Leadville Trail Marathon

This is not your typical marathon, and I don't just mean it is on a trail.

Since I had hurt my ankle last Sunday, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to run the marathon competitively.  As the week went on, my ankle healed very quickly as I was able to treat it properly, rather than sporadically as "real life" usually dictates.  Usually jobs, and other issues keep us from treating our injuries properly, in my somewhat unique situation I was basically able to take the time to treat the injury like a pro would, and it really paid off.

Still not sure how strong I would be, or how hard I should run, I volunteered to be the "sweep."  The sweep on an out and back course usually starts at the turn around point, and then runs back around cut off times to ensure the course is clear of all runners.  However, I wanted to get my miles in, so I started in town about an hour and 35 minutes after the start time.

This offered an interesting perspective, as I got to see everyone on the course.  I saw people that were at run camp, and folks who had been in the store the last couple of days.  It was pretty cool.

Now for the course description:

You start in town, which is just over 10,000 feet, and you head East.  This means that you are climbing immediately, and for a very long time.  When you get to the first aid station, you get a short break, and then you go around Ball Mountain.  While circuiting ball mountain you get some ups and downs, and that is your first real reprieve from climbing.  Needless to say it is hard to find a rhythm early, and there is a considerable amount of power hiking (I have come to realize that power hiking is the term ultra runners substitute for walking during a race, even if they are not really POWER HIKING) that has to be done.

After the loop around Ball Mountain you come back to the same aid station, and it is mostly a down hill you can fly on for nearly the whole 3 miles to the next aid station (foreshadowing the climb on the tail end...boo).

After this aid station, it is pretty much all up hill, and lots of "power hiking" to the top of Mosquito Pass at 13, 185 feet.  There are not many marathons that offer over 6,300 feet of climbing.

Here are the course map and the profile so you can see what I am talking about in this post:

As I slowly climbed the Mosquito Pass road, I kept wondering how many more people could still be up there.  My starting time from in town turned out to be perfect, as I reached the peak at the exact same time as the last runner, who was then pulled from the race.  I hung out on top with the folks running the aid station there for about 10-20 minutes, trying to give myself some space so I could run a bit on the way down before I caught the people at the back of the pack.

You now get the idea, of what is left on the way back.  You think you might be able to scream down the pass road, except it has rocks the size of baby heads strewn all over it, so the going is not very easy. Just to give you an idea of how crappy this road is, the aid station guys driving down in their truck were going roughly the same speed as I was, until I passed them.

One of my jobs as sweep was to unmark the course as well.  With the help if the guys in the truck, and then me pulling flags and ribbon further down, I was able to unmark about half the course before deciding it would be easier to come back in the morning and finish up.

I caught the first person before the aid station.  He looked like he wasn't feeling to bad, so I tried to get some info from him. He had gone about 2.5 miles down the half marathon course from the aid station before Mosquito Pass, and then had to turn around.  So he added 5 miles, and then went to the pass.

Even though he didn't make the cutoff time, they let him go on based on his story, and I began to unmark more course as we left the aid station.  This was really getting tiresome now, so I pretty much stopped.  Running 30 yards, stopping, and repeating is not much fun.

The guy who got lost eventually made up time, and I believe he finished under the cutoff.  At the next to last aid station (really it is the next to last and last, just as it is the first and second because of the loop around Ball Mountain) I got word that there were some folk really struggling on the trail.  After making the loop, and getting a last bit to drink, I started down the last 4 miles to town (almost completely downhill...yea!) and caught the last guys almost immediately.

So we walked, downhill, for about 3.5 miles.  Walking downhill sucks.  You should be using gravity to aid you, but our man was not feeling well.  He did have a story though.

His name was Val, and he was a 50 stater.  These folks aim to run a marathon in each state.  He had never run a trail marathon before, and chose this one as his Colorado marathon.  He also chose to run in Vibram 5 fingers.  He had worn them successfully on pavement, but had not tried them out on trails and rocks.

Val had blisters and a bum ankle by the time I caught him.  His story was more important.  He was not going to make the cutoff, but he was determined to finish.  He was offered rides on several occasions, and always turned them down (which is tough to do when you are in that situation).  Val was a former Army helicopter pilot.  He was still a reservists.  He had retired from Chicago PD, and was now working for Univ. of Illinois at Chicago PD.  Needless to say, he was not a guy who was going to quit.  So despite his pain, we finally made it back to town, and as we neared the finish line, I could here Josh (race director) calling out awards.  Without saying anything to Val, I peeled off for the sidewalk, and started to whistle loudly so the crowd turned around, and they went nuts for Val crossing the finish line in just over 9 hours.  His wife was waiting on him.  It was an awesome scene.

It had been a really long day for me.  I was up before dawn, helping to inflate the arches at the aid stations, and then helped some in the store and at the start/finish line.  Then I was on the course itself for almost 8 hours, but seeing Val finish made it all worth while.