Hey there RunGeeRun and Ultrarunning fans.....are you ready for one exciting blog? This may take a while to read, rest assured, my Leadville 2009 has that Western States style of suspence.
The Slammers had a 4 week hiatus between Vermont and Leadville. I rested at Whitefish Lake, Montana and then trained on a tapering schedule per Coach Weber. I was an active Volleyball mom and was very happy to focus on Sophie’s endeavor. No boo-boos, no excuses, I was nervous but ready to tackle Leadzilla, my love-hate term for the Leadville 100.
Peter and I headed to Leadville on Thursday morning. We took a scenic route thru Grand Junction and then Gunnison (where Peter attended school at Western State College), then headed north up Taylor Creek road and up to Cottonwood Pass. We hung out on the pass and enjoyed the gorgeous views and then continued down to Buena Vista and north to Leadville. Sophie stayed behind a day to attend Freshman orientation at West High School Friday morning. She joined Moira and Dan Kryger and their two boys Declan (4) and Collin (8mos) and then arrived in Leadville Friday evening.
Friday morning Peter and I shot videos and then headed into town for the pre-race activities including medical check and instructions. I guess I wasn’t too surprised that downtown Leadville (elevation 10,000+ ft.) my oxygen saturations were only 91%, although I was hoping for more, and my blood pressure was normal. There was helpful medical information given by a physician who was in charge of the race medical support. The race director explained that one section of the course was changed because of a helicopter crash on Mount Massive just days prior. Apparently it was a military blackhawk and 4 servicemen were killed, they were now conducting a search and recovery mission, very sad. Then the topic of the pre-race talk lead to the subject of cutoffs. This is when I started hyperventilating and becoming aggitated..... and I told Peter that we had to leave "NOW" so we slipped out and went for lunch.
My alarm went off @ 2:40, I left the hotel at 3:30 and was taking photos at the race start 10 minutes later. The weather was a tiche brisk, but much warmer than I thought. I didn’t see any familiar runners (among the pack of 500+), Peter gave me a good luck kiss, and the race was off. The first song on my tunes was Rock the Casbah by the Clash, I was pumped.
I will now describe my version of the Leadville 100 course. Start downtown Leadville, run 13.5 miles west, then run south until mile 50, turn around and run exactly the same route back to downtown Leadville. The course is mostly trail, some gravel roads, and some paved roads, nothing too technical but there are a few short technical sections. There is one river crossing ~50 ft., last year I walked on my toes to keep my bum dry and this year it was below my knees. Oh, and I must mention that there is a “hill” ~mile 14, and another “hill” not so bad ~ mile 33, and then a big (~3,000 ft.) hill ~mile 42, and when you turn around, that hill you just climbed, well you have to climb it again.... a mere 2,600 ft this time but this side seems steeper, and the middle hill that wasn’t so bad is a lot steeper on the way back, and then the last hill (and you placate yourself that it is the last hill) is so disorienting because it is climbed in the dark and the sparkling stars make the summit appear to be so far up there, AND THEN you get within a mile of the finish, you realize that the reason why you started off at a good pace because you were running like the wind downhill.....which means that you are now sucking wind going uphill to the finish.
***note the times I am reporting are elapsed time on the course, this is a 30 hour race, and I calculated my Aid Station goals for a 28 hour finish***
So I had a good start, I saw my friends Paul and Charlie ~ 4 miles into the race. My nerves were calm and I was got into my groove pretty quickly. The only thing going wrong was the fact that I dropped the red lightweight gloves that Sophie had let me borrow with the terms of “OK, but DON’T lose these”. I had lost my exact ones during Western States. I worried about losing her gloves for many miles, thought it was bad Karma and a bad Omen, and even saw a guy with red gloves and was desperate enough to ask if he had found them. Right before the MayQueen AS mile 13.5 I was able to turn off my headlamp and that always makes for faster running. I arrived at MQ mile 13.5 @ 02:34 which was 6 minutes ahead of my goal for this AS and 12 minutes faster than last year...yeah! and I felt comfortable, not pushing too hard. No crew here I just had the AS folks help me put my headlamp in my pack.
