本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛First of all, I would like to extend my biggest appreciation to fitforfun. Without her hospitality, dedication and professional crew, there is simply no way for me to enjoy the race weekend nor to finish the race at ease.
There is a crew behind every succeful ultra runner. Most crew have a team of a few people. One of the team has 6 people. fitforfun is double crewing for me and whx all by herself. What's more, after crewing for 24 hours she even turned into a pacer at 3am and walked/ran for another 5 hours! Here is from her facebook update:
"Last night after I dropped my last runner off at the airport, my brain told my body that my job was done and the body completely shut itself off while I was driving home. It was miracle that I did not drive the car off road or into another car. Pulled over twice and fell sleep right away not knowing where I was. Well, I did not even know where I was even when I was driving. That driving experience was completely one of its kind. That's what happened after a stressful and sleepless weekend."
Hat off to my awesome ironwoman crew!
Here is an iteration of the race weekend. It might read a bit boring to most
people. I found writing them down quite intriguing. It's like going over
the weekend again.
8/18 Thursday
Took an 8 hour flight from NYC to Denver with 3 hour connection at Cleveland
. Fortunately, the waiting area and restaurant in Cleveland airport are
quite nice. I was able to relax a bit from the the intensive week at work
and had a nice burrito dinner. I even thought about checking out the rock
and roll hall of fame right next to the airport but gave up the idea.
I left office 12:30pm for the airport. By the time I arrived at fitforfun's
house, it's already 9:30pm (which is 11:30pm NYC time). It's quite a trip!
And I was tired. A quick shower and fell asleep without any problem. It was
such a nice long sleep I highly needed for the big race.
8/19 Friday
Departure from Denver at 6am for Leadville. When we passed Eisenhower Tunnel
on I-70, I could really felt that the breathing getting tough and heart
rate going up. With a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft, Eisenhower Tunnel is
the highest vehicular tunnel in North America and the longest tunnel built
under the Interstate program, passes through the Continental Divide.
Leadville was a declining mining town sitting at 11,200ft, but the LT100
races saved the place. You can feel the vibe of the race when you get to the
main street, Harrison Ave. Most building were built during second half of
19th century. A lot of outdoor shops are occupying them now.
By the time we got to the town at 8:15am, whx was already waiting there.
After I checked and weighted in (146lb), carb loading officially started.
Kicked off with a few whole wheat bagels, fitforfun's homemade marinated egg
and some gatorade, which I don't drink even for a long run. Marinated egg
was the hightlight of first round carb loading
Then it's the pre race brief. It's more about motivating runners than the race
details and there was a lot of transitional stuff since the race was sold to
a commercial entity this year. I didn't really need them to motivate me. I
have been preparing and giving up a lot for this race. I have enough
motivation already. But there was still some good points to remember:
1. Pain is weakness leaving the body.
2. You are better than you think you are.
3. Don't worry if you vomit. Eat some more.
4. Finish, and it will hurt for no more than 30 hours. If you quit, the pain
will haunt you forever.
5. We will not quit.
After the briefing, it came second round of carb loading. Chinese restaurant
is indeed everywhere. It's truly amazing to see one in the highest town in
America. It's called Szechuan Taste. The food was expectedly so so. But whx
got to have some white rice, which is his carb loading staple.
While whx was busying preparing for his drop bag. I couldn't held myself and
tried to run around the neighborhood. Just a few hundred feet jog, it felt
like running 7min pace up on the harlem hill in the central park, hard
breathing, fast heart rate. I was a little panic at this point and started
to worry about the race perspective. Altitude is no joke.
Then we headed to our hotel 30 minutes away at Red Cliff, which is exactly
the same name as the famous battle location in Romance of the Three Kingdoms
. And the geographic layout of the town very much resemble my imagination of
Red Cliff. A wonderful choice! The hotel is very nice as well. They have
free homemade cookie at the front desk. I grabbed more than half a dozen to
appetize third round of carb loading.
After settled in, we were off to an American bar for the last meal before
early sleep. I was quite happy with my grill chicken burger. It was so much
better than crappy Chinese food we had earlier. I was so full at this point
and I felt my belly would blow up. Unfortunately whx didn't get his white
rice there.
