Previous | Next | 2000 Index | Newsletter Index
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 10:23 AM Subject: Leadville reports:-) Both Keith G and Tom K beat the demons of Leadville’s past to finish the Leadville 100! Congrats to Keith and congrats to Tom and congrats to Tom! #### Keith G writes: 3rd time is a charm. Finally made it to the finish line at Leadville this year. My goal this year was to finish between 24 and 28 hours. If I was having a good day, I figured around 24 hours. If a not so good day, then around 28 hours. My finish time was 27:24:51, but actually I eased up the last part of the race to make my finish more comfortable and to quicken my recovery. At Leadville there is the 30 hour time limit for the race itself. There is also a 25 hour limit. If you break 25, you get a different finisher award (buckle). At mile 65, I was on pace to break the 25 hour time but quickly my dreams of a sub-25 went to shit....literally!! Yes, you guessed it, diarrhea struck with a vengeance, not once, not twice, but 3 times. My stomach was upset, so I was afraid to eat or drink. I think I had become dehydrated and my energy dropped quicker than a prom dress at midnight. It took me awhile to get thru this low period, but I eventually recovered and made it to the next aid station at mile 70. Once I knew I could no longer get a sub-25, I rested a little more at the aid stations and walked a little more near the end. I am happy to have finished this race for once, but I am already looking forward to next year and breaking 25. Every time I run this race my quads cramp severely and I have to walk the long downhills. This year was no exception, and at mile ~19 it happened again. So for the rest of the race my quads would cramp on long downhill sections and I would have to walk. In all my training runs on the Peak this year, it never happened, but on the first long descent at Leadville it strikes and I have to walk until the trail flattens out. I can feel my quads slowly start to stiffen until they cramp and I can barely bend my legs. It feels like a chemical or some type of deficiency in my muscles, but I am not sure why it always happens at Leadville and never in any training runs. I take a Calcium/Magnesium supplement. I ate bananas, took salt. As I get to the bottom of a big hill, I am able to walk quicker and slowly start jogging then running again. My legs will loosen up some, but not completely. I can run along until I have another long downhill, then the process starts all over again. If you or anyone have any ideas, please pass them onto me..... Some stats for this year were 407 starters, 175 finishers...43%. Congrats to everyone in the Incline Club on their Ascent and Marathon races...I was thinking of everyone starting the Ascent as I was 3 hours into my race. The next morning as I was finishing, I was thinking of the ICers starting on the Marathon. Looking forward to hearing or reading everyone’s stories. #### Tom K writes: I just returned to work yesterday after several days away at Leadville, and so have a pile of work to get through. As a result, it will be a while before I have a full detailed account of my experience, but I wanted to at least get off an abbreviated version for you to share with the rest of the Incline crew. It was a dark and stormy morning, 3:59 am Leadville Savings Time. Bright lights flooded Harrison Avenue as a light rain fell on 425 nervous runners preparing to test their limits. In just a few more seconds, the anxiety would be over. Once the shotgun signaled the start of the race, there would be nothing left for me to do but move forward, and keep moving until I had gone one hundred mile. The crowd joined in with the announcer to count down the final seconds till the start: ."..nine, eight, seven, six, five...” All I could think of was, “oh boy; here we go again.” “ three, two one...” But wait, this is supposed to be the abbreviated version of my Leadville story. Fast-forward some 28 hours and 55 minutes... We were now in the final mile of the Leadville Trail 100, and could see the buildings and houses along the main drag with the mountains forming a backdrop to the east. I only now allowed myself to start getting excited. Up until this point, I took nothing for granted. Three previous attempts and three previous dnf’s of this race taught me that anything can happen over a race of that distance. I could not truly relax until I had crossed the finish line. It was daylight now. When Laura had picked me up at May Queen to pace me the last 13 miles, it was still dark and so none of us, crew or pacers, had considered the need for sun glasses. Fortunately, a cover of clouds had moved in to block the direct sun, and also provided the added benefit of keeping the temperatures a comfortably cool lower forties. I had much earlier in the race given up any chance of finishing in under 25 hours. Problems with my knees before the 50 mile turn-around point at Winfield had put an end to that, but then my primary goal was to finish, and to finish in good shape (i.e. not end up in the emergency room). As I got closer to Leadville though, I realized that I still had a chance of finishing in under 29 hours. It really does help to give yourself sub-goals in this sort of event, something to help pull yourself forward (as if just finishing wasn’t enough). Laura and I had been alternately running and power hiking the past several miles, and I was actually running more now than I had the previous 40 miles. I kept eyeing my watch as the last miles dragged on, and was starting to have doubts about being able to meet the sub-29 goal. But we were in town now, and could see the line of runners in front making their way along the final stretch to the finish. The last mile of the race comes off of a dirt road that seems to go on