12,600 feet, Dave slaying Lance, thin air and great friends

So it was the trip I had been waiting for. Willie, Haoi and I hit the road early Thursday morning and headed for Leadville Co. From Redlands Ca. Leadville, a super small town way up in the sky, 10,200 feet to be exact! Here Willie and I took place in the Leadville 100 race across the sky. This is a super steep mountain bike race that climbs 14,000 in total elevation gain and peaks out at 12,600 feet. When your up this high the air is thin and your head pounds. We were not alone though, we were two of a thousand other racers. There was a 12 hour cut off time to complete this race and about 400 people didn’t complete it.

It all started at 6:30am and it was freaking cold! We had driven over 13 hours to get here and now it was game time. Sitting in the crowed shoulder to shoulder and bike to bike I remember thinking that maybe I was a little over dressed. I had on leg warmers, arm warmers, my bibs, a Spider Nordic Ski Racing pull over (THANK YOU J.K.) and a ninja mask. I was freezing on the starting line but I was concerned that once I got going I would warm up and cook to death. This never happened. A few times I had to stop to remove the Spider and arm warmers but I was fine and comfortable. As I looked around I could see that there were many others dressed like me and a few that you would think were getting ready to climb Mt. Everest. To each his own I suppose.

There were all different types of bikes in the huddle. Carbon, Ti, Aluminum, Steel, hardtail and full suspension you name it, it was there. I even noticed a few tandem teams and one dude was on a fixed gear. Yes, it was a bit of a freak fest and I felt right at home. I looked up and noticed that there was 1 min left on the clock to start time and I was thinking, man, I’m totally going to ride my mountain bike for 100 miles with 1000 people up to 12,600 feet and back, I am crazy! I had trained since last March for this and now it was all coming to a head. I was ready and not even a bit nervous. I came with mission, complete the task at had in 10 hours or less. As the clock ticked down I swear I could hear every tick.

BANG!!! The shotgun went off and so did we! It was like a heard of cattle leaving intersection of 6th and Harrison. At first the pace was a quick one that settled into a cool steady 20mph or so. I was shaking and I could hardly hold my bars straight. I knew it I warm up as soon as we started to climb, and the climb couldn’t start any sooner. We were all plotting our lines and trying to keep from hitting each others bars. It was a mob seen for sure. There were of course the types that zipped by at full speed and of course there were the overly cautious and a whole slew of other types. I just sat in and started to try and regulate my heart rate. I averaged 144bpm the entire race and only topped out at 167bpm. Not bad for not ever being above 10,000 feet before other than once, and that time I was in the whole before the gun even went off.

The first few climbs were not too bad and I was passing quite a few people. I was feeling kind of studly so I backed off. There was no way I was going to blow up today and waste all my time I had invested. I settled in and spun. The course was mostly fire roads with a bit of single track and paved roads. Some of these paved roads were super steep and a blast to fly down. I must have hit 45mph easily! A few really techy sections that had zero room for error that begged you to pin it and stay off the brakes. You could see all kinds of abilities in the field. Men and Women, young and old. Two guys had cast on their hands and our very own Willie Stewart was on site too, known to us as One Armed Willie.

The race was going great until after aid station #2. It was in the beginning of a large fire road that was completely flat. I got my fuel and off I went. I was drinking and cruising about 15-20mph and closing in on the guy in front of me. I got within about 6 feet of him and I was getting ready to say, bitchen day hugh, to the guy I was about to pass. Then all of the sudden out of the blue, the guys front tire slid out from under him and he was going down, HARD!!!!! His face gripped the ground and his body rolled over his neck. I tried to hit the brakes and avoid him but there was nothing I could do, I ran right into him and his bike. I flipped over the bars and hammered my left hip on the ground. I looked back to if he was ok and he was lying in the road. His face was full of blood and he was out cold! He started to shake and moan and the blood just kept coming. I tried comforting him telling him to lay still and that help was on the way. Amazingly many other riders just went on by saying things like, get that bike out of the road, move out of the way and look out!!!! None of these fuckers were stopping!!!!!!
I was yelling for help and finally I starred one dude down and demanded for him to go get help at the aid station. Off he went. A few moments later two doctors stopped and jumped into action. These two guys went from racers to doctors in seconds. They checked vitals on the now half way conscious racer and started to ask him questions. I think he said his name way Jerry and he thought he was in, well, he didn’t know. He was jacked up and from the looks of his chin he chipped the bone. In all I spent 15 min’s with Jerry and the one doctor that stayed behind. The guy that went to get the medics came back by to tell us that help was on the way. With an ok from the doctor I went on my way too.

Oddly enough the thin air that I wasn’t even close to use to didn’t seam to bother me at all, well not till 11,100 feet to 12,600 at the summit. My lungs were fine but my head was hosting a bunch of angry monkeys with drums in it. POUND POUND POUND went my head but I didn’t even care because this was my special day and I wasn’t going to let something as small as throbbing paine between my ears bother me. Up near the top we all, well, not Lance or Dave, had to hike your bikes up what seamed to be the rockiest, ruttiest hill on the planet. The lead racers were flashing by at what looked to be mock speed. I was eagerly waiting my turn to do the same.

Up at the top it was cold but nice. The aid station like the ones before, was completely stocked with all the goodies. Coke, brownies, cookies, PBJ, ham and cheese, Poweraide, gels, and plenty of people that wanted to hold your bike for you while you refuel. I didn’t see a single person at an aide station that wasn’t buzzing around looking to help somebody out, it was great! I had not seen this behavior sense my triathlon days.
Now to read about or hear about this race some people may think it’s just an out and back, up a hill and down the hill affair. Ummmm, no. It’s like this:

Start at 10,200 feet
Go down to 8,800 feet
Back up to 10,500 feet
Go down to 9,800 feet
Back up to 11,600 feet
Down to 9,800 feet
Go back up to 12,600 feet
Then turn around and go back to square one.

All those cool bitchen down hills you rode just a while ago that you loved because they were so long, well now you have to go back up them. Wow, you don’t realize how steep they are till you have to go back up the other way. It’s like a roller coaster you peddle on for 10 hours.
One the way down one of the rockiest down hills it started to rain. It wasn’t just raining; it was poring down in sheets. At first I thought to stop and put on my Spider. It wasn’t really that cold outside so I said screw it and decided to try and make up some time. I had mud and tinny rocks flying all over the place! In my face, up my nose, even in my teeth, I just kept on going as hard as I could. It was down hill and I really needed to turn back the clock if possable. Soon the dirt turned to pavement and the rain was falling even harder. I could hardly see so my glasses went in my pocket. I hate the rain, but for what ever reason I hadn’t felt this good on a bike ever! As the rain started to stop the road wet on to the steep side of things. I felt great and just motored along.

At the top of the paved road I was faced with more rain and tones of mud. I looked like a pig that had spent all day rolling around in it‘s pen. There was also an aid station at this point of the race back to town and it had plenty of chicken broth on hand. Oh…. the salt content of this wonderful stuff saved me from cramps for sure.

For the next few hours it was ride, hike, ride, and hike. And then finally the last decent and the words from a traffic volunteer I will never forget, “c’mon man, it’s less than a mile to the end” It was like I had my batteries recharged….. I hit it hard and I was now seeing the finish line. It was clear I wasn’t going to make my goal of 10 hours but I still felt like I had done something great! 10:20 by my watch. I haven’t seen any actual results yet but even if it’s give or take 10 second or so, I’m happy. I have such a respect for this race now. Everything I have read couldn’t really describe what I had experienced. I can't wait to do it again!!!!