It's either because of the big meals or the high altitude. I felt asleep
soon after we return to the hotel in spite of that whx and fitforfun was
chatting and organizing. I slept from 6pm all the way till 1am. That was
great for a race starting at 4am. It was only the next day I learnt that
there were two big thunderstorms overnight. Again, big thanks to fitforfun
for giving beds to two of us and slept on the floor instead!
8/20 Saturday
Got up at 2:15am as planned. whx seemed to be a little nervous, shuffling
around arranging his stuff. I was surprisingly calm. Dressed up and put my
things in order. Two cliff bar and a marinated egg as breakfast on our way
to Leadville. Because of the overnight rain, there was a big fog. I was
praying that it won't be raining during the day.
It was pretty cold at the start line, 37 degree plus wind. While whx rushed
to porta john for the second time in the morning, I didn't feel any urge and
hided at the street corner to avoid the wind gust. Got to chat with a grand
slam veteran and he strongly advise me starting slow and not getting too
excited by other runners around me.
4am starting gun fired and we were off to the big day.
(Detailed race report in a separate essay.)
Gun Time: 26:00:45
Chip Time: 25:56:09
Checkpoint Name | Time of Day | Interval Time | Total Time
1 May Queen Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 06:38:22.652 | 02:38:22.982 | 02:38:22.
982
2 Fish Hatchery Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 08:40:43.126 | 02:02:20.474 | 04:40:
43.456
3 Half Pipe Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 10:14:52.813 | 01:34:09.687 | 06:14:53.
143
4 Twin Lakes Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 12:28:43.161 | 02:13:50.348 | 08:28:43.
491
5 Winfield | 2011-08-20 | 16:50:48.940 | 04:22:05.779 | 12:50:49.270
6 Twin Lakes Inbound | 2011-08-20 | 20:13:10.539 | 03:22:21.599 | 16:13:10.
869
7 Half Pipe Inbound | 2011-08-20 | 22:40:45.200 | 02:27:34.661 | 18:40:45.
530
8 Fish Hatchery Inbound | 2011-08-21 | 00:13:09.375 | 01:32:24.175 | 20:13:
09.705
9 May Queen Inbound | 2011-08-21 | 02:51:35.296 | 02:38:25.921 | 22:51:35.
626
10 To Finish | 2011-08-21 | 06:00:45.364 | 03:09:10.068 | 26:00:45.694
"Ken (Chlouber, Leadville 100 founder) had never run a marathon himself, but
if some California hippie (Gordy Ainsleigh, Western States 100 founder)
could go one hundred miles, how hard could it be? Besides, a normal race
wouldn't cut it; if (the town of) Leadville was going to survive, it needed
an event with serious holy-shit power, something to set it apart from all
the identical, ho-hum, done-one-done-'em-all 26.2 milers out there. So
instead of a marathon, Ken created a monster. To get a sense of what he came
up with, try running the Boston Marathon two times in a row with a sock
stuffed in your mouth and then hike to the top of Pikes Peak. Done? Great.
Now do it all again, this time with your eyes closed. That's pretty much
what the Leadville Trail 100 boils down to."
--Born to Run
1. Start 0 to Mayqueen 13.5m - 13.5m, 2hrs38m
4am, starting gun fired and we were off to the big day. I took the advice
from the grand slam veteran and started very slow together with whx. We
walked over the start line and started at 12min pace. whx said we should
come back run this section at the same pace. I agreed. Tons of runners
passed by us and we were almost at the very end of the pack.
1 mile on the paved road, the course switched to the trail. A lot of people
already started run/walk mix. whx and I shuffled along. We originally
planned to stick together as far as we can. It seems a bit unrealistic for a
race like this. About 4 miles into the race, natural called and I jumped
into the woods for a pit stop. Here was the last time I saw whx before I saw
him again at the other side of the Hope Pass about 12 hours later.
It's quite a relief to run without the heavy load from the carb loading
prior day, felt much lighter. The course became single track around
Turquoise Lake. My pants were below my waistline for the second time of the
day, which slowed me quite a bit. The trail was really crowded. It was
difficult to pass people and I had to follow some very slow runners. Some
people were very mean. They would just block the trail and wouldn't let you
pass! I was really pissed by one guy who intentionally shouldered at me when
I passed him. I guess that's the drawback of starting too slow.
