I’ve always wanted to the Leadville 100 MTB race. I’d
wondered if the race would suit my skill set. It’s a long course, it includes a
lot of sustained climbs and it isn’t very technical relative to other MTB
races. These factors would play to my strengths and to the type of training I
usually do.
An opportunity to do Leadville presented itself. I was
invited to enter this past weekend’s event with a several clients and friends.
I jumped at the chance to go! But I wouldn’t be racing at Leadville; I wouldn’t
even being riding my own ride. Instead, I was hired to help these five friends
through the grueling course.
My instructions for the day were to keep all five of them together
and feeling relatively good until the base of Power Line, where they would walk
their bikes up or ride at their own pace. Upon the return, I would get them
back to Powerline, where each would descend at his own pace. Due to the
variability in their skill sets, both athletically and technically, everyone
would take the last 15 miles (mainly downhill) at his own pace and we would all
regroup at the finish line.
This event was a first for me in more ways than one. I had
never before served such a diverse group of athletes and on a course where I
was unsure of my own abilities. I understood the demands of the Leadville
course; I have coached athletes through great Leadville finishes in the past.
While I was confident I knew what had to be done, I personally had never really
mountain biked longer than 50 miles in my life – and those rides were all on
bike paths.
As it turned out, I could have ridden much harder at
Leadville had I been on my own. But I wasn’t there to race. Instead, I was
there to help five guys get through most of the course and, according their
wish, to get through as much of the course together. This was a difficult task,
given the diversity in the group. Most of the guys had “coached themselves” and
it showed in how quickly they fatigued. Even the one guy in the group that I
usually coach, a small business owner who just didn’t have the time this year
to put in the preparation, was struggling.
The struggle up Columbine was real for them. While most
people walk the incline, with my Achilles injury, walking was gong to be an
issue for me. So, I asked the guys if it would be okay for me to ride up and
then meet them at the aid station on the descent. With their approval, I took
off. For the first time in that day, I was working REALLY hard, working at my
level.
I must have passed 400 people in the two miles up Columbine,
and I found myself riding up stuff that I would have believed was impossible to
do – but I was doing it! I hit the turn-around at the top and was bombing down
before I knew it. I had been descending almost seven minutes before I saw the
guys still on their way up. Despite a crash, I still managed to put 35 minutes
on them over a very short amount of course. That was a rush!
After they showed up to the aid station and refueled, I
paced them on to the next aid station. It took them about 80 minutes to get
there and they were pretty wrecked when they did. They were struggling big
time. So, we came up with our next plan: I was to pace them to the bottom of
Power Line climb, which they thought they would end up walking, and then my job
would be done.
All the way to the bottom of Power Line, they were doing the
math to see whether they could finish in the 12 hour “belt buckle” time limit. When
we reached the bottom of Power Line, we were about 80 miles into the course,
and at 8:27 of total ride time. It could be cutting it close for some, but from
here on out, it would be every man for himself.
My job done, I took off like a shot out of a cannon! “On
your left!” “Center line!” “Can I have the line please?!” I was shouting left
and right as I rode as much of the climb as I could. I heard, “Rider coming!
Rider Coming Through!” as spectators yelled at the participants walking their
bikes to try to get them out of my way. It was so motivating to hear their
cheers. Even though I felt like I was going to die, I dug deep into a level even
I wasn’t sure I had and rode most of that climb.
I had to get off a few times as there was simply no way
around the walkers, but I pushed the bike as fast as I could around them and
got right back on. I was having a blast! Halfway up power line, I decided to
catch the two guys in our group who had ridden ahead. Now I had my own race
going!
At the top of the climb, when I thought I had about 15 miles
left (In reality, I had 19, because the course is actually 104 miles!), I
started to think of what I might accomplish How awesome would it be if I made
the jump from the breaking-12-hours finisher group time to the
breaking-10-hours group – and within only 20 miles of the finish! Game ON!
After Power Line, there is one more climb. I knew I was
going to have to reach the top of that climb at 9:30 or under if I had any
chance of breaking 10-hours. I hit the top in 9:34, so knew that breaking 10
hours was not going to happen, but I was okay with that. 10:15 became the new
goal and I was just as excited!
It turns out that I did break 10:15 for 100 miles, but it
turns out that the Leadville 100 MTB race actually covers 104 miles. I finished
that in 10:21. It was so fun to FLY past all the people who had passed me so early
on in the day. And I did end up catching our entire group; I caught the last
guy just 2 miles from the finish.
Our whole group did fantastic. All five guys – six, if you
include me – finished under the 12-hour “belt buckle” time limit. The two guys
who went ahead finished in about 10:30 and 10:55, and the two guys I stuck with
most of the day went 11:27. (Later, they told me that they couldn’t have
finished without my help. Giving them food, letting them drink from my bottles
and pacing them into the wind helped them to finish – and finish under 12
hours.) Then, our final guy ended up being the third to last official finisher.
He did an awesome job getting in just seconds before the clock struck 12!
Celebrating that victory was the highlight of our day.
Going into the race, the guys said that they just wanted to
have fun. For them, sticking together for as much of the race as they could was
integral in that. They insisted that they didn’t care about their finishing
time, but were in it more for the experience, the views and eventually reaching
the finish line. Sitting around breakfast the morning after the race, with everyone
rehashing the day and their experiences, it became clear to me that each man
had given his all out there. It was also clear just how much fun they had. Their
mission was a success.
