| Gettin’ the Lead Out |
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| Written by Terie Box | |
| Monday, 08 February 2010 | |
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Quite a few Memphians travelled to Leadville, CO, in August of 2009 to compete in the grueling Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race. Here, two of those finishers reflect on their races, and offer some friendly advice for would-be racers.
Memphis native Hart Robinson, 28, President of Memphis Boat Center Daniel Shaffer told me he was kicking around the idea of going. I immediately jumped on board. Earlier in the year I’d heard about the Leadville experience of Brent Barrett, Boomer Leopold, Russ Griffin, Cal Hill, and Robby Holditch. They’d said it was the hardest thing they’d done. I’d heard that Robby said he’d rather do another Ironman than do that race again. When I heard that, and the fact that you get a Silver Belt buckle if you finished under 12 hours, I had to go. Who doesn’t want to endure that much pain, right? The race started at 6:30a.m. Daniel Shaffer and I arrived at 4:50a.m. in an effort to get in the front third at the start. A shotgun mass start lead us out by a pace car for the first 3-4 miles, after which we turned onto a gravel road and the race was on. The course is 50 miles out and back with three significant climbs outbound, and two inbound. It was mostly gravel fire road, jeep trail, and some asphalt road. There were aid stations at mile 12/88, 24/76, 40/60, and 50. The midway point (Columbine Mine) was also the most substantial climb, with respect to altitude gained and distance covered. Some would argue the first climb inbound (Powerline) at mile 80 was worse. I would agree. After Powerline there is one more road climb that never seems to end, followed by a fun descent and a final climb back in to town to the finish line. I trained approx 4-5 times per week most weeks. I participated in several triathlons and two endurance mountain bike races prior to Leadville. The two mountain bike races took me about 6.5 hours to complete and helped prepare me mentally for Leadville. It becomes very apparent that you can do a lot more than you thought you could, if only you think you can. That is what I took away from my participation in the Big Frog 65 and Leadville. When I wasn’t racing, I would ride 45-60 miles on the weekends on my mountain bike. Generally, I would ride from my house to the Wolf River trailhead at Summer; from there I would ride the Tour De Wolf and all the WRT depending on how much time I had. I also rode from Germantown Country Club, through the WRT to Summer Ave., and up to Stanky Creek and back. I would ride the road to Germantown for extra time and distance. I also rode the Tuesday/Thursday morning ride from the Peddler Bike Shop. Some days I would ride out early to get in more time before the ride. On average, I trained 8-13 hours per week. My ultimate goal was to finish under 12 hours. Based on the times of Memphians from the previous year, I thought I might finish between 9.5 and 10 hours. My stretch goal was to go under 9 hours. At Leadville, if you finish under 12 hours you get a silver and gold belt buckle. If you finish under 9 hours you get a BIG silver and gold belt buckle and serious bragging rights. `The race started with the temperature around 35 degrees. The wind-chill was around 30. It was drizzling rain. Two hours into the race, the rain changed to a sleet/rain combo. It was cold depending on the altitude. Over all I felt pretty good, considering the altitude, for the first 42 miles of the race. At 42 miles I stopped for aid the first time and saw my wife Laura, Daniel’s girlfriend Laura-Gray, and Pam Green. After replenishing water and grabbing a sandwich I started up Columbine. I carried the sandwich with plans to eat it as I rode. I took one bite that I had to spit out, as I was starting to vomit. It was a delicious PB&J on homemade bread. It was horrible, but I had to give it up to the nearest spectator. The climbing to that point was tough but I was maintaining a good pace, so I thought. (I was using a Garmin Forerunner 305 to keep time and distance. Previously, while in Memphis, I had configured the Garmin to “auto-pause” at or below 3.0 mph while in cycling mode. If I were to stop and talk on a ride, that wouldn’t figure in to how long I had ridden.) At Leadville, it was a different story. When you account for the inaccuracies of GPS, and compound that with a slow moving Garmin attached to a slow moving cyclist, time stops, and frequently. Subsequently, at Columbine I thought I was very close to being on pace for a sub 9-hour finish. I quickly discovered