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| 2023 Team First Descents Leadville |
This was my 16th Leadville 100. My Leadville career is now old enough to earn a driver’s license. My buckles are all in a box in my closet. Time for another one.
Trained a little harder this year. A little. The memories of last year’s sufferfest were enough to kick me into gear back in January. So I followed a few Peloton powerzone programs through the winter and was in fairly decent riding shape when the snow finally melted in late April. Didn’t do many long training rides in the lead-up to Leadville . . . the longest being the Silver Rush 50 in mid-July. I also mainly stuck with endurance pace despite vowing to do intervals into the summer. Oh well. At least I’m playing great golf.
Team FD had 22 riders this year, but no good friends. So I kind of went through the motions the week of the race. The big bright spot again this year was the massive financial support of my friends and family. As of the date of this narrative, contributions on my fundraising page exceed $120,000 for the year and the team has raised over $250,000. Great stuff.
Race day. Up at 4:30am, nuked some blueberry pancakes, and was out the door by 4:45am. Arrived in Leadville at 5:35 and staged at the Delaney’s on 7th street. To the orange corral at 6:15 and off at 6:40 under cool cloudy skies. I threw down a finish time of 10:52 last year and figured that my fitness this year was about 30 minutes faster.
Smooth pace down the pavement to Leadville Junction. A week before the race, I switched my front cog from a 32-tooth to a 28-tooth as a surrender to age. This meant better spinning up the steep stuff, but less top-end speed on the descents. I noticed this immediately on the initial pavement descent as I had to spin ferociously to keep my speed up with the pace of traffic.
Kept a smooth pace on the dirt and hit the St. Kevin’s climb with no stress. Loved my new 28 on the steeper sections and felt great all the way to Carter Summit . . . which I hit at about 57 minutes.
Chugged half a bottle of fluids on the way down the Kevin’s pavement. Speaking of bottles, this was the first time I have chosen to forego a Camelbak and just go with two bottles. My plan was to simply carry some powders and refill the bottles with water at each of the aid stations. With no major time goals, I didn’t care if I spent a few extra minutes filling bottles. It was worth not having that weight on my back and shoulders.
Continued feeling great all the way up Sugarloaf and even passed a bunch of people on the Haggeman Road portion. Summited Sugarloaf at 1:45. Fun descent down the Powerline. Kept it conservative while several guys blew by me.
Found a paceline on the road around Fish Hatchery and hit Pipeline at 2:20. Refilled a bottle and continued on. Started feeling my first leg weariness in the Pipeline and scaled it back a bit to save myself for Columbine.
Hit the FD Aid Station at Twin Lakes at 3:10 and was in a great mood. I was 10 minutes ahead of 2022 pace, I felt neither strong, nor weak, and I was really enjoying the cool weather. Plus it was always great to see Lisa, Kevin Kane and the rest of the aid station gang for a few minutes.
As I headed up the first climb out of the Twin Lakes aid station, I was thinking that sub-10 was a possibility at my current pace. Then the race leader, Keegan Swenson, passed me going the other way just 10 minutes out of Twin Lakes. That was a bit ego-crushing. I used to make it deep into the switchbacks on the Columbine climb before that happened.
Several more leaders passed me well before I even got out of the valley to the actual climb. Ouch. Then I hit the first steep part of the climb and my legs just weren’t there. They didn’t hurt, but there was just no juice to sustain anything more than a slow spin. So I just settled in as dozens of riders passed me and grinded my way up through the switchbacks. It took me 1:40 just to reach the Goat Trail. In my sub-9 years, I was at the top in 1:40.
Reached the top in 2:15 after 35 minutes of riding and hiking. This was my slowest Columbine climb since my first year in 2007. Oh well. I was still loving the weather and the fact that I didn’t cramp on the hike-a-bike for only the second time ever.
45 minutes to the bottom and rolled back into the FD aid station at Twin Lakes still feeling relaxed and generally pretty pleased with how the day was going. A few high fives, a hug and kiss for Lisa, and it was off on the home-stretch. I knew I could try to still turn myself inside-out for a sub-10 finish, but that would require a sub-9 pace for the last 45 miles and I just wasn’t up for it. So I pretty much knew leaving Twin Lakes that it would take about 4 hours to get home, thus putting me in at around a 10:15 finish time.
Hit Pipeline Aid at 7:15 after very uneventful trip through the Pipeline. Had my tunes cranked on my speaker and was just happily pedaling and singing along.
On the road between Pipeline and Powerline, the winds kicked up and the clouds suddenly let loose with a torrent of rain. I threw on my raincoat and just kept pedaling along to the beat of my music. This beat sunny and 80+ degrees any day!
While quickly going to the bathroom at the base of Powerline, fellow FD rider Austin Mayeux passed me as I was getting back on my bike. This was the exact same spot where my buddy Mike Fitzgerald caught me in 2022. I rode Austin’s wheel to the base of the hike-a-bike and told him that we “were going to finish strong.” This was Austin’s 2nd LT100 and he was already a good hour ahead of his 2022 pace. Got a nice fist-bump from Matt Delaney on the hike.
Austin took my wheel at the top of the hike-a-bike and that gave me the incentive to show what an old man can still do as I led him to the top of the Powerline without putting a foot down again. This was the first time I had done that since 2016 and my Powerline climb time for 2023 actually matched my 2016 time.
We bombed down Sugarloaf and around the bottom of Turquoise Lake and then started up St. Kevin’s pavement. The effort up Powerline had taken a lot of my legs and I figured Austin would shoot up ahead of me. Sure enough, as happens every year, I found some reserves on the climb and Austin and I were able to keep a great pace, passing some dozen riders, reaching Carter Summit Aid at about 9:20.
I chugged a few cups of Coke, inhaled a few pieces of watermelon, and then we were off to see the finish. No issues through the approach to the St. Kevin’s summit, though I walked the last steep section while Austin rode it. Did a fairly controlled descent down St. Kevin’s dirt and smiled when it flattened out as I had survived yet another LT100 without injury or crash.
Hit Leadville Junction at 9:50 and knew that 10:15 was going to be the number. Unfortunately, I derailed that target by a couple minutes as I had been holding my bladder for about 30 minutes and, upon reaching the bottom of the Boulevard, I simply couldn’t hold it any more. I told Austin to continue ahead and I would try to catch him.
After remounting my bike, I tried to close the gap to Austin, but with a 2-minute head start, that proved to be too tough a task as he crossed the line about 30 seconds ahead of me. My final time was 10:16. I felt the usual exhaustion, but significantly better than I felt in 2022.
All in all it was a really fun day on the bike. I never turned myself inside out, I talked to fellow riders on the course, I enjoyed the hell out of the weather, and I felt my usual gratification when I got that big old hug and finisher’s medal from Merilee at the finish line. I told her that one day every year, she was my favorite woman in the world!
That’s buckle number 16 on my way to 20. There is a chance that two of my local buddies will do Leadville with me next year. If so, then maybe I will train a bit harder next year and try to return to the form of 5-6 years ago. Or maybe not.
Note: my good buddy Jeff Hoffman’s son Kelly was racing for the second time this year. Even with a broken seat-post, the kid threw down an astonishing time of 7:15. Youth . . .