My hydration and nutrition was mainly based on two bottles (22oz each). I
started with one bottle of Hammer Perpetuem (3 scoops, 400 cal) and one
bottle of gaterode (about 120 cal). The plan was to drink another bottle of
HP (400 cal) and eat some real food at every aid station. So this way I can
take down about 1000 cal for every aid station. Soon after I started, I
realized that gaterode was too sweet and tastes disgusting. It might also
give me side stitches problem. 3 scoops of HP per bottle was also a bit heavy.
But I do really like the taste of HP caffe late flavor. It tastes like
chocolate soy milk. So by the time I got to Mayqueen, I told fitforfun that
we were changing the game plan. No more gaterode. I would carry two bottle
of HP with 2 scoops each bottle. That still gave me 540 cal to go. And I
will drink as much HP as I can at every aid station. The plan worked well
for rest of the race.
In the race guide, the organizer said there will be GU gel available at
every aid station. Unfortunately, there wasn't any! They only have GU Chopms
, which tastes disgusting. But I have no choice, grabed four packs to go. So
I was out of Mayqueen aid station in less than 2 minutes after stuffing
some boiled potatoes and 3/4 bottle of HP down the throat.
Took of the headlight, skull cap and long sleeve shirt. Put on visor and
sunglass clip, I was good to go.
2. Mayqueen 13.5m to Fish Hatchery 23.5m - 10m, 2hrs02m
The course turned to Colorado Trail with some rolling hills. The trail was
quite technical. I started to pick up the pace a little bit and passed a few
people.
Once out of the technical trail, it came the first big climb of the day, up
to the Sugarloaf pass at 11,000ft. I ran/powerwalked most of the way uphill.
It felt great to be standing at the top of the pass. The sun was up and
warm. Turquoise Lake was at the back covered with fog. A big downhill at
powerline was ahead of you. And Grand Colorado fields and mountains was
covered with bright morning sunshine.
5 miles of powerline descend was very pleasant. Didn't push very hard as
trying to save the quad for later. I always tried to remember some unique
geographic shape or maker along the way as I will have to climb the exact
same hill back later in the night.
I popped some GU chomp to refuel and tried to swallow them without chowing.
Eating sugar could be so little fun!
Cruised into the FH aid station and grabbed HP drink from fitforfun. Boiled
potatoes were all gone. I grabbed some ham wrap. There was some cream in
there. I know it a bit risky but I ate them anyway with my HP. Until this
point, I hadn't craved for any salty food. So I think my electrolyte was ok.
3. Fish Hatchery 23.5m to Half Pipe 30m - 6.5m, 1hr34m
2 miles out of FH was mainly on the paved road. The heat was picking up and
there was no shade. I ran at 9min pace. When I left FH, I also grabbed a
cliff bar from fitforfun. I usually love cliff bar. But it was tough to
swallow them while running.
Soon enough, my stomach was complaining about the mix of solid cliff bar and
the cream from the ham warp. My pants dropped below the waistline third time
of the day! No big woods to cover this time! Whatever, I don't care now.
There was another crew access point at about 28 miles called Half Moon. I
got a bottle of iced HP from fitforfun. It tastes so good as I was thirsty
and just emptied my stomach. So I finished the entire bottle. That was a
huge mistake!
As soon as I started jogging, the waters start to swing in my belly and I
was so full! Had to walk all the way to Half Pipe and a bit further. Tried
to drink some coke at Half Pipe to help with the digestion and it helped a
bit.
4. Half Pipe 30m to Twin Lakes 39.5m - 9.5m, 2hr13m
The stomach issue lingered for a while after the Half Pipe and I felt better
after probably 32miles and started to pick up the pace again.
This section involves a climb onto the Mt Elbert trail head and then
downhill to Twin Lake. It's a shaded trail and not so technical. So it's
quite runnable.
When I was getting closer to the Twin Lake, it's another stunning view: A
big lake down there and the Hope Pass was not further away. You can hear the
spectators screaming down there. That gave people a big boost to rush
downhill. I was still very careful on the downhill and didn't want to trash
my quad too early.
There was a big slope when entering the Twin Lake aid station. It's a grand
entrance for some people, but maybe a grand shame for some others. It's so
steep that a lot of people fell there.
I hadn't sit down since the race started. So I zipped through the aid
station and took a quick break on fitforfun's chair before attacking the big
monster, Hope Pass!
5. Twin lakes 39.5m to Winfield 50m - 10.5m, 4hrs22m
Before the climb, runners had to go through a few major ponds and a river.