my mistake and found I was thirty minutes behind schedule. As I was climbing Columbine, I realized how poor of a climber I really was. The line passing me was steady. Whether it was the hills or the altitude, I still don’t know. It was probably both. After the grueling ascent to the 50 mile turnaround at Columbine mine, I was excited for the ride downhill. At the bottom my hands were numb from the cold. I stopped to see my wife and replenish nutrition and headed out again. At that point I was at mile 58. I didn’t want to ride another minute, let alone see my bike again. That being said, after spending most of the year preparing and making the trip to Leadville, I had not thought of quitting. After riding another two miles, my hands thawed and I began to heat up. At mile 60 I shed my jacket for the first time and rolled down my arm warmers. The course then headed across the valley and back to the base of Powerline climb. From there it’s a long, steep, sometimes rocky climb to the top. At the top of Powerline the course descends to the last long climb up an asphalt rode to the final aid station, 12 miles from the finish. After that aid station it’s downhill until the edge of town. The final blow is an uphill finish approximately 3 miles long. It’s steady and not very steep, but at 97 miles was tiresome. The end result was a finish time of 9:57. I was glad to be finished regardless of failing to ride sub 9 hours. Would I do it again? Yes, the euphoria that comes with finishing the race and reminiscing over parts of the race are priceless. It was a tremendous experience I was blessed to share with the friends I had traveled with there. It was amazingly painful physically and mentally, but the reward is more than worth the effort. Advice for others: Prepare, then make the decision you will finish the race regardless. That decision makes the pain easier to endure. If you haven’t participated in any sort of endurance event, I would recommend doing at least one of those first. I did the Big Frog 65. It was the shorter version of the Cohutta 100. I also did Syallamo’s Revenge. Mentally, the Big Frog 65 was as hard as or harder than Leadville, probably because it was my first endurance event. One thing I didn’t expect was the difficulty in maintaining nutrition. The altitude made eating very difficult. I trained eating a lot of Clif bars. Obviously, it’s best to race eating and drinking what you trained eating and drinking. During the race I was only able to eat one Clif bar. The rest of my nutrition consisted of Hammer Sustained Energy, a banana, some Lay’s potato chips, various brownies, ramen noodle soup (top of Columbine), and Coca-Cola. The name of the game became eating whatever sounded good or whatever I could get down. This may seem like a lot, but over 10 hours it really wasn’t. I would estimate that I spent a total of 5-6 minutes stopped the entire day. Jeff Boyd, 30, Memphis Physician in his last year of Radiology residency Picture this…middle of January, wife 8 months pregnant with our third child, I’m working round-the-clock, and Hart calls me up one day and asks if I want to go on a 100-mile bike ride in the Colorado Rockies. I mean, really…how could I say no? So after I asked my wife for permission (begged, pleaded, bargained away future freedoms), we applied for the race. I was intrigued because the race had gained some notoriety in 2008 after Lance Armstrong did the race as part of his comeback to professional cycling. We knew he was supposed to return in 2009 to try and win after coming in 2nd place in 2008, so of course we wanted to be a part of that. It’s not every day you get to race with a 7-time Tour de France winner. Also, you get a super-cool silver belt buckle for finishing in under 12 hours, and an even bigger gold and silver belt buckle for finishing in under 9 hours! On the out-and back course, there are 3 climbs going outbound: Mile 7 – St. Kevin’s Gulch, 2.2 miles, 800 ft. elevation gain, 6.9% grade; Mile 14 – Sugarloaf Pass, 4.8 miles, 1,200 ft. elevation gain, 4.7% grade; Mile 40 – Columbine mine, 11 miles, 3,300 ft. elevation gain, 5.7% avg. grade (last 8.5 miles runs 7.1% grade). There are 2 climbs going inbound: Mile 80 – Powerline, 2.7 miles, 1,550 ft. elevation gain, 10.9% grade; Mile 86 – St. Kevin’s Gulch, 2.7 miles, 900 ft. elevation gain, 6.3% grade. The rest of the course is basically rolling hills with a few flat sections and some white-knuckle, hold-on-for-dear-life downhill sections for each of the above named climbs. The course is not “technical” in terms of weaving through single-track trails in the woods, but some of the downhills are steep and extremely rocky with deep