Out of MQ the course heads up a short road to trailhead parking and a fun (I say this on the way out but on the return trip it escalates to technical) rocky trail and then short steep climb up to a gravel road. The gravel road up to Sugarloaf pass is a low grade climb and I knew I really needed to run as much as possible, and I did. Cresting the summit, the trail is close to power lines that make this eerie crackling electrical sound. Last year during this section there was a lightening storm close by and the powerline noise made it seem as if the lightening was closer. Charlie’s long legs strided right past me on the downhill but I tried not to let him out of my sight to Fish Hatchery (FH)..... he may have been a blip on the paved road horizen coming into FH, but I could see him! It was great to see Peter and Sophie at FH mile 23.5, I arrived at 04:58, 13 minutes behind my goal. My great crew helped me with a quick turnover.
The next section from FH to Twin Lakes was rerouted because of the helicopter crash recovery. It starts out the same on a boring small hilly paved road (and all the crew vehicles pass you and I found that annoying) to Treeline and then instead of continuing on a gravel road to Half Moon camp, the course swung east on a softer dirt and less traveled road to what was called Box Creek (BC) pass. My GPS recorded a longer distance from FH to BC, and then a shorter distance from BC to Twin Lakes so I am thinking overall the course was not too far off the 100 mile distance. Anyway, I was having a nice run to BC until I came upon these two younger guys - I don’t think they were necessarily running together. One of them took out a goo packet, ate it, then very intentionally threw the wrapper to the side of the trail. I came up to him close, and said “that was soooo not cool”. I think I scared him... probably not too pleasant to have a sweaty red-faced older woman nagging him. His only defense was that “ I run marathons and that is what they do”. I, well, gave him a ultra-etiquette lesson, then passed him, then never saw him again. I should say that when I arrived at BC, I was really bummed out because of the longer distance I was way behind my goal. I was frantic at the AS, grabbed a Coke to settle my stomach, and LEFT Sponge Bob. I realized this ~10 minutes down the trail but I thought I would retrieve my friend on the return. When I arrived at Twin Lakes mile 39.5 @ 08:42 I was 3 minutes ahead of my goal! The course from BC to TL was nice. There is a section similar to what I refer to as the “neverending aspens” on the Wasatch course, and then a steep gravel road downhill to the AS. The whole way I was trying to do a memory check on this section because I knew it would be tough on the return.
I was so HOT when I arrived at TL. My crew had ice cold Ginger Ale and I couldn’t help but drink the whole can, not being cautious to fill up my tummy. I did sit in the shade for a bit and it was fun to see the Kryger family, Declan told me about his dogs, and then off I went for the big climb. It was very nice to have my GPS for the climb. This section starts off by crossing a flat field with a river crossing, I was surprised that it is a full 2 mile section. The river was low this year, below my knees and running pretty slow. Right after I crossed, I was facing the lead runner Anton Kruprika..... on his return......my goodness he was not only 20 miles ahead of me but 20 miles PLUS 2 trips over Hope Pass. I could tell that my climbing wasn’t spectacular but at least I never had to stop. I drank small sips of water or GU20, tried to remember my electrolytes and took in maybe a little food - after last years experience I was leery of pushing my stomach. I don’t think I really stopped at the AS, just enough to see the Llamas and I decided to just get that last brutal push over with. I also didn’t look at my watch, but now I know that I was 19 minutes behind my goal at Hopeless AS. I wish I would have had a video cam as I could see Charlie as he powered over the pass. I wasn’t as elegant, but I got the job done, and there were people hanging out on the pass..... and I engaged them in a “Whooopie” as I summited. I had a great downhill on my nice Western States trained downhill quads. I saw the first woman near the beginning of the downhill. Last year it seemed tough to pass by people on my downhill and their uphill but this year the uphillers were very kind and even some of the lead runners even got off the trail for me - wow! The road into Winfield was a dust cloud. Other runners were yelling at the cars to slow down but I don’t know if it made that much difference. All I know it that this is a yucky hot and miserable less than 3 mile section. The cool thing was that I came into Winfield right behind Charlie. Peter has a photo (posted on his Picasa site) of us coming in. He looks like serious business, I am smiling because I felt so much better than last year - when I came in crying. I came into Winfield mile 50 at 12:46, 26 minutes behind my goal, and nearly ONE HOUR earlier than last year. My weight was down 3 lbs. My very experienced ultra friend Deb told me last year that you need to get to Winfield by 12 hours, so even though I was looking good on my terms, Deb knows and I knew there couldn’t be any monkey business on the way back.