The water was freezing but it didn't give me much trouble as I've trained in
melting snow in Bear Mountain in the winter. Actually I dipped my leg in
the river for a few seconds to cool of the legs a bit.
The hope pass was visible from the twin lakes, but when you stand beneath it
, it's just a huge mountain in front of you and there is no sign of the pass
. So I kept wondering where it is.
The climb started in no time. Most people have hiking poles in their hands
for the hike. For me, I just used my hands to support my core and pushed up
and forward step by step. It was tough. The higher you go, the air became
thinner. I pushed but not to the level that I had to stop to catch the
breathe. I probably sweated most during this climb for the entire race.
At this time, elites were already coming down the mountain. The only times I
stopped on the climb was to give them the way.
The first stage of climb was over sooner than I expected. Out of the woods,
above the tree line, an aid station popped up. It's the hopeless aid station
. It's quite surreal to see so many llamas scattered around eating grass.
Llamas were used to carry the equipment up to the pass. And water provided
in the station was filtered from melting snow.
I drank a few cups of coke, filled some water and ready to attacked last
quarter of climb.
The view was stunning at the top of the pass. South side is a big deep
valley, north side is the beautiful twin lakes and Mt Elbert. This is
the highest mountain I've ever climbed in the US. But the clock was ticking,
didn't have too much time to enjoy the view.
Descend was actually a bit more difficult than the ascend. The south side of
the pass was much steeper. Plus, some mean runners wouldn't give the way to
those who were running downhill. It became quite dangerous at some point on
the narrow single path. My shoes didn't have very strong grip either.
So it took a while to get to the bottom of the hill. I saw whx again there.
He was definitely in a good shape.
Another 1.5 mile uphill cruise into Winfield. Got weighted, only dropped 1lb, hydration was working well. 25hour finish became almost
impossible. So I took my time at the aid station, drank two cups of Ramon
noodle soup, which refilled much needed salt into my body.
whx suggested me changing to trail shoes. I was quite confident with my
racing flats, so I stick with them.
6. Winfield to Twin Lakes - 10.5m, 3hr22m
When I left Winfield, it started drizzling a little bit. I put on my long
sleeves shirt just in case the weather got crazy at the top. I also dropped
off my garmin watch, visor, and sunglass to get ready for the night run.
The climb back onto the Hope Pass was surprisingly good. Maybe the salt from
the noodle helped a lot. Three pit stops deprived a lot of electrolyte from
the body and HP doesn't have a high contraction of electrolyte.
I passed a ton of people on the hike up. At this point, most of the runners
were very understanding and gave me the way when I passed them.
When I topped Hope Pass again, my legs were super fresh, now it's time to
fly down the hill, which I hadn't done for the entire race so far.
I passed through the Hopeless aid station, drank another two cups of noodle
and started to run at 8min pace down the hill. I was amazed by myself at
this fast speed downhill. I cut the time by 1 hour than earlier climb!
By the time I reached the bottom, I started to do the math, maybe 25 hour
buckle was still possible if I ran the rest 40 miles at the same speed as
the first 40 miles!
Sprint into the aid station. fitforfun helped me change to a pair of new
socks and shoes. Another two cups of noodle down the throat, I was ready to
chase the clock!
7. Twin lakes to Half Pipe - 9.5m, 2hr27m
When I exited Twin lakes, it's already totally dark. So the game was quite
simple, chasing all the head light ahead of me. Out of Twin lakes, it was 5
miles of long uphills, not as steep as Hope Pass, but still quite tough. I
even manged to run some uphills.
I cruised to Half Pipe in no time. Again passed through the Half Pipe with a
cup of noodle soup. A lot of runners were laying there trying to recover.
They gave me a lot of encouragement when I ran out.
8. Half Pipe to Fish Hatchery - 6.5m, 1hr32m
Met fitforfun at Half Moon. Told her my plan that I wanted to cut aid
station time as much as possible. She's totally on board with me.
When I left Half Moon, people were screaming "You are looking great". I
believed so too as I was on 8min pace.
There was not much thoughts in my mind at this point anymore. Just keep
moving forward and doing the math on time.
Again at Fish Hachery, zip through with a cup of noodle soup.
