Notes
This is the 5th year in a row that either Harry or I have run Leadville. For all 5 years we are blessed to have Rick and Doris Hoopes drive out from Nebraska to crew and pace us. They are the best crew any runner could ever hope for. Harry’s boss Joe volunteered to pace me the first 22 miles and Harry was going to pace me the last 28 miles to the finish. Both Grandma's and my brother and sister in law joined us as well to watch the kids and help out along the way.
The start of the race at 4:00 am was much more pleasant than expected. There was no rain and it didn't feel exceptionally cold. I ran nice and slow and chit chatted with my fellow runners. I stopped to go to the bathroom on the boulevard and had diarrhea. Not to worry, I told myself it was too much coffee and it would pass. I was wrong, and this turned out to be just the first of many such wonderful stops during the race. I continued on to turquoise lake where I ended up behind a line of dozens of very slow folks. I battled past them all, only to have to stop again to go. I then decided it would be worth the extra few minutes to go up to the bathrooms at Tabor. Back onto the trail, back to passing lines of people, I made it into Mayqueen at 2:26, about 6 minutes slower than I intended. Then I did the classic dumb thing. Since it was light out and not raining at the present moment, I decided to take off and leave my jacket. I felt good climbing the colorado trail and good on hagerman road, but as I climbed to the top of sugarloaf there was a rain/snow/hail storm. I was soooo cold, all I could concentrate on was getting to the top so I could get down. Although, it was kind of cool watching the lightning hit the powerlines. It makes this loud bang accompanied by bursts of sparks. Coming down the powerlines, I had to stop 3 more times. It looked like it wasn't just the morning coffee. I came into Fish cold and slightly dejected and knowing that a PR was probably out of the question. But, there was an outhouse with toilet paper, thank god for the small things. I put my jacket back on and headed out on the road to treeline. The stretch from fish to halfmoon is the worst part of the course, so I had to work to keep a decent pace here. I talked with Keith Grimes and David Wilcox a little on this stretch which made it more bearable. I felt alright at treeline and was hoping to make some up some time to twin lakes but once again, the only thing I was looking forward to at halfmoon was the outhouse. I knew I had lost more time here. I walked all of the way to the trail from Half moon. The trail to twin lakes is my favorite part of the course, but I was extremely slow and suffered from multiple stops along the way. I came into twin lakes 34 minutes slower than I wanted begging my crew for pepto or something. They found some Imodium and off I went. The climb up and down Hope Pass went well. I ran out of twin lakes in the rain which turned to hail, but on the climb up Hope the sun came out and stayed out all the way to Winfield. The climb up Hope was very muddy but the backside wasn't bad at all. I ran hard down Hope and ran strong into Winfield. I was surprised that other than Rick, I was almost to Winfield before I saw any of the CRUD runners coming back. I made Winfield at 11:36, although 28 minutes slower than I planned, it meant that I had made up about 7 minutes between twin and winfield. I hit the bathrooms, took some Imodium, and headed out with my pacer Joe. We had barely started down the road when I had to stop again. By the time we started climbing Hope I was spent. I drank both my bottles and we were only about half way up. My pacer gave me his Gatorade. The climb back up Hope was slow and brutal. When we reached the summit, Joe ran down to the aid station to fill my bottles and started back up to meet me. When I reached Hope, I was not doing well. I sat down on a log in the tent and ate some soup. After a few minutes we moved on. I couldn't even run down for awhile, as runner after runner past me. Finally, somewhere along the descent, my stomach settled down and I told Joe to take the lead and run. We managed to run down the second half of Hope into Twin Lakes . It had taken me 4:06 to get from Winfield to Twin and I knew that the best I was going to do that day was finish, maybe. More Pepto and outhouses, and off we climbed out of Twin. The first few miles went alright, but then it was just more of the same. Lots of walking, walking, walking. 3 hours later we made it to Half Moon. I managed to recover a little and we were able to run some to treeline. This was my pacer's first ultra experience and after crawling along with me for 22 miles it might be his last. At treeline, I picked up Harry to pace me to the finish. He knew I was in bad shape and wanting to quit so he made very effort to encourage me along the way. We ran on and off to Fish Hatchery. Once there, I decided to have some of my blisters work on. This was probably a waste of time looking back. I had so many blisters it really didn't matter. After spending way too much time at Fish Hatchery we moved on. The climb up the power lines wasn't too bad, but another storm had come in and it was getting cold. I watched a runner in front of me remove his jacket and continue to the top of the powerlines in a short sleeve shirt in a snow storm. We aren't always in our right mind out there. We reached the top and started down the road in the rain and snow. I was extremely tired and slightly delusional and asked Harry several times if I could please stop and sleep for 10 minutes. I think I was starting to get hypothermic. He began to really push me then, telling me we had to get down and making me run as much as he could. Every time I started walking he would tell me we need to run now. Over and over he pushed me and encouraged me on the down until we finally made it to the Colorado Trail. I felt a little better in the trees out of the altitude and out of the storm. Leaving Mayqueen, I had over 5 hours to finish. The rain and snow continued and it was cold but at that point I knew I could finish. Harry encouraged me along the way and made me run parts of the boulevard and 6th street. I fought back the tears when I saw the finish line because no matter how much pain I had endured, I had made it. It was by far the most suffering I have ever done on a run and I can only attribute my finish to an amazing crew and pacers and my awesome husband who carried me through those last 50 miles. Without them I never ever could have done it.