Peter had first pacing duty from Winfield back to Twin Lakes, the second trip over Hope Pass. I tried my best to run as much as possible from Winfield to the trailhead, I knew I needed to make up as much as possible. I warned Peter that I was going to be slow on the climb. Sure enough, I was a complete weenie on the uphill. I couldn’t breathe. I felt like our entire climb was like this: take 10 steps, stand and catch breath, and repeat. I didn’t sit down, I just held up aspen trees. I was passed by I couldn’t count how many people, I didn’t care, I couldn’t breathe. Charlie and Eve powered passed me and I didn’t see them again until downtown Leadville. I did settle in with a group of fellow wind suckers and we yo-yo’d and ecouraged each other to the pass. I must point out though that later on in the race I passed numerous of those speedy climbers and most certainly some of them DNF’d. Near the top I released Peter to go ahead and take photos. He didn’t capture my brief dry heave, but he did get a video of my slow and steady climb over Hope Pass. To be honest, near the top I wanted to stop and catch my breath but I knew he was taping video and, yes, purely out of vanity I kept on walking so I wouldn’t look weak on the video. Over the pass I came back to life. I did have a minor ‘feet slide out and fall on the butt’ crash but only a bruise on the butt and boo-boo on the elbow. I stopped at the Hopeless AS for Ramen Noodles and this became the staple of my diet for the last 45 miles. We absolutely cruised on the downhill. I knew I lost a bunch of time on the climb (took 30 minutes more than my goal) and I wanted to get as far as possible before I had to put on my headlamp. My goal was to get back to TL before nightfall and we had a grand idea to video the river crossing....but we had to put on headlamps near the bottom of the downhill, too dark to video. I tried to run the flats but now even that made me breathe hard. The night was warm and the stars were bright. I had a nice run-walk system going and was able to catch a couple runners. I arrived at TL mile 50.5 at 9pm, 17:00 into the race, a whole hour off my goal.....but at least I ran the Hopeless AS to TL section in 1:30 which was my exact split goal for that section. Quick calculation: my goal was based on a 28 hour finish....fully knowing that wasn’t going to happen, but a good goal.....so, now, here at Twin Lakes, I knew all wasn’t in despair because my new target was now a 29 hour finish!
Moira was ready for pacing duty. I had some yummy (sarcastic) Ramen noodles, stomach felt good, and off we went. The first 50 ft. is so steep I needed a ladder. Then the course climbs a long uphill and I was going at a pretty pathetic pace, and to add salt to the wound, we kept on getting passed by these runners who looked fresh, yes fresh - how did they look so good? Finally we crested and I attempted my run-walk cycle and we made it to BC for more Ramen noodles. NO ONE at the AS station claimed to have seen Sponge Bob, hmmmm. I looked at the clock and we were 45 minutes now in front of the cutoff - Rats, lost 15 more minutes, but I was glad that I built in extra time on my split goal for that section.