9. Fish Hachery to Mayqueen - 10m, 2hr38m
This was the toughest leg in the race for me. I was chasing the clock but I
had to hike to a 11,000ft peak in 4 miles. It's all dark and I was all by
myself. The powerline above the head was sending out weird buzzing sound. I
could care less about them and push forward.
On the way up, there were a lot of false summits as well. It was more
hopeless than Hope Pass.
On the descend from Sugarloaf, I saw whx again. He seemed to be in a lot of
pain. I was pushing the downhill at 9min pace. He managed to tag along until
we hit the very technical section of the Colorado Trails. Sorry buddy, I
had to leave you there.
When I arrived at Mayqueen, I have 2hrs10m to go for 25hour finish. It's
definitely possible if I just ran a mediocre half marathon.
I only finished one bottle of PH in this leg. So I dropped the empty bottle
to fitforfun and ran out with one bottle in hand. fitforfun found a pacer
for me. But I did't think it's gonna be of much help as I was pushing a fast
pace and I didn't have breathe to get familiar with the guy. whx could use
more help with a pacer.
So I was out of Mayqueen at 7min pace on the paved section.
10. Mayqueen to finish - 13.5m, 3hr09m
The trail around Turquoise Lake was well marked with glowing stick initially
. Even though it's quite technical, my pace didn't drop much.
By the time I got to boat ramp, there was 7 miles to go and I have 70
minutes left. It's still promising given that trails would be easier later.
All of a sudden there was no more glowing stick after boat ramp. I was totally lost.
I even yelled some f words loudly in the wood, probably waked a few campers
there. The more frustrating you are, the more likely you got lost in a
trail. That's what happened to me.
I lost about 10 minutes in the woods trying to find the trail until I saw
another runner coming up. The big buckle is still possible, if I run 8 min
pace rest of way, I told myself.
But it's getting very cold 4am in the morning. I hadn't ran for the last 10
minutes, my body temperature dropped significantly. When I hit another
technical descend, my quad finally gave up and it's tough even to walk
downhill.
Back to the wider trail, it's a steady climbing. The time was slipping away
and it was freezing. So my race officially ended at about 95 miles.
A pacer catched up with another runner and saved my day. He lent me his
jacket for rest of the run. It turns out he was the pacer fitforfun
originally located for me.
Pretty much walked rest of the 5 miles to the finish line except a few
hundred yard sprint uphill to the finish line, exactly at 6am. Didn't really felt sleepy at all.
I went into the medical tent simply because it's much warmer in there and I
can lay down in a sleeping bag for a bit rest. Took a nap for about an hour
and I was up looking for food. The chicken noodle soup was really good and I
finished three cups.
After the food, I felt re-energized and walked around outside the medical tent as the sun came out and it got a bit warmer. The only complaint from my body was actually not from the legs. It was the non-stop hiccups! I guess my lungs was complaining. 26 hours of running in the thin air was tough on the them no less than the legs.
8am, whx still hadn't returned. I started to worry a bit and went out to the
finish line to check out. Only 10 minutes wait, I finally saw whx walking
to the finish line with fitforfun. That's was epic, especially him crippling
and walking with a wood stick in hand.
Helped whx into the medical tent and took off his shoes and socks. That
was brutal. Probably 8 out of 10 nails turned black. Big blisters between toes
and under the foot. Left shin swollen like a big bum. The doctors there wasn
't of much help other than advising him rest and took a few tylenol. He told
us that we were the first two Chinese he ever saw at the race. I wasn't
sure if I should be proud for that.
While whx was resting in the medical tent, I was off to a local hotel for a
shower. I was really craving for some real food after the shower. A big real
cheese burger was preferred but decided on some pizza, which I hadn't eaten
for a very long time.
Then it's the award ceremony. Nothing special except to learn that the woman
winner Lynette Clemons just had a baby three month ago. Truly tough woman.
I was wondering if she breast fed her baby on the course as she mentioned
that the baby was a part of the crew.
The trip from Leadville back to Denver airport was quite a bit of race
itself. There was heavy traffic on I-70. fitforfun was "racing" pretty fast
once we got out of traffic in Denver and I got to the airport about an hour
before the flight took off.
By the time I got home in NYC 1:40am, it just felt surreal. The whole race
already felt like a while ago. There wasn't any pain in my legs, just some
soreness like after a marathon race. Maybe I didn't push hard enough, quite
pitty.
