbing in.<\/p>\n

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Friday was spent mainly on calls for work, but I did get to go to the runners briefing. \u00a0While most of the briefing consisted of corporate babble from the sponsors, there were some inspiring spots from the many multi-year finishers of the race. \u00a0On Saturday at 4am, Mike V set off. \u00a0I first saw him at mile 24 and he looked good and most importantly, was right on his goal card. \u00a0The Leadville race has a 30 hour cut off so it was a tough one for Mike to choose to be his first 100. \u00a0 Mike also came in at 40 miles to the minute on his card. \u00a0The picture below is from this point which is followed by going over a 3,500 ft pass and then turning around and coming back.<\/p>\n

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When Mike got back, he had blown his goal times, and was only 2 minutes off the cut off time – which means that if he had come in 2 minutes later, they would have pulled him from the race. \u00a0He was cranky, he had let his nutrition go, and gave us the speech that all hundred milers have given on how there is no way he can run 40 more miles. \u00a0Since I was the next pacer, my response was that is great because we are going to walk the next 15. \u00a0Over the next 5 hours, Mike slowly got calories into his system while putting one foot in front of the other. \u00a0Most importantly he realized that he could do more than he thought he could do. \u00a0The pic below is Mike climbing a hill about mile 65 – head down, small steps, good posture, and moving forward…<\/p>\n

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I turned him over to Jamie at mile 75. \u00a0Jamie kept the pace up and turned him over to Dave for the home stretch at mile 86. \u00a0Mike promised me he’d run the finish so I don’t feel bad about showing the world how I reminded him. \u00a0In the end, Mike V is now the owner of a Leadville belt buckle and we are all very proud of him. \u00a0This afternoon he spoke about being one and done, but my guess is he’s looking for his next race within 2 weeks.
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