ruts in some sections. Mix in a little inclement weather and 1,400 of your closest friends…now things become a little more “technical” and good bike handling skills are required to descend safely and quickly. Total elevation gain for the course is approximately 11,500 ft., according to the GPS. Now, the real issues for “flat-landers” like us Memphians are the altitude and hills (sustained climbs lasting up to 11 miles). The race starts at 10,200 ft., peaks at 12,500 ft., and never goes below 9,000 ft. Memphis elevation is approximately 330 ft. As for the athletes represented, it spanned a wide range of ability levels from professional to amateur. The common denominator was an extreme passion for mountain biking and a sadistic willingness to push one’s body to its limits. Training for me was riding whenever I had a free moment; 30-40 miles, 2-3 times during the week, and 50-100 miles on Saturdays (whenever I wasn’t on-call). The biggest challenge was to find hills to train on. I took two weekend trips to ride in Huntsville, AL, with a friend of mine who also did Leadville with us. We road the Big Frog 65 in April, and Syllamo’s Revenge, a 50-mile race, in May. Both of those races were fairly hilly. The only thing we really could not simulate or train for was the altitude. In order to try and acclimatize, we arrived in Colorado about 5 days before the race. I’m not going to lie - this race is HARD. It’s impossible to put into words what your body feels like at the end of this race. Pushing your body to its absolute limit at altitude takes you to a whole new level of pain. This is when your mental toughness has to kick in...when every bit of natural instinct and common sense is telling you to stop. The motto of the race is, “You’re better than you think you are. You can do more than you think you can.” This has to resonate within you because moments of self-doubt are inevitable. This year my race was a little heart-breaking. I trained hard and felt as prepared as possible going into the race. Unfortunately, I suffered two flat tires just after the 50-mile turn-around which cost me precious time. Although I did finish the race, my time was 12 hours, 2 minutes - 2 minutes after the 12-hour cutoff for the trophy belt buckle. In retrospect, I do realize what an accomplishment it is just to finish the race, and I can honestly say that in no way am I disappointed in my effort. That is all part of racing and I accept the fact that sometimes luck, good or bad, can play a role in any race. However, I can say I was quite frustrated with the circumstances of my race. Despite my bad luck I did take away many good lessons from this experience. First, friendship and camaraderie make the whole experience worthwhile. Luckily, I had a great group to train and race with. It’s only fun putting yourself through hell if other people get to share your pain! Second, sometimes things don’t always go your way on race day, for whatever reason. Life is not fair and racing is not fair, but it wouldn’t be worth doing if everything was guaranteed and you didn’t have to work your butt off. That’s part of the challenge. Lastly, I learned that it is only a bike race. There are things in life that really matter and it is important not to lose perspective. Train hard, race hard, have a blast, but don’t forget the things that are truly important in life. Would I do it again? Absolutely! Obviously, one reason is to rectify my bad luck this past year by completing the race under the time limit and earn a belt buckle. The other is simply the epic challenge. Nothing I have attempted to date has challenged me both physically and mentally like the Leadville 100 MTB Race. If my loving and understanding wife will let me attempt the race again, and I can do the required training without compromising my time with my family, then I will definitely be back in Leadville. Advice for others: Ride often...long or short...mountain or road. Just ride. Take several training weekends somewhere that has real hills. Practice for Leadville by doing other 50, 75, or 100 mile MTB races that may not be quite so extreme with regard to altitude and elevation change. This will let you see how your body responds to fatigue and help you plan your hydration and nutrition for the race. This is essential because you don’t want to discover that you need to increase your salt intake when your body is locking up at mile 75, or find that something doesn’t agree with your stomach at mile 50 when you are at 12,500 ft. and no Port-o-John for 11 miles. Check out LeadvilleTrail100.com for information on all of the Leadville Races for 2010! |
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