8/22 Monday
I held myself and didn't run to work today. Had one hour 2500 yard recovery
swim druing lunch break and felt fresh.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
There is a crew behind every succeful ultra runner. Most crew have a team of a few people. One of the team has 6 people. fitforfun is double crewing for me and whx all by herself. What's more, after crewing for 24 hours she even turned into a pacer at 3am and walked/ran for another 5 hours! Here is from her facebook update:
"Last night after I dropped my last runner off at the airport, my brain told my body that my job was done and the body completely shut itself off while I was driving home. It was miracle that I did not drive the car off road or into another car. Pulled over twice and fell sleep right away not knowing where I was. Well, I did not even know where I was even when I was driving. That driving experience was completely one of its kind. That's what happened after a stressful and sleepless weekend."
Hat off to my awesome ironwoman crew!
Here is an iteration of the race weekend. It might read a bit boring to most
people. I found writing them down quite intriguing. It's like going over
the weekend again.
8/18 Thursday
Took an 8 hour flight from NYC to Denver with 3 hour connection at Cleveland
. Fortunately, the waiting area and restaurant in Cleveland airport are
quite nice. I was able to relax a bit from the the intensive week at work
and had a nice burrito dinner. I even thought about checking out the rock
and roll hall of fame right next to the airport but gave up the idea.
I left office 12:30pm for the airport. By the time I arrived at fitforfun's
house, it's already 9:30pm (which is 11:30pm NYC time). It's quite a trip!
And I was tired. A quick shower and fell asleep without any problem. It was
such a nice long sleep I highly needed for the big race.
8/19 Friday
Departure from Denver at 6am for Leadville. When we passed Eisenhower Tunnel
on I-70, I could really felt that the breathing getting tough and heart
rate going up. With a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft, Eisenhower Tunnel is
the highest vehicular tunnel in North America and the longest tunnel built
under the Interstate program, passes through the Continental Divide.
Leadville was a declining mining town sitting at 11,200ft, but the LT100
races saved the place. You can feel the vibe of the race when you get to the
main street, Harrison Ave. Most building were built during second half of
19th century. A lot of outdoor shops are occupying them now.
By the time we got to the town at 8:15am, whx was already waiting there.
After I checked and weighted in (146lb), carb loading officially started.
Kicked off with a few whole wheat bagels, fitforfun's homemade marinated egg
and some gatorade, which I don't drink even for a long run. Marinated egg
was the hightlight of first round carb loading
Then it's the pre race brief. It's more about motivating runners than the race
details and there was a lot of transitional stuff since the race was sold to
a commercial entity this year. I didn't really need them to motivate me. I
have been preparing and giving up a lot for this race. I have enough
motivation already. But there was still some good points to remember:
1. Pain is weakness leaving the body.
2. You are better than you think you are.
3. Don't worry if you vomit. Eat some more.
4. Finish, and it will hurt for no more than 30 hours. If you quit, the pain
will haunt you forever.
5. We will not quit.
After the briefing, it came second round of carb loading. Chinese restaurant
is indeed everywhere. It's truly amazing to see one in the highest town in
America. It's called Szechuan Taste. The food was expectedly so so. But whx
got to have some white rice, which is his carb loading staple.
While whx was busying preparing for his drop bag. I couldn't held myself and
tried to run around the neighborhood. Just a few hundred feet jog, it felt
like running 7min pace up on the harlem hill in the central park, hard
breathing, fast heart rate. I was a little panic at this point and started
to worry about the race perspective. Altitude is no joke.
Then we headed to our hotel 30 minutes away at Red Cliff, which is exactly
the same name as the famous battle location in Romance of the Three Kingdoms
. And the geographic layout of the town very much resemble my imagination of
Red Cliff. A wonderful choice! The hotel is very nice as well. They have
free homemade cookie at the front desk. I grabbed more than half a dozen to
appetize third round of carb loading.
After settled in, we were off to an American bar for the last meal before
early sleep. I was quite happy with my grill chicken burger. It was so much
better than crappy Chinese food we had earlier. I was so full at this point
and I felt my belly would blow up. Unfortunately whx didn't get his white
rice there.
It's either because of the big meals or the high altitude. I felt asleep
soon after we return to the hotel in spite of that whx and fitforfun was
chatting and organizing. I slept from 6pm all the way till 1am. That was
great for a race starting at 4am. It was only the next day I learnt that
there were two big thunderstorms overnight. Again, big thanks to fitforfun
for giving beds to two of us and slept on the floor instead!
