Leadville 100 MTB Race Recap
This was a true treat and a great experience. But it was also the hardest one day event I have ever tried to complete. I focused my training since February on the bike by riding an average of 250 miles/week, doing three 150 mile rides on my road bike, multiple 6-8 hour rides on my MTB bike and spent four full weeks in CO at altitude doing nothing but MTB riding. I was also on the Leadville course four times, and road every section of the course at least twice. I knew this course, how hard it is and thought I knew what to expect. But when you try to put all of the pieces of this course together, Leadville can spit you out like you’ve never been there. I thought I was as ready as I could be, but I still underestimated how hard this event can be. Right now, I never even want to hear the word Leadville again. I don’t ever say never, but as of now I have no desire to ever do this race again. But as you are about to read, I have some unfinished business….so never may not be as far off as I originally thought. Remember as you read the below, that this is a true out and back race. You go out 50 miles and turn around to do it in reverse. So as I describe the course, keep in mind that all of the down hills will become up hills on the way back, and vice versa. I apologize for the long report. But as not too many people do this race, I thought you all would like a description of the course and what happened. Enjoy!
Race Day
I have usually found that, unlike tris, when I don’t have to worry about running (and that runner’s stomach), I can usually eat a more substantial breakfast. So I practiced before every long ride eating 2 eggs and a bagel. I never had a problem with it, so that was my routine on race morning. I woke up at 4am, had my breakfast and made sure my race day bottles and Camelback were filled. I also double checked the bag with everything I needed during the day and that my crew would meet me with at every aid station. At this race, everyone goes to the start early to leave their bikes in the street by the start line. So at 5am, we left the house to drop our bikes off. We were already well back from the start line, but knew we would be about half way back in the pack, so thought all was well. After dropping off our bikes we went back to the house where I finished my “cleanse”, stretched and got dressed. We went back to the start at about 6am on what would turn out to be the best weather day in the history of the race. Last year the racers experience rain, snow and hail. This year it ended up 70 degrees and nothing but sun. As it can be in the mountains of CO, it was chilly at the start, 37 degrees. But I took the leap of faith and underdressed at the start, wearing arm warmers, a wind vest and no knee warmers. I knew I would be cold the first 6 miles that are relatively downhill, but once I reached the first climb, I would warm up and be happy.
6:30 am and the race is off, now we have 12 hours to ride 100 miles. As I said the first six miles are relatively downhill, but then you get to the first climb of St Kevin’s. It is short, only about 20 minutes. But the entire climb is from 15-19% grades. And it is supposed to be the only real bottleneck on the course. I did this climb 3 times in training and was ready, but it was more crowded than I anticipated, and twice someone unclipped in front of me forcing me to unclip. Not a huge problem, as I got right around them and was able to get back on my bike and start climbing again. But it definitely caused me to be behind even more people as I was passed in the process. I finally got up the climb, and found myself on the rolling descent. I was only able to go about half speed on the descent as it was so narrow and crowded, that it was virtually impossible to pass people and I ended up in a long single file line.
After St Kevin’s is a 4 mile fast road descent. At the end of the descent you turn onto a wide dirt road heading up towards Hagerman’s Pass. This isn’t too bad of climb, as you are only on Hagerman’s Pass road for about 3 miles and it’s only 7-8% grades. After the three miles on this road, you take a sharp left and begin the climb to Sugarloaf Pass. Again, this climb shouldn’t be too bad (about 20 minutes at 7%). But it’s narrow and rocky, and again I find myself in a crowded mess. But I do my best to pass people where I can and make my way up the climb at a good, steady effort. After reaching the Summit of Sugarloaf, you have a 4 mile technical, narrow, steep descent called Powerline. The last quarter mile of Powerline is extremely narrow, has two foot deep erosion ditches where the rain runs down the hill, and is a negative 23%. Again, I’ve practiced this descent 4 or 5 times and feel very comfortable on it. But it was single file the whole way down and again I was only going about half speed.