My fatigue became apparent from BC back to FH. I had no giddy-up and I just wanted to sleep. Moira so patiently put up with me while I was developing an attitude. My mind was mush....wandering..... and I began to concoct a plan to cheat, yes I admit, I was scheming to cheat. Bottom line, the entire race I was in despair about climbing Sugarloaf the second time, how could I do it?....maybe someone else could do it.......My plan: I would check in and out of FH and in the dark night Moira and I would switch, Moira would go over Sugarloaf pass with Peter and I would drive the van around to MQ, hike up and we would switch back. I revealed my plan to Moira and she placated me, ignored me, gave a tiche of an ethical talk...she knew I was delirious, then she continued to be SURE that I would be fine, and last resort she just kept on changing the subject. After we hit Treeline the night grew chilly and the road back to FH took forEVER, let alone running on that paved road hurt. As I came into FH 76.5, I was distracted enough that I forgot about “The Plan”. I was sick of doing math, all I knew is that I had to fix myself and get out of there. Looking back, I arrived at 22:32, which was 28 minutes before the cutoff, and blah blah blah 1 hour and 37 minutes slower than my goal. However, Scott Weber says that if you can make it out of FH, you can finish......unfortunately, I tend to prove people wrong, but that thought did bring encouragement. Moira informed Peter that I had a bad attitude that needed to change. I was chilled and I went into the AS building, had a few bites of Ramen noodles but the stomach was really going south. I had a huge coughing fit (end of last weeks cold + pulmonary edema + Winfield road dust), I coughed so hard I got the heaves pretty bad. As I was heaving I looked up at a table in front of me and saw a sign “Found at Start of Race”.... and there they were....... Sophie’s Red Gloves!!!!! Things started to look up, the red glove were a sign. I devoured a PopTart, put a pair of running pants over my shorts and Peter and I hit the trail...um, paved road.
I was so nervous for the climb up Sugarloaf, I was nervous for this before the race. I didn’t make it this far last year, I really didn’t know what to expect, the downhill on the way out seemed steep but I was so tired and disoriented by now, We got into a rhythm, no talk, just business, and we even held hands. Silly me, before the race all I was so very nervous for Peter to pace me, I worried that it could be disasterous for our relationship..... but on the contrary, it turned out to be really good. I know that Peter really liked the Hope Pass section. The plan was for Dan to pace me over Sugarloaf but unfortunately he was preoccupied with Collin....who just wanted to breastfeed and Moira had been with me, poor Dan and Collin. Peter was clearly on a mission now to get me to the finish....and if you have been so priviledged to experience “Peter on a mission”, you know that the job will get done. As we climbed Sugarloaf I kept on looking for headlamps to track the top of the climb but all I kept on seeing was the stars, very disorienting. Finally we reached the flat top and Peter commented on the eerie electrical noise from the Powerline, it was fun for him to experience the same weird thoughts that run thru my head during a run. I did my best to run the downhill and we started to play the catch the headlamp game (quite simple, see headlamp in distance and try to catch and pass it). We saw Search and Rescue driving up the road. I of course had a flashback of last year when I saw their headlights....the wrist band cutting crew came looking for us and made us get in the back of the truck, fortunately the S&R guys just wanted to make sure we were OK. Like I said, the last section before the MQ AS was fun on the way out, but quite technical on the return. Down the road we had been going at a good pace, but this section really slowed us down. Finally, as we came out to the trail head parking lot, there they were..... ready with scissors...... the wrist band cutter dude. He must have seen the sheer panic on my face because he immediately assured me “You are fine, just keep up the pace”. We turned the corner and saw the van that would pick up the runners who got clipped, all I could do was look down, silence. I arrived at the MQ AS mile 86.5 within 5 minutes of the cutoff (they have my times posted wrong), rats - lost another 20 minutes, 26:25 into the race, and Quick Math: Eons past my &#@%ing goal. I went right thru the AS and as I left the guy directing traffic wished me luck, I started to cry.
