Friday, the day before the race, is a mandatory briefing and weigh in at the 6th Street Gym. Each runner recieves a medical bracelet that informs medical staff of weight before the run, medications and allergies, so that throughout the race, each runners weight is monitored to ensure you not losing too much. A loss of 7% or more, may result in disqualification so knowing how to refuel during the run is extremely important in order to continue to the finish. I had the opportunity to see Christopher McDougall, who wrote the book Born to Run which really gave a lot of publicity to the Leadville Trail 100 Ultra and Vibram shoes. The creator of the LT100 also gave the speech, Ken Choulber, who created the race 28 years ago to save this small mining community of Leadville, CO.
(Ken Choulber)Race Day:
Saturday morning at 0400AM, race start. Eight hundred and fourty-five runners line up for a 30 hour cutoff run through the Colorado Rockies.
Getting a quick snack and changing my shirt at the second aid station, Fish Hatchery (mile 23.5).
The next aid station I met my crew was at Twin Lakes, around mile 39.5, just before Hope Pass.
(Mom meeting me at the bottom of Twin Lakes Mountain)Here are the mountains I got to climb after Twin Lakes.
(Twin Lakes Mountain)
(Hope Pass)To view a map of the course, you can click on the blue hyperlink which will automatically open the map in pdf format.... click here.
Below is the race elevation profile. This is a 50-mile out and back, so you run this profile twice!
Starting at mile 40, you have to cross a swamp and then a river before climbing the 3000ft Hope Pass, which is was the most painful part of the entire race. After you get to the top, you must descend all the way back to the bottom in order to weigh in at an Aid Station named Weinfield and the re-climb Hope Pass again.
Awards Ceremony:
Race results was 26 hours and 3 minutes which put me in 113th place. Out of the original 845 that started, only 363 runners crossed the finish line.