I get to the bottom of Powerline unscathed at the 23 mile mark and this where things start going bad. All of sudden I start getting cramps in my stomach. How could this be? I start going through the mental checklist. Good breakfast…check. Cleanse…check. Drinking enough from my Infinit feed bottle…check. Drinking enough from the water in my Camelback….check? Ate half of a PB&Honey…check. Taken 2 S-Caps….check. I am right on my nutritional plan, just as I did it in training. So what’s happening? All I know is that I barely make it to the porta-potty at the first aid station at mile 28. 10 minutes later, I feel way better and get some fluids in me as well as an extra S-Cap as I’m now a little worried about dehydration from having the runs. But I do feel better and I hit the trail again. Between Pipeline (the 28 mile aid station) and Twin Lakes (the 40 mile aid station) is some rolling trails, the only single track portion of the race and short 2 mile climb up a dirt road at about 7%. The single track is downhill in this direction and moves better than I would have thought and I make to Twin Lakes in about 3:40. Maybe 20-25 minutes slower than I would have thought, but given the bottlenecks and bathroom break, I am still in pretty decent shape. I see my crew, get a new feed bottle, fill up the Camelback and am off.
There is a 3 mile section next that has some very short, but very steep climbs. This is where I see Levi and JHK on their way back to town (so they are at mile 57 while I am at 43). They pass by going so fast that is was all just blur. I actually had to ask the guy next to me who that was since they went by so fast I couldn’t even tell.
After this short section, you get to the one of the hardest parts of the course. A 7.5 mile climb to the 50 mile turnaround point called Columbine Mine. The Columbine climb has 3500 feet of elevation gain, ends at 12,600 feet, and the last two miles average 22%, so it’s hike-a-bike up there. Those last 2 miles are also very rocky and it’s very narrow. Even so, you only get half the trail as the people ahead of you are on their way down and get the other half. The descent can be quite challenging using only half the trail and going at negative 22%. But again, I’ve been up there twice in training and know what to expect. But unfortunately things go way south for me at this point. For some reason, I hit the bottom of the climb and have zero energy or strength in my legs. In practice, I went from Twin Lakes to the top in just over 2 hours. On race day….2:30. Again I can’t figure out what the problem is. I am right on my nutritional plan. I’ve eaten enough, taken S-Caps every 45-60 minutes, drank the right amount from my feed bottle, and am drinking water from my Camelback. I should have enough calories in me, but my legs have nothing in them. Needless to say, the march up to the summit was like a death march. I make it up at about the 6:10 mark and am now way behind schedule. But I am hopeful that the 40 minute descent will give my legs a chance to rest, and so I start my way down. The descent is fast, but uneventful and I’m back at Twin Lakes at the 6:50 mark.
I replenish my supplies and head off. But when I get back to the single track section (now a 7% uphill climb), I again have nothing in my legs. I struggle up the climb and hit the rolling trail section on the way back to the Pipeline aid station. I know I’m in real trouble here as even on the relatively flat sections, I’m only going 8-10 mph and people are passing me like I’m standing still. But I still can’t understand it. I’m taking in calories, I’m eating and drinking, I’m not dehydrated, but I got nothing. I get to Pipeline, and I drink some Coke and have a little chicken broth just to switch it up and get some calories in.
Then comes Powerline. Remember the 4 mile descent that ended with negative 23%. Well now I have to push my bike up that. And the pain didn’t end there, the rest of that 4 mile fast descent is pure torture going back up it with no legs. I end up walking and pushing my bike for 2/3 of the 4 miles and it takes me an hour and 15 minutes. I am now pleased to see the Sugarloaf and then Hagerman’s Pass descents and try to get in some calories and rest my legs. But the descent isn’t nearly long enough for me as I then have that 4 mile road climb back to the base of St Kevin’s. Again this pure torture and I’m barely moving. I don’t get off my bike, but it’s possible I could have walked up faster.
And this is where my day ends. After 11.5 hours and 91 miles, I’m told I’m not going to make the 12 hour cutoff and I’m pulled from the course. I’m disappointed, but know it’s the right decision, as I’ve left every ounce of myself on the course and don’t think I could have turned the pedals one more time.
So, I’m not sure what I could have done differently. Did I have the endurance and should I have done more 7-10 hour rides? Maybe. Should I have followed the IM routine and had a lighter breakfast and only drank Infinit on the course? Maybe. A good friend of mine with endurance experience thinks it was my stomach that did me in. He thinks that although I felt fine after my 28 mile bathroom experience and was able to eat and drink, my stomach still wasn’t right. He thinks that there is no way your body can recover from whatever caused my stomach distress during a 12 hour high intensity event. Therefore he thinks that although I felt better, my stomach was not really right and therefore wasn’t absorbing the nutrients I was ingesting in the correct way. So he thinks I had one big, long bonk that I never came out of. I’m not sure I’ll ever know, but I do know that I suffered more than I have ever suffered during miles 40-91.