I started down the road to the lake sobbing, and then I thought “you can’t cry, you will waste too much energy”. I remembered from the race booklet that if you left MQ by 0630, you had to run the last 13.5 miles at a 15.5 mile pace to get in by the cutoff of 10:00. Crap, that 2 hour buffer I built into my goal was whittled down to 5 minutes. Peter lightened my load by carrying my pack. This was nice, but risky in the fact that I don’t drink as well if I don’t have my pack. Instead, Peter gave me sips off his pack while in forward motion. The thing I really needed to do but didn’t want to take ~2 minutes for the task, was to remove my running pants.... they were hot but I would just have to engage my hot yoga Bengal Tiger strength. Before we arrived at the boat ramp my GPS ran out of battery.....bummer....but then again, I really needed to stop doing math, it was just plaguing my brain... and bottom line: all I needed to do was to go one speed, and that was, as you can guess “as fast as I can go”. When we arrived at the boat ramp, a race committee looking person reported “7 miles to go”, he didn’t have a watch but some lady who was looking for her runner reported that it was 8:00 am. Quick math: 6.5 miles in 1 h 35 minutes = 14.6 minute miles, I was doing it! Ok, I couldn’t help but do math. Then again, I was relying on the accuracy of some ladies’ wristwatch and being the “think worst case scenario” type person that I am, I was suspicious that her watch was off. As we continued around the lake we were cheered on by groups of campers. Believe it or not, I did not have the desire to jump in their tents.... but I did want to use their kayak to paddle to the end of the lake. Peter got this bright idea that I needed some giddy-up in the form of calories. He stopped me and gave me a split second to agree on taking in a GU vanilla. I said OK, knowing quite well what was going to happen....and .....sure enough my husband witnessed my response to taking a any type of a sport goo. I appologize in advance for this description: as soon as the gel hits my tongue I instantaneously start to forcefully hurk that is concerning for my intestines to be shot out my nose, I force a drink and then it goes down pretty. Sure enough, I got it down and I know they are good quick energy, thank you honey. We had a bit of difficulty with trail markings near the end of the lake, which was frustrating, but as we climbed out from the shore and up to the road, there was, shining in all its glory, lit up by the morning sun, my silver Trojan horse....our Eurovan. Can’t you just hear the sound of the Lone Ranger?!!!! Out jumps Dan and Peter hands me off to him, pretty much like “tag, you’re it!”. The Search and Rescue guys sitting on their ATVs informed me that I had 5 miles to go and it was 8:50. Quick Math: we did the last 2 miles in 50 minutes, I think not... I knew it, that lady’s wristwatch was wrong. OK, so 5 miles to go in 70 minutes = 14 minute miles..... OMG, we had to pull out 14 minute miles for the next 5 miles. I got fired up stewing over the wristwatch false reassurance. The course took a short steep downhill and then a low rolling hilly gravel road to the campground. I could see a white Eurovan in the distance, thought it was Eve and Charlie....and I thought Eve jumped out of the van to help run me in.....but it was Sophie! with an ice cold flask of GU20! At that point there 4 miles to go, but I didn’t want to know the time. We had to cross the railroad tracks and then parallel the tracks, pretty flat terrain, and then turned left to climb....big hill first and then rolling hills but overall going uphill all on a gravel road - painful hardpack. We passed race official looking people who offered water, didn’t need any plus DUH, no time to stop. This was the 3 mile mark and I know we asked the time but I can’t remember the answer. I do remember Dan trying to bargain with the finish time “we have until 11 right?, how about 10:30?”, and the reply was “NO, 10am”. What a good pacer, trying to haggle some more time for me. Dan was working me so hard, we were dripping wet, the skies were clear and sunny with morning sun baking us. He grabbed his visor, offered it to me but I admit that it was kinda better in full blown misery. I was focused with Dan absolutely encouraging me, pushing me, pulling me, and doing everything to make me move. I was so hot, still wanted the pants off, internally chanting Bengal Tiger strength. We were one and we were determined. We pulled up from the gravel road to the pavement, made it to mile 99. There were 3 old guys at that turn and I wanted to ask the time, but I didn’t. Some gal was out directing traffic and ran up to me yelling “we want you to finish