When Worlds Collide

(Disclaimer: I once was a road runner, have many road running friends, and have nothing against road runners in general.)

            This past Saturday I ran in the Leadville Trail Marathon.  Let me begin by saying that I think the name should be changed to the “Leadville Jeep Road Marathon”.  Don’t get me wrong, I like a good jeep road every now and again to mix things up, but not for 26 miles.  That being said, the views from the course were pretty amazing. 

            I drove over to Leadville Friday afternoon to pick up my packet and head to the house of a friend gracious enough to let me crash for the night.  After chatting for a bit, Rich and I decided we needed some pre-race fuel.  Since I was in Leadville, that of course meant High Mountain Pies J  After a great night of sleep, I headed into town for the 8AM (the later start was nice) start.  The first thing I noticed was that the atmosphere reminded me of a road marathon.  I guess I am too used to trail ultras, but this was like a clash of 2 different worlds.  On the one side you had folks dressed in baggy shorts and gaiters, wearing Camelbacks and carrying handheld bottles.  On the opposite side of the fence were the roadies, scantily clad in short shorts and minimalist road shoes, many carrying no water at all.  Well, I thought, this should be interesting.

            The race starts up the paved streets of Leadville, on the east side of town (opposite side that the Leadville 100 is run on).  The skies were blue and temps warm, and I began weaving my way around other runners.  My plan was to ease into things and see how my legs felt at the halfway point, having run San Juan Solstice the previous weekend.  I felt good early and tried to maintain a jog as long as the gradual uphill would allow.  After about a mile, things steepened, so I switched to a good hiking pace.  The jeep road was steep (but not terrible) and rocky (similar to Bandera in places).   Soon the full marathoners split from those running the half (closer to 15 miles actually).  Our course climbed up to 12,000’, circled Ball Mountain, dropped to 11,200’, climbed to Mosquito Pass at 13,185’, and retraced our route back down to Leadville (10,200’).  The first half was fairly uneventful, as I spent time enjoying the views and trying not to gag on my Carbo Pro (still need to figure out my nutrition).  The climb up to Ball Mountain was great and felt really easy.  The climb up Mosquito was tough, but I knew the course was mostly downhill after that.  On the way day, I passed a ton of people, a rare occurrence for me that I attributed to the nasty rocks that littered the road.  For me, it felt like I was back at Bandera.  It was funny to watch people struggle with the rocks and grumble about it all the way down.  I met lots of fun people along the way, including 2 other guys who I recognized from San Juan Solstice.  My legs felt good, so I was able to push the pace a bit.  I overheard several funny conversations between runners talking about how much tougher this race was than they expected.  One guy and girl discussed how different this was than the road races they were used to.  I had to chuckle as I listened.  The last several miles went well, and I crossed the finish line in a shade over 6:03, just missing my “A” goal of sub 6.  Overall, I was very pleased with how my race went, but I also knew my day wasn’t done.

            As soon as I finished, I headed to my car (which I parked in front of High Mountain Pies) and grabbed my wallet so I could order a large pie for the drive over to Pine, CO, where I was going to meet my friend Tony.  Tony was running a mountainous 50 miler, and I was going to try to pace him for a few miles.  To make a long story short, I only got to run the last couple miles with Tony because HE KILLED IT!  10K Tony ran a great race.  After chatting for a bit after the race, we headed back to where he was staying and enjoyed some Mr. Grumpy Pants Porter.  I had a great time hanging out with Tony and Anthony and swapping stories.  Another great weekend in the mountains.