forever, makes a short jog to the left, and then a right turn on to Harrison Avenue. Once on Harrison, there is a climb which crests at around a half of a mile or less to go, then a dip of a few tens of feet, and finally a final climb over the last several hundred feet to the finish. As we crested the next to the last hill on Harrison Ave, we could see the finish line ahead (fortunately, no ice). I looked at my watch: five minutes to make the sub-29. It would be close. We started jogging, then running, down the hill we went, Laura and I. I felt like we were sprinting, though I’m sure we were probably moving at a relatively pedestrian pace. But I wanted that sub-29. I could feel the cool morning air moving by my head, the blur of the spectators lining the streets rushing past me, and the finish line getting closer. Amazingly, 99.5 miles and my legs were still able to move pretty well. My knees were behaving, at least for the moment. Gone was the hamstring/hip problem that had nagged me through nearly a year of training. Gone was the virus or flu that had worried me so much the week before the race. Gone was the back problem resulting from a chiropractic appointment gone bad a week before the race that was so painful I couldn’t sleep. One instant, the finish line was right there in front of me, like a still photo I could see my pacers, crew, and friends cheering me on. Seconds before crossing the finish line, Neal T jumps out in front of the finishing tape that they hold up for each finisher as he/she/it crosses the finish line. Is he going to tackle me like some crazed sports fanatic gone berserk? No! He holds out his hand and we “high-5” it, and the next instant I’m across the finish line. Did I do it? Am I really here? I end up in the arms of Marilee O’Neal for the obligatory finishers hug, and I ask her if it’s OK to stop running now. She laughs and puts the finisher’s medal around my neck. My crew, pacers and friends are there, smiles, tears of joy, handshakes, hugs, and hurrahs to congratulate me. After three previous failed attempts to finish Leadville, it was almost an indescribable feeling. I knew how to feel when I didn’t make it. The disappointment. The feeling of physical pain without the satisfaction of accomplishment. The resignation of having to wait yet another year for another try. But try as I might, before that moment I could just not “visualize” how I would feel when I finished. No matter. Nothing could resemble the feeling of actually being there at that place and that time. I quickly looked around for Laura who had disappeared as we had approached the finish line. We had been together the whole way, in some way or another. She had played a large role in helping me achieve this major goal of mine, her patience with my training, her support, and most of all, her love. We found each other, and moved towards the back of the finishing area for a moment by ourselves. I took off the bracelet she had woven me from the trail marking ribbons we had collected after the Collegiate Peaks race. I had wanted something to take with me while running as a good luck charm, a “St. Christopher’s” wrist band. I had carried it with me the whole way. In thinking about it now, I had gone much further than the one hundred miles to get me to this place, and had moved forward much longer than the 28 hours, 58 minutes and 31 seconds to get me to this instant in time. As I wrapped the orange ribbon bracelet around Laura’s wrist, I looked her in the eyes and asked her to marry me. She, without hesitation, said “Yes!” We embrace for a moment, then turned to our friends who were now standing off to the side and looking at us curiously. We called them over and, amidst the finish line din — we were now also attracting the attention of others including Marilee O’Neal and Ken Chlobur, co-race directors — I made our announcement. Everyone cheered, and a spontaneous celebration again broke out, the second one in two minutes. While the women wept for joy, the men good naturedly chided us: “He just ran 100 miles! He’s delirious! He really meant to say ‘ Laura, will you carry me? ‘ .” We laughed, we cried, I winced as my legs were now beginning to ask for restitution. We hung out long enough for Neal and Teresa T to pull out a bottle of champagne, shake it up, and pop the cork in our celebration, then I was whisked of the Med tent for the obligatory post finish evaluation. Though some might claim that Laura was delirious in answering “Yes!” to my proposal, but we were both, in fact, quite lucid. It was a special moment we will remember forever. I plan to write up all of the gory details of my Leadville experience from start to finish when I get time within the next few weeks, in case anyone is interested. Or... just show up at the Incline Party this Thursday, and I’d be happy to share war stories. Laura will be there to keep me honest. p.s. Laura and I have not yet set a definite date for our wedding, though we are thinking of sometime next May or June. We might have tied the knot on the spot up in Leadville right at the finish line had a Marriage Offender Probation Officer of the Peace been available, but then they’re never there when you really need one... #### Ok, go ahead and admit it! You thought I messed up when I said congrats to Tom twice in the beginning didn’t you;-) Also just in case some of your mail servers don’t like mail with picture attachments here is the Incline Club Party notice again. We have had several guesses on the picture but still no winner! Otherwise no need to read beyond this point if you got the party notice yesterday... ### At this point the party notice from Incline Club Party:-) was reposted. #### Go out hard, when it hurts speed up... Matt Carpenter http://www.skyrunner.com
Top | Previous | Next | 2000 Index | Newsletter Index