but you have to RUN”. I could see Moira about a block away cheering me on.... why wasn’t she coming to me, why did she wait at the turn? When I reach Moira I grabbed her hand and Dans hand and said “you have to get me up the hill”. We powered up the hill and as the road flattened out, all the residents who were up at 4 am partying and cheering us on at the start were now partying and cheering me to the finish. One gal ran out to me and offered to pour water on my head, I said no because again, blah blah blah no time for anything but forward motion. This gal took my hand and ran with us for a bit. She said “I just walked to here from the finish and it took me 10 minutes, and you only have 8 minutes, you HAVE TO RUN the downhill”. The downhill was ~ a block and I was miserable the entire way, I wanted to stop halfway but Moira wouldn’t let me. I could see the finish line and I could see people lining both sides of the street and behind the finish. I tried to walk but she made me run and people began filtering out from the crowd to bring me in, like a posse, including my friend Karen who stopped her run at Winfield. About a block from the finish I asked “how much time” and they said “3 minutes” I said, “oh great, I can walk it” but no, this girl from my posse said “You can’t, the crowd won’t let you, listen to the energy of the crowd, you have to run it in”. Peter came out of the crowd and grabbed my left hand. The noise reverberated. I put my head down, closed my eyes, soaked up the energy from the crowd, and I ran up the red carpet to the finish line.....I was an official finisher at 29 hours 58 minutes and 8 seconds. I gave the race director a big hug and thanked her. Then I looked thru the crowd for Sophie, she had Collin in a Baby Bjorn and was watching the Kryger boys while Dan and Moira were with me. She said that Collin was so excited with the noise of the crowd that he was clapping and making noises. Sophie was cheering me in and the people around her treated her like a celebrity....the runner is her Mom! We both laughed at the fact that Sophie looked like a teenmom carrying around Collin and watching Declan.
Surprisingly I did not collapse at the end. Maybe if I would have had to run another mile I would have, but I was able to stand erect on my own and thank my family and my friends for bringing me in. This was a true team effort and I absolutely couldn’t have crossed the finish line without them. Many people in the crowd came up to me and congratulated me. It was very sad to see others behind me cross the finish line after the cutoff. I was in their shoes at the 2004 Wasatch when I finished 15 minutes past the cutoff, and I very much applauded their effort to persevere and finish the course. I had to undergo a weight check and my final weight was +4 lbs from my starting weight.....where was the weight? My hands were quite puffy, Sophie said they looked like Mickey Mouse hands, my legs were thick with fluid, and I think I had a lot of fluid in my lungs. We headed back to the hotel to clean up for the awards assembly.
The awards ceremony was led by the race founder Kenneth Chlouber clad in dress-up cowboy gear, black pants with boots, red jacket with white piping, black cowboy hat, and one of those enormous belt buckles. The gym was near capacity. He started out by recognizing those runners who started the race but did not finish (huge round of applause for them). Then he recognized the girl who finished 1 minute 2 seconds after the cutoff time, and he said that she deserved a buckle but she wasn’t in attendence. Then he called up the last official finisher of the Leadville 2009 “in 29 hours 58 minutes and 8 seconds, Carolyn Luckett from Salt Lake City”. For the first time, my name was called at the beginning of the ceremony, when audience was fresh with applause, they weren’t leaving the building, bored with the awards, tired of clapping, not paying attention.... I felt like a winner. I walked up to the front with Kenneth Chlouber and the race director Merilee, and as I neared them I realized that she was holding a trophy. I WON A TROPHY......there, in all its glory.... in the shape of the back half of a mule, with the inscription “Last Ass Up the Pass” was the first trophy I have ever won. I was completely shocked, I didn’t know about this category. I held my trophy up high as the audience roared. At that moment, it was better than the buckle.....but I really like the buckle too. Oh, and every female finisher receives a silver and gold necklace with the Leadville 100 logo on the pendant. Sophie and Peter were thrilled....just think, I wouldn’t have won the trophy if I had come in second to last :)
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