Will I ever do Leadville again? At this point I really don’t know. This is my first ever DNF, and I don’t like the feeling and definitely have unfinished business there. But I also have no regrets from the day as I literally left it all out there. So only time will tell…..but for now it’s a future of rest and golf. I don’t even want to look at my mountain bike for a while. I welcome any feedback and thoughts. Thanks for reading.
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Comments
Try and keep your spirits up and put things into perspective. As an endurance athlete, people regularly question my sanity and are in disbelief when I tell them what our races entail. So when your fellow athletes even think what you are doing sounds impossible, you know you had your sights set pretty high.
Wow. Just wow, Larry. I think this is one of those races where even getting to the part where you receive a participation ribbon is a great honor and achievement. For what its worth, I am amazed.
PS- do you mind if I share your RR with some friends? I have a few local cycling buddies who would love to hear the first hand experience of someone doing Leadville.
I'm definitely not expert enough to give advice or insight into your stomach issues but one thing to think of is your nutrition in the 1-3 days preceding the race. I know it takes my system at least 2 days to "cleanse" out what I ate 2 days prior. Maybe you had something funky or some type of food sickness from a restaurant a couple days before the race?? Just a thought.
Yeah, Wow. I've done some MTBing in that area, and just can't fathom trying to RACE along some of those tracks, at that altitude. Commendations for sticking with it through 91% of the race, despite the obstacles your body threw at you.
Thanks for the report, it's very sobering.
Wow, wow, wow!! What an event. Hats off to you for quite the effort. I would be inclined to go with what Jim said, some lingering stomach virus. Also, just out of curiousity, did you feel rested going into the race?
Larry, that is just INCREDIBLE. You had to have a bit of a bug going in. Had to. No one could ever say you were unprepared--even the least little bit. You planned the work, and worked the plan. The body gave out not due to lack of attending to any detail on your part--in training or on race day. That trip to the john says a lot. Legs being weak? It all adds up to something off in the way of illness--even if small.
No matter to us that you didn't finish. 91 of 100 miles? We sit in jaw-dropped awe. Amazing.
Hope this will make you smile--it was the "Reflection for the Day" in today's Boston Globe:
If you swear you're never going to do something, that means you're thinking of doing it.
Congrats again. What an incredible thing to take on.
Amazing effort! Simply riveting to read your report. I agree with Beth.....u did your best and in an event like this that is so tremedously hard.....serious congratultions for even signing up, training and racing it peroid! I hope you are satisfied with giving it your all! What more can one do
Absolutely
That is what my friend said. He said I will never really know what caused the trip to the john. It could have been what I ate for breakfast, or something I had 3 days earlier. He also thinks it is very possible that whatever it was may not have made me sick on a normal day. But under the stress of such a high itensity race.....bingo!
I think so. I kind of followed the EN approach to race week. A couple of short workouts with some short intervals early in the week, a few rest days and then a short 30 minute ride the day before to flush out the cobwebs.
That's a good one....I know, famous last words.
thanks for sharing
The 100 mile MTB races suit me well (other than the crashing part). I'm going to attempt some other but Leadville is on the radar for sure.
Awesome, let's do it, tell your friend to check his brake pads (they were rubbing).
:-) Your getting love from folks ya don't even know!
I'm with Dan...Do you think the altitude had something to do with your GI distress? When I was at altitude on Mt.Kilimanjaro, I had alot of GI gas and diarrhea (and no, it wasn't the food in Tanzania). It's common for mountaineers to have high altitude GI bloating and distress.
Better luck next time.
Nice report and way to deal with the unbeleivable pain and push through.
Larry, DNF or not, impressive nonetheless. I think it was because you had to cut ToC short.
Next time you better stay the week. 
Enjoy your time on the links.
Dave
It's a tough course...I do some rides in Breckenridge that have some similar but lower in elevation and shorter climbs than what you had to do that day. I can tell you definitively that I would NEVER be out there daring to do what you did. You have my utmost and unflagging respect for what you accomplished!!! I can't even begin to tell you!!
Don't let anyone, most of all yourself, diminish what you accomplished. We all get so focused on the one day and our results for that day that we can lose focus on the triumph of preparation and gettinig through what we do. You rock, Larry!