Silver Rushin' It

Leadville 50 Course and Profile

The alarm went off at 4:30 AM. This was the second day in a row I had to rise out of bed before the sun rose over the horizon. Julie had finished the triple bypass ride the day before and I spent the day driving through the mountains as her Sherpa. Today, we would exchange roles.

I groggily rolled out of the Super 8 hotel bed and walked over to turn on the coffee maker. Gulping down a full glass of water I went back over to the bed and sat down to wait for the hot liquid to pour over the hotel coffee beans.

Just by chance, I had booked a hotel that was directly across the street from the starting line. I could see the lights and banners from where I was sitting on the bed. I squinted my tired eyes to look at the last minute weather forecast on my iPhone. 41 degrees with a high of 67. It would be a great day for racing.

Finally the coffee finished brewing and I poured a steaming paper cup. I ate a breakfast bar consisting of around 400 calories as I drank my coffee and got my gear together. Ultras are much easier to navigate than Ironmans. A hydration pack, my shoes, sunglasses and a hat were all the accessories I needed for the day. I worked out my aid station needs with Julie the night before. She would be meeting me about every 13 miles along the course with a fresh hydration bladder and some food.

The Starting Hill

Washing the last of my hotel coffee down, we headed out across the street in the cold air. I had on my thin shell Pearl Izumi jacket to cut through the wind. I planned on wearing it for the first 13 miles of the race until things warmed up.

I checked in to the race at a little mobile trailer. They gave me my number for the day and some safety pins. Looking down at the piece of paper, I got a little emotional realizing that I was about to attempt the longest run of my life.

It has been an exciting year to this point. The idea of running 50 miles is a little daunting, but I knew I had put in significant training to try and prepare. I would have to pull from those 25-30 mile training days and have confidence that as long as I kept moving, I would reach the finish. I finished the Dirty 30 50K about a month earlier and had a great race at the Leadville Marathon a couple of weeks prior. I knew I had the base to at least finish. My ‘A’ goal was just to finish. My ‘B’ goal would be to try and go sub-10 hours if I felt okay. That would be a 12 min mile average.

Sky of Fire

Shivering a bit in the cold, I gave Julie a kiss and lined up about third row on the right at the base of Dutch Henry Hill. The 200 foot incline would be the first terrain we would hit after the gun went off. If the rest of the race wouldn’t be hard enough! The sun was rising over the horizon and lit up the sky in blazing glory as the national anthem was sung. A person in the middle of the hill waived a huge flag. It was a surreal moment just before the start. I wasn’t really nervous, but I had a pit in my stomach as the final notes played.

Boom.

We were starting. I jogged up the large rocky hill and made it to the top with the first 40-50 people. The race was on!

The first 4-5 miles were fairly uneventful. We ran though meadows and gorgeous trees. I could see my breath through the cold air and I was thankful I had worn my jacket for the start. Most of the people that got out in front were running at a similar pace and we took turns passing each other--just to get passed again. I felt pretty good settled into a rhythm. After about the first hour, I had held around a 10 min/mile average which was a little faster than I had anticipated. Even though we had gained about 500 feet in elevation, the mellow gain allowed us to push a decent pace to the first aid station at mile seven.

View from the summit

I rolled right through the first aid station and prepared to make the 1500 vertical foot push over the next three miles. The trail kicked up gradually and the field began to spread out. I was still surrounded by many of the same people, but some runners that had pushed a little too hard early were falling back. I kept myself grounded in my zone and pushed on ahead. I was still feeling great. I ran/hiked with a guy for a while up over the summit and we talked about the quick early pace and we both hoped we wouldn’t pay for it later.

After the first summit, there was a long sustained downhill for the next 4 miles. We would drop about 2,000 vertical feet and run into aid station 2. The wide fire road allowed me to hold a 7-8 minute mile pace with relative ease. Rounding the corner, I could hear the cowbells at aid station 2 where Julie would be waiting. It had taken me about 2:15:00 to make it 14 miles. Way quicker than I had planned, but I was still feeling great.

I saw Julie and quickly dumped my jacket,  exchanged my hydration/nutrition and was on my way over the next 10 mile section. I had another 2,000 feet to climb and was excited to get moving. After the first initial downhill, the next climb began. This is where the group really started to break up. The steep 15% grade greeted us, and we were all hiking uphill at our own pace.

I was hiking as quickly as I could, covering the vertical at about a 16:30 pace. I gradually dropped most of the people that I spent the first part of the race with, and found myself solo in no man’s land. The grade undulated between 10 and 15% while I made progress towards the next summit. A quick downhill birthed an even steeper uphill and I struggled to catch my breath. Things were stating to hurt. The muscles in my legs, my lungs, my head…. I still had 5 miles to the turn..I wasn’t even ½ way done. It started to hurt so bad….tears.

I mentally unraveled pretty quickly. I don’t know what it was. The pain, the altitude, the thought that I still had 30 miles to go. It didn’t really matter. I was in the worst place at that point. Cresting the second summit, it felt like I would never make it to the turn. The downhill run felt worse than the uphill hike. My hamstrings were screaming at me to quit.

