Leadville 2010

Recap

I have to quote Levi when I say "I didn't respect this race enough". I figured that going into this race I had done what I needed to finish in under 9 hours. I was wrong. I didn't train long enough, hard enough or consitantly enough to conquer this bitch of a race.

While I didn't make my goal I did race well. Finishing 189 out of 1600 isn't too shabby. I finished in 9 hrs 18 mins.

Wednesday: Arrived at the Copper Mountain condo and settled in. Walked around the village and made a nice dinner. Slept only 3 hours and spent the entire night sweating and pissed because I wasn't sleeping.

Thursday: Met Drew and Jen in Leadville and went out to the Powerline climb. We rode the bottom of the climb and I was on cloud 9 because it was easy. I thought, "If this is what people dread so much I have this race licked". This would prove to be an embarassing assesment of the race... We then headed to the two feed zones to scope out the situation so that Jenny would feel confident getting from one to the other. After course recon we went to Cycles of Life to say hi to Brian Feddema. Brian and I played soccer together for years and went to the same highschool. His shop is awesome and he was swamped while we were there.

Friday: Slept awesome last night and felt like a new person. Mandatory check-in and race meeting in the morning. Went back to Copper for the afternoon to do final prep. Filled water bottles, organized all my feeds and got the numbers on the bike, jersey and helmet. I was feelign relaxed and confident.

Saturday: Up at 3:15am to eat and load the car. We were on the road to Leadville at 4am in order to place my bike at the start line by 4:30. Drew and I placed our bikes at 4:40am and were about 200 people from the front; great position! Went back to the car to stay warm and get some fluids and energy drink in me. Back to the bike at about 5:45 to wait for the gun at 6:30. Jenny was there to take our warm layers at the start and she snapped some photos.

By 6:15 everyone was getting pretty amped and some people were starting to lose their cool. I think everyone was feeling the pressure of having trained so hard and long for this that they didn't want anyone messing with their idea of how things should be. Some people tried to cut into the lineup and get positioning up front. One guy was actually booed right out of line and lined up significantly further back. Kind of funny...

6:25am and the camera moto crews are at the front and the helicopter is hovering overhead. This was really exciting and it felt like we were really a part of something big! Gun goes off and we all head downhill for several miles to the base of St. Kevins climb. I feel great and Drew and I are consistantly moving forward in the group. There is always ebb and flow but I think we are both generally moving up. The first climbs really aren't bad considering it's so early in the race. We hit the pavement and speed downhill then up a large climb to the top of Powerline. Then down Powerline and to the first feed. It's a crazy scene but Jenny does an awesome job of flagging us down. We spend only about a minute and half at the feed and hit the trail again. Drew and I are both feeling good and make really fast time to the next feed. We arrive at our feed at the base of Columbine 15mins ahead of our 9 hour pace. Jenny just barely made it to this feed because of the enormous amount of people/traffic. She is literally running through the field yelling my name as I bike by. I skid to a stop and she starts throwing all our feed and bottles out of the backpack. She's awesome! We shed our arm / knee warms and vests. We getting going about 2 mins after stopping. Drew and I speed up to the base of the climb. Soon as the road tilts up I know I am in trouble. Drew steadily pulled away from me and I was left feeling like I was going to red line. This is where my mental game started to shift. Watching Drew ride away was really hard and I had to adjust my expectations. I figured that I had to just ride consistent and not try to match anyone else. Near the top Drew passed me heading downhill. When I reached the top I was 3.5 minutes behind Drew. I topped off on water and was flying downhill. This is actually where I started to cramp. I was cramping behind my knees, something that has never happened to me before. I tried to keep good power to the pedals on the downhill and arrived to the feed about 2 mins after Drew had departed. I told Jenny I was suffering. She said Drew was going to ride slow to let me catch up to him. I didn't see him for the next hour. I was having real trouble eating at this point. I was 5.5 hours into the race and could barely choke down the sport beans I had. They were tough to chew and I was ending up with huge slugs of sugar in my mouth. I was also starting to get sick of drinking Gatorade Pro. I have always trained with Gatorade but today I was overloaded. I had a sqeeze bottle of PowerGel and that really made the differance. I arrived back at the Pipeline Feed and Drew was still there. I had made up some time. Jenny asked how I was doing and I told her, "I am fucking suffering". I think that's really exactly what was happening. All I could think about was plain water. Jenny had some and I slugged it down. When Drew and I departed I told him that I was now just riding to finish and that he needed to just ride his own race. He nodded and a mile later he was pulling away. The next few miles weren't too bad and then Powerline. I completely hit a mental wall at the bottom. I had to walk most of the bottom and once at the top (of the bottom) I realized just how much more climbing I had to do. Powerline on the way down is fun and fast. It didn't really hit me that Powerline is a series of three big steps. After topping the first step my heart sank. I spent the next hour suffering and just willing myself ot keep going. I seriously considered sitting down "for just a few minutes, you know, to gather myself" but in the back of my mind I knew that if I sat down it was game over. By the top of power and the decent back to the lake I was wasted. I was starting to gag on sport beans and my PowerGel wasn't much better. Gatorade was also starting to really piss me off. I just kept thinking about plain, cold water. Water. Water. Water. Water. Water.

I took turns spinning and mashing big gears on the pavement climb to the Carter Aid station. The alternating seemed to help as it worked different muscles. When I got to Carter I asked for plain water and they dumped a large glass of water over my head and back. It instantly turned my race around. I jumped away from the aid station and was feeling strong and confident again. It was too late for me to make 9 hours but I was hammering away anyhow. I flew down the descent and hammered away at the flats below town with a group of 5 other guys. On the final climb to town I put it in the big ring and just mashed gears through gritted teeth. When I turned on to the pavement and could see the finish I got tears in my eyes. I felt like giving up so many times and was just so happy to have made it. I blinked a couple of times, clicked in to 44-11 and just hammered the last mile to the finish. I kept going faster and faster and was flying towards the finish. The crowd was going nuts and I felt like superman. I sat up, zipped my jersey and threw my arms in the air.

My immediate response to the race was, I am glad it's over, cross it off the list. Never doing it again. Period.

The next day I reflected on where things went wrong. Mostly training. More dedication to diet and long rides. Next, Food. More gel and fewer chewy things. Also, maybe take an extra mintute at the feed zones to eat a pastry / baked good. Lastly, WATER. Can't go on just energy drink.

By Monday morning I was excited to enter the race again and thrash 9 hours. Hope I get in...

My wife was so awesome and supportive and there was no way I would have done as well without her. She is a constant source of inspiration and was always in good spirits. Thanks Babe! I love you!

So, next year I hope to get in and will beat the 9 hour mark. If I don't get in I already have an alternative race planned, Pierres Hole at Grand Targhee (7000 more feet of climbing than Leadville).

Pictures to be posted on Facebook.