Along the mountain track

Yesterday and today, I was back at the Leadville 100, but this year I was pacing instead of racing. I ran from Winfield (Mile 50) to May Queen (Mile 86.5) with my new friend Jill from Reno, Nevada. She had posted her need for a pacer several weeks ago on the Leadville 100 Yahoo Group, so I volunteered my help. We exchanged several emails, but we didn’t meet until Friday when I had lunch in Leadville with her and her boyfriend, Bruce. She is very laid-back and easy to talk to, which was a relief because I knew I’d be with her out on the course for hours. She had never done Leadville, but she had done a few other 100s. I started running with her around 4:45 pm and I passed the pacing duties over to Bruce for the final 13.5 miles at 4:00 am. I’ll spare you the details, but I will tell you it was a great experience for me. I’m surely not the best pacer in the world, but I helped keep her moving and despite some stomach issues, she was relentless. From mile 60 until 86.5, she didn’t get passed a single time. She easily passed 50 people in that stretch (probably a lot more). She did a lot of running during our 36.5 miles, and when she wasn’t running, she was hiking at a great clip. Long story short, she killed it. She finished this morning in a time of 27 hrs 33 min.

with Jill this morning at the finish line. she’s a badass…

My pacing efforts weren’t completely altruistic. It did serve as a training run. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be running the Wasatch Front 100. I promise not to overload you with a bunch a running posts like I did before Leadville last year, so this will probably be the last update until after the race.

From all indications, this is a beautiful, brutal course. I’m really excited for the race as it (1) should be a grand adventure and challenge (2) it starts on my birthday and (3) two of my best friends are pacing me. I’ll pick up Mike at mile 53 and he’ll suffer with me until mile 75. There I’ll start running with Brooke and she’ll carry me, literally perhaps, to the finish. (Brooke’s friend Darcy has actually won this race a few times.)

Although this course is run at lower altitudes than Leadville, it has significantly more climbing. Leadville has around 15,000 feet, this has nearly 27,000. The cut-off time at Leadville is 30 hours, whereas Wasatch is 36. By comparison, Leadville is a much more “runnable” race. I’m not an especially fast hiker, so, unlike at Leadville, I expect to finish much closer to the middle of the pack.

As for my training, it started slowly. With so much snow here, I didn’t start getting out on the trails consistently until mid May. My legs were in good shape from skiing, but they weren’t in running shape. In early June, I ran the Golden Gate Dirty Thirty 50k. It was a beautiful course with 7,680 feet of climb. My long run leading up to the race was less than ten miles, so just finishing was an accomplishment. I fully expected to DNF. Despite a very slow finishing time of 7 hr 45 min (I’ve finished 50 miles in less than 9), I was very happy that I kept my ego in check from the start, moved at a pace I could maintain, and got to the finish.

For the rest of June and into July, I did a ton of climbing. Most of my weekday runs had around 1500 feet, and my longer runs had 3,4, or 5,000 feet. I then ran the Leadville Silver Rush 50M in mid July. With all the climbing I had done, I naively thought I would have an easy day. I easily ran up the first several-mile climb, and I was surprised at how quickly I arrived at the top. That was pretty much the end of feeling good. Shortly into the next long climb I was reduced to hiking. I arrived at the halfway point in 4 hr 30 min, but I wasn’t feeling so hot. Theoretically, I should have run a negative split back to the finish (it was an out-and-back course with the tougher climbs on the outbound). Sparing you the details, I finally finished in 10 hr 2 min. Not a terrible time, but it wasn’t what I anticipated. On the way to the parking lot, I asked another runner who finished about ten minutes after me what he thought of the race. It turned out to be his first 50 miler and he said with the brightest of smiles, “It was on the greatest days of my life!”  Well, that gave me a reality check and reminded me to be thankful that I’m able to get out there and run at all. After some reflection, I think my difficulties in the Silver Rush will help me immensely at Wasatch. It strongly reinforced the importance of going out conservatively. Over the course of 100 miles, there will be plenty of time to catch up to the other runners.

Two weeks ago, I ended up running to Vail on a whim. My plan was to run up-and-over between peaks 8 and 9 at Breckenridge, drop down to Copper Mountain, and then run it in reverse. As I started down towards Copper, I realized Adrienne and the kids were in Vail, and I had always wanted to run there. Unfortunately, it was quite a bit farther than I anticipated. I figured it was a five or six mile climb along the bike path to the top of Vail Pass, and then a descent of similar length to Vail. The descent turned out to be 15 miles. When I reached the Vail city limits, I thought I had one or two miles to go, but I really had six. For most of the remaining miles I was on a totally exposed frontage road. It was miserable. I don’t recommend it. The total distance was probably 32 or 33 miles. (There are trails you could take from the top of Vail Pass instead of the bike path that would eventually drop you into Vail Ski Resort and then into town. I had called Mike during my run and he found me trail directions, but I was by myself and didn’t really want to get lost.)

I also joined in on the same night run in Leadville that I did a year ago. It went from Fish Hatchery almost to the finish. This year’s group of runners was flying. Despite regrouping several times, we covered the 21 miles in the dark in well under 4 hours. It was the first time I had been on the course since the race last year, so it was shocking how much faster I made it around Turquoise Lake with fresh legs.

Last weekend, I ran a half marathon course with Mike at night on the trails here in Breck. Mike wasn’t feeling spectacular but it was a beautiful night and no animals attacked, which is always a good thing.

So that’s my training in a big nutshell. There’s really not too much left for me to do before race day. I’ll do one more longish run next weekend (probably over to Copper and back), and then it’s essentially taper time. Our Lady of the Blessed Good Climbing Legs, don’t fail me now.