Leadville Trail Marathon 2009

Leadville Trail Marathon was tough. This was my first time at this race, and I must say; well done; great course, great crowd, great competition, great weather; great awards; great event. Put it on your schedule for next year. Don't miss it. (pictures are: 1. A view of Turquoise Lake from my campsite. 2. 450+ people on the start line. 3. Me looking confused. I assure you I was not. 4. I was hurtin' with about 1.5 miles to go here. 5. Team Vasque athletes Brian Dayton and Duncan Callahan in 5th/3rd. Good day for Vasque.)(Thanks Mandy for the last 4 pics!)

Also: check out Anton's race recap at his fantastic website: http://www.antonkrupicka.blogspot.com/ .

Did I mention this race is kinda hard? Great job to all 440 ish who finished either the 1/2 or the full marathon. I really enjoyed meeting a lot of you. Keep on training.

I can honestly say going into this race I really did not know what to expect. I knew I was fit. I knew I was very very strong; but I did not quite feel like 'a runner.' I have been putting in 100 mile weeks every week and was fairly confident in my pure running fitness, but was more confident in my strength from the cross training (roller-skiing, and mountain biking with the junior teams I coach). My strength training has been superb as of late too: with epic amounts of core work, weight work, flexibility work, and recovery work. My legs, though slightly 'bulkier', felt so 'bomb-proof' going in; I knew it could be a good day. At the start line; I just kept thinking: "Why not?" "Why not me?" "I can win this thing!" These thoughts were a little bit of a stretch for me with guys like Tony Krupicka, Brian Dayton, Nick Clark, and others in the race. But; I had those thoughts; and I ran that way. I ran with the intention of running my own race; running hard, and seeing if I could steal it!.

From the start-line Dennis Flanagan took the lead. We let him go. Tony, Brian, and I settled into a good pace. I really wanted to make sure I ran strong, and not just sit back and see what Tony would do. That would have been the easy way to go. Instead I ran how I thought I should run; and kept a slight lead (1-3 seconds) over him and Brian. We came into the first aid station (mile 4) all even; and launched out of there quickly. Then came some rollers, and a big climb up to Ball mountain; pretty good climb where I ran well; and led those two up the way. At the top, I went off course for a little bit, (the course was marked in two directions; a lot of markers going right, and a lot of markers going left)(It looked like someone may have messed with the markers). Clearly I was confused. Fortunately Tony yelled at me, and I quickly got right back with him. Thanks man. Then we ran fairly mellow down to the next aid station. We were losing contact with Dennis, but to be honest; I had completely forgotten about him. I did not know who he was (none of us did)(he turned out to not only be a good runner; but a really enjoyable person to talk with afterwards). I figured either he was going to blow up; or get lost. Turned out he just killed us out there! Way to go man, and congrats on the course record. From there; we kept heading downhill to the bottom of a big climb which led us up to the 13,200' summit of Mosquito Pass. That was a good climb. I was feeling very good, and 'well within myself' on this climb; and tried to pull away from Tony.

I only got a few steps on him, and in retrospect I used a little too much gas on this climb. I stayed in '3rd gear' all the way up to about 13,000' where I eventually broke and had to walk for about 1 minute; and then I got into the groove again, and finished up the climb. So; that was probably the best climb I have had to date, and was happy with how I pushed it, and still felt good (legs are very strong!). Tony passed me just before the top, and gapped me by about 30-ish seconds. That was the last I'd see of him.

I got to the top of the pass, and felt a little nausea kicking in... so, I walked for just a few more seconds, put some liquids down, took some deep breaths, and soon I was back into my stride. I was thinking I was going to be able to shift from '3rd gear' into '4th and 5th gear' on these downhills. I could not. Every time I thought I was getting up to speed, the gears would grind a little bit, and I'd resort to '3rd' again. I just did not have the running legs I needed for the descent. As I rolled back toward the finish, I just kept trying to move faster; I could not, and instead had to be satisfied with running strong. The only problem was: salt! I managed to assume that for me: a cool weather running race that was under 4 hours; that I would not need salt: big mistake. Of course what I forgot was the intensity of the race, the altitude, the sun and the climbing; and it was hotter than I anticipated. So; my stomach was cramping considerably during the last 4-5 miles, and my legs felt more stiff than I would have liked. Anyhow: I will not forego salt next time. Lesson learned. (again). (Man I am thick-skulled).

Anyhow; I managed to keep up my pace, and not die too badly, and made it to the finish in 3rd place: 3:49:47. Decent result. Prior to the race, I thought I was capable of a 3:45 - 3:50. I cut it a little close; but made it. Dennis ran a fantastic course record time of: 3:32. Tony made it in in 3:40. I was 3rd in 3:49. Nick Clark made it in a few minutes back, and Vasque teammate Brian Dayton rounded out the top 5 with a good run. What a day!.

As soon as I crossed the finish line I knew something was not right. I felt overpowered by the sun; I had high-quality 'salt-streaks' all over my body; and I had to sit down right away. I blew off talking to people, and headed for the comfort of the shady grass. I laid down and puked and dry-heaved for several hours. I felt extremely exhausted, and I was not able to keep any liquids down. (This is the short version of the story). So; for about 3 hours I was incapacitated with nausea and dry-heaving/puking. I apologize to anyone who had to witness that. I really missed my wife on this trip from start to finish; but not having her around to help me afterwards was horrible. Good thing she'll be around for the Leadville 100 weekend.

After this epic bout of nausea, I managed to get cleaned up, and go and talk with several people. Thank you all for those great conversations. The awards ceremony and dinner was fantastic; and I will cherish the experience from this race for a long time. So, here's to keeping up the great training between now and the Leadville 100. Remember; the more and better you train; the less you will suffer. The less you suffer; the less your crew suffers. The less your crew suffers; the happier they will be. So; go train an extra mile or two today for you crew. That's what I am heading to do right now. Live well; train well. DC