Leadville 100 Training Camp - night run

On the last day of the training camp, Mike had a night run. That meant that we had the day free to do whatever we wanted. We wanted to make a couple of purchases in town, but since nothing opened until 10am we went in search of a bakery to get some breakfast. It was funny to find that just about 90% of the customers in the little coffee shop were runners in the training camp. We sat down at a table with a group of people and started chatting about the runs. It was funny when I said something about one of the aid stations, and then they all started to figure out who I was. They didn't recognize me without the t-shirt and hat! Hahaha. One girl said, "I was the one waiting for my friends and kept coming back for more sandwiches." Lol, I didn't recognize her either! And then the guy said, "Oh, yeah, I asked if you could cut the crust off my sandwich and you said you couldn't believe you were making sandwiches for grown men when you're always telling your kids to make their own." Hahaha. 

Anyway, we asked if they had any suggestions for the day. We were thinking about driving to Aspen. They said the road was winding and nerve wracking, but a nice drive. We decided to go for it! It was winding, but not too bad. And it was beautiful driving over the pass. We asked some people to take pictures of us at the top. Finally some pictures of the two of us!

Aspen was much smaller than I thought it would be. But it was nice. We had lunch at this really great barbecue place. Mike had a headache, so we skipped walking around the shops and headed back to Leadville.

At 7:30pm we headed over to meet everyone for the nighttime run. Funny story about the guy in yellow who Mike is talking to. He was on the panel Saturday night. Mike started talking about him the next day and called him Fred. I was sure that his name was Bob. The topic came up many times over the next couple of days, and we were both so sure we were right. After Mike finished talking to him and everyone got on the bus to ride over to where they would start their run, I went over and casually asked, "What's your first name again?" To which he answered, "Oh, it's Dave." HA HA HA HA!!! I did actually laugh out loud, and then had to explain. It was really funny.

I rode with the event coordinator, Shannon, who said she would show me that part of the course. She was so nice! Oh! She is actually in that picture of Mike and DAVE! She is the one in the cute skirt and black top.

After driving around and dropping some people off, we went back to town. I went to our room and read for a while and ate some wheat thins since we had a late lunch and skipped dinner.

I went back around 11:30pm to meet Mike. They were running the final 15 miles of the race. In the dark. Mike came in at a good time and looked great.

We went back to our hotel and hiked up to the 3rd floor. And huffed and puffed once we got there. Why did it never get easier? Hahaha.

This is the staircase to the 3rd floor.

We packed up in the morning and checked out. So sad to go! But we were ready to get back home to our kids. It was a long trip, and we missed them! I took some last shots of the hotel:

I told Mike we should buy one of these so we could display my wedding dress.

He laughed :(

The second floor hallway floor, 

and the third floor hallway.



What a great trip. I loved everything about it. It was a true education and so much fun to be with the runners and the volunteers. I'm so glad I went! That bed was really hard though. Ha ha. And there was no air conditioning, so we had to sleep with the window open and a noisy fan blowing. And did I tell you about the bar next door? Ha ha! But we still loved it. :)

On Tuesday morning we headed out before eating breakfast, so I whipped out my Urbanspoon app and found us the cutest place to eat. Go, Urbanspoon!


This is the Butterhorn Bakery & Cafe in Frisco. It was SO GOOD.

And cute!!

Nice sign and murals in the bathroom :)

 I loved the feel of Frisco!

Our flight wasn't until 5pm, but we drove back into Denver in the morning so that we could meet our friends for lunch. Janine is one of my best friends from high school. She lives in the Denver area! And she is married to a guy pretty much like Mike. And he is going to be one of Mike's pacers! So cool. They were able to meet us for lunch so the two guys could meet and Mike could fill Colin in on the race. I hadn't seen Janine in something like 8 years, but that never seems to matter. We're like cut from the same cloth or something. It's just so natural with Janine. I miss her! It's great that we'll see them again in August.

Before heading over to the airport, we stopped by the Denver temple since it was just down the road. And then we went home. The flight was good, but then they had problems towing us in. That took like 30 minutes. We finally got going in our car, but there was major road work on the Whitestone Bridge. It took us 40 minutes to cross it! Instead of getting home close to midnight, we got home after 1am. What a drag. But, oh, how lovely it was to sleep in our own bed!

There's no place like home ...

Leadville 100 Training Camp - running days

Saturday and Sunday were full on running days for Mike. We met at the gym across the street at 6:30am for breakfast. Not a big deal since I was awake at 5:15am! The runners left on buses at 7:30, and I met with the volunteers. There weren't many of them. It was a GOOD thing I came to help. I ended up at the first aid station with a really nice 78-year-old man named John. His son Jay was also running, and he's a CPA like Mike. Jay has run the Leadville 100 five times. It was great to spend so much time with someone who has had experience crewing on the race. He had tons of great advice. 