Harden the F up Tim. Stop it!

Tears…..

By the time I saw Julie at the turnaround I was crying in pain. I had no idea how I’d make it back. I had pushed way too hard over that climb and now I was paying the price.

Walking out of the turnaround

Julie hugged me and told me to take it easy. She told me I was going WAY too fast and to slow it down. “You just practically ran a 4:20 marathon babe…slow it down and you’ll get there..you are doing great!!!”

I somehow managed to pull it together and get out of aid station 4. I hiked for a bit to calm down and get my crap together to finish this thing.

The climb out of aid four is a beast. It averages 15% grade and is mostly over 11K feet. You can’t breathe and you just want it to be over. I stopped by the side several times to catch my breath. The boulders were large enough to make you feel like you were doing stairs at altitude. One guy passed me and wheezed out “this sucks man”….

Somehow in my haze, I got over the summit in about an hour and hoped my legs were ready for the downhill pain.

Eventually my legs opened up and I was able to cruise a bit. While it still hurt, I was able to run around a 9-9:30 pace on the downhill. I made it to aid station 5, took in some water and coke and continued on. The downhill was nice but my legs were tired. Then…

BAM. Stubbed my toe on a rock.

I was falling in slow motion onto my right side. I’m sure it was graceful, but fortunately no one saw me. I skid along the cobbles for a while and finally came to a stop. Sitting up, I surveyed the situation. Tons of dirt. Bloody elbow. No broken bones. Hands looked okay.

And I ran once again.

Trail races are always amazing to me in the way that I end up running solo for miles even when I start with several hundred athletes. This whole section was spent in solitude. I listened to some tunes and got lost in the cadence of my feet as they hit the dirt. It was a good feeling to be headed towards home and that Julie would be there at the next aid station.

After a short mile-ish climb, I made it to the next aid station. I took a bit longer this time making the hydration switch. I downed a coke and took another Alieve before heading up the last 2K foot climb. Julie jogged with me about ¼ mile and wished me luck on the last 14 miles. Doing the math in my head, I knew I could simply hike the last climb and still finish under 10 hours. So I hiked.

The sun was blazing hot on the dirt fire road, but the breeze would cool things down from time to time. I could see 3-4 other athletes way up the hill, but I was at least 100 yards from anyone. There was no one behind me as far as I could see. I slogged along steady at 15-17 minute mile pace and kept my breathing easy.

An hour later I crested the top of the pass. I took a drink, shook out my legs and started down the back side. I had 10 miles to go.

For the last 10 miles I bit off one mile at a time. If I got winded, I walked. If the road turned up, I walked. Otherwise, I pretty much ran the entire way. I clipped off 8-9 minute miles most of this section. This section is probably the most scenic part of the course with windy roads, trees, meadows and streams. It made the journey easy and I didn’t focus on the pain I was feeling in my joints. I finally caught up to some runners with about 2 miles to go, and passed right by them.

Finisher!

With about ½ mile to the finish, there is a short but steep hill to climb up. Making my way up it, I caught up to some runners that I ran with earlier in the day. Saying hello, they pushed ahead of me. I let them go. I was racing my own race. I rounded a corner at the top of the hill and one of them was doubled over throwing up.

“You can do this man” I said as I passed.

I ran down the steep hill before the
finish, legs screaming at me to stop, but I pushed hard towards the banner.

“Timothy Barr, finishing the 50!” the announcer said over the loud speaker. My wife was at the other end of the finishing shoot. My arms were up…and I started crying. This time from the joy I had in crossing the finish line.

I had finished my first 50 in 9 hours and 15 minutes.(11:37 average pace). I was 43rd overall.

Strava Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/344877212

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So what would I have done differently?

• Treated my weekend training blocks as one workout. Often times I ran my long run on Sundays and chose an easier run on Mondays for my additional miles. Doing it again, I would run equally difficult runs these days and easier runs mid-week.
• Don’t push the early hills as hard. I am convinced that the 5-6 minutes I made up pushing those hills hard after aid station two could have been made up on the downhill if I would have saved my legs a bit. I don’t think I saw the time gains from those pushes at the finish.
• Pick a goal pace and stick to it. If I would have raced a bit easier over the first ½, I feel I could have finished much stronger and had a better result. Time banking caused me a lot of anguish looking back on how I felt at the turn.
• Trained more hard hiking uphill right into downhill runs. Even repeats with this type of terrain would have helped me at Leadville. Since there is not much (if any) flat in this race, knowing how your hammy’s will feel on this transition would have been helpful.

What nutrition did I use?

• 160 oz of Infinit liquid nutrition on the course. (1700-1900 cal)
• 1/2 bonk breaker nutrition bar (125 cal)
• 4 GU gels (400 cal)
• 1 16oz bottled coke (140 cal)
• 2 Alieve
• 10 sport legs capsules