Once we set up our station, we were waiting a little over an hour for the runners. While waiting, a man and woman came to wait for their runner. The woman turned out to be Kim Jones, one of the best marathon runners in US history. She just wrote a book that sounded really great. It's called Dandelion Growing Wild. I bought it and already read the first chapter. It's good! (that's a picture of her running)

That day of volunteering was so much fun. We made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, cut up bananas & oranges, and refilled water for the runners. We were busy greeting and feeding the runners. They were so grateful and super nice. I loved meeting everyone.

This is the elevation for the race. On this day the runners started at the 

13.5 mile point, and ran to the 39.5 mile point. They stopped just before the hard part.

They started at May Queen, and stopped first at Fish Hatchery (my station).

The times shown are the cutoff times for race day.

The first group of 3 or 4 runners came and went, and then Mike stopped in. I was so excited to see him! He was doing really well.

Once all of the runners had come through, we packed up our stuff and headed over to Twin Lakes to meet our guys. You can see on the map where they ran from Fish Hatchery to Twin Lakes.

The first guy finally came in, and then we waited and waited for more runners. There were about 10 of us waiting, including the co-founder of the race Ken Chlouber. He's a real eccentric guy. Anyway, we were all sitting around when I saw a runner coming down the hill. I said, "Here comes another runner!" And then two seconds later I yelled, "It's Mike!!!" He is so awesome. What a guy.

We asked if Mike could take a picture with Ken. Ken said, "Sure! Now, you gotta look tough." So, Mike is looking tough and Ken is smiling. Such a great shot. Ken started this race something like 25 years ago when they shut down the mines in Leadville. The town was going to die, so he came up with this crazy idea to save the town. And it worked! They have a whole series of races that go on for months.

That night they had a pizza dinner for all of the runners. It was great mingling with everyone. Most of them knew me since I made them sandwiches. Haha. We sat with this one guy who was a total comedian. They could have hired him to do some ultra-runner stand up comedy for the group.

After dinner we went next door to the Tabor Opera House for a panel discussion and Q&A. It was very informative AND funny. What's great is that we mingled with these experts all weekend.

I had to take this picture at the end of the day. Cute.

On the next day, Sunday, we once again started at 6:30am with breakfast. The runners started this day at 39.5 miles, ran to the 50 mile point, and then ran back to the 39.5 mile point. On the day (and night) of the race, they run the full 50 miles and then turn around and run back to the beginning. As you can see, that last section is the toughest part. This day was THE TEST.

They started at Twin Lakes, ran over Hope Pass to Winfield

 (where I was), and back over Hope Pass to Twin Lakes.

This is looking from Winfield over to where I thought Hope Pass is.

It's on the far left, maybe not even showing in this shot.

John and I set up our canopy and stuff,

and waited once again for runners.

It was a little boring since we were mainly a water break aid station. No sandwiches or fruit to take care of. But I got someone to take this great shot of me and John. I don't think I've EVER worn a cap on my head, and it's been something like 10 years since I've worn a t-shirt. Mike said he didn't recognize me. Haha!

We still had fun though. As the runners came in I would clap and yell, "Looking good!" That always made them smile. And then I would ask, "Are you feeling good?" (not gramatically correct, but i don't think they noticed.) John would say, "Out of all the runners, you're the most recent one to get here." Yeah, they loved us. One guy asked if he could have some of my pretzels. Now THAT was funny. Of course I shared with him. :)

And here comes Mike!

He didn't come in 2nd, but he was in probably the 3rd group or so to finish. He said it was really tough, and he was wiped out. But he did it! He was a little off mentally the rest of the day which I think was a bit of a preview for the real race. It's insane.

Tomorrow is the night run. Should be fun!

Leadville 100 Training Camp - a day in town

We arrived at the Delaware Hotel in Leadville around 10:30pm Thursday night, and hiked up the stairs to the third floor with our luggage and stuff and just about died. Mike and I were both out of breath because of the altitude. It was crazy! We pretty much crashed as soon as we got settled.

The Delaware Hotel

The Lobby - All of it is so much more impressive than the pictures online.

Our cute room

The only planned thing with the training camp that day was to check in and pick up your number and packet. I think Mike got some good stuff!

It was so great to be at the Delaware Hotel right on the main street in town. We spent the entire day walking around town. It was so great! There are lots of little stores and places to eat.

This is a picture of Leadville in 1904.

We had the best time exploring Leadville. LOTS of walking! For dinner, we decided to walk a mile down off the main road to a Mexican restaurant. It was a great walk, and we saw lots of cute houses along the way.

As soon as we sat down at the restaurant, I could literally feel my skin burning. Yikes! Just from that one mile walk, I got a good burn on my chest. I normally have a tough time with the sun - hives, dizziness, nauseous. All of that is like 95% of the time I am out in the sun and don't use sunscreen, so I try to be careful. This time was different. As soon as we started walking back, I had the hardest time breathing. It was a little scary. It was like I was having an asthma attack. It took some time to get back as I had to stop so often to catch my breath. It had to have been from the sun exposure. 

Mike wanted a treat, so we stopped at Cookies with Altitude. :)

And that was our day! It was a good one.