8/20 Saturday
Got up at 2:15am as planned. whx seemed to be a little nervous, shuffling
around arranging his stuff. I was surprisingly calm. Dressed up and put my
things in order. Two cliff bar and a marinated egg as breakfast on our way
to Leadville. Because of the overnight rain, there was a big fog. I was
praying that it won't be raining during the day.
It was pretty cold at the start line, 37 degree plus wind. While whx rushed
to porta john for the second time in the morning, I didn't feel any urge and
hided at the street corner to avoid the wind gust. Got to chat with a grand
slam veteran and he strongly advise me starting slow and not getting too
excited by other runners around me.
4am starting gun fired and we were off to the big day.
(Detailed race report in a separate essay.)
Gun Time: 26:00:45
Chip Time: 25:56:09
Checkpoint Name | Time of Day | Interval Time | Total Time
1 May Queen Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 06:38:22.652 | 02:38:22.982 | 02:38:22.
982
2 Fish Hatchery Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 08:40:43.126 | 02:02:20.474 | 04:40:
43.456
3 Half Pipe Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 10:14:52.813 | 01:34:09.687 | 06:14:53.
143
4 Twin Lakes Outbound | 2011-08-20 | 12:28:43.161 | 02:13:50.348 | 08:28:43.
491
5 Winfield | 2011-08-20 | 16:50:48.940 | 04:22:05.779 | 12:50:49.270
6 Twin Lakes Inbound | 2011-08-20 | 20:13:10.539 | 03:22:21.599 | 16:13:10.
869
7 Half Pipe Inbound | 2011-08-20 | 22:40:45.200 | 02:27:34.661 | 18:40:45.
530
8 Fish Hatchery Inbound | 2011-08-21 | 00:13:09.375 | 01:32:24.175 | 20:13:
09.705
9 May Queen Inbound | 2011-08-21 | 02:51:35.296 | 02:38:25.921 | 22:51:35.
626
10 To Finish | 2011-08-21 | 06:00:45.364 | 03:09:10.068 | 26:00:45.694
"Ken (Chlouber, Leadville 100 founder) had never run a marathon himself, but
if some California hippie (Gordy Ainsleigh, Western States 100 founder)
could go one hundred miles, how hard could it be? Besides, a normal race
wouldn't cut it; if (the town of) Leadville was going to survive, it needed
an event with serious holy-shit power, something to set it apart from all
the identical, ho-hum, done-one-done-'em-all 26.2 milers out there. So
instead of a marathon, Ken created a monster. To get a sense of what he came
up with, try running the Boston Marathon two times in a row with a sock
stuffed in your mouth and then hike to the top of Pikes Peak. Done? Great.
Now do it all again, this time with your eyes closed. That's pretty much
what the Leadville Trail 100 boils down to."
--Born to Run
1. Start 0 to Mayqueen 13.5m - 13.5m, 2hrs38m
4am, starting gun fired and we were off to the big day. I took the advice
from the grand slam veteran and started very slow together with whx. We
walked over the start line and started at 12min pace. whx said we should
come back run this section at the same pace. I agreed. Tons of runners
passed by us and we were almost at the very end of the pack.
1 mile on the paved road, the course switched to the trail. A lot of people
already started run/walk mix. whx and I shuffled along. We originally
planned to stick together as far as we can. It seems a bit unrealistic for a
race like this. About 4 miles into the race, natural called and I jumped
into the woods for a pit stop. Here was the last time I saw whx before I saw
him again at the other side of the Hope Pass about 12 hours later.
It's quite a relief to run without the heavy load from the carb loading
prior day, felt much lighter. The course became single track around
Turquoise Lake. My pants were below my waistline for the second time of the
day, which slowed me quite a bit. The trail was really crowded. It was
difficult to pass people and I had to follow some very slow runners. Some
people were very mean. They would just block the trail and wouldn't let you
pass! I was really pissed by one guy who intentionally shouldered at me when
I passed him. I guess that's the drawback of starting too slow.
My hydration and nutrition was mainly based on two bottles (22oz each). I
started with one bottle of Hammer Perpetuem (3 scoops, 400 cal) and one
bottle of gaterode (about 120 cal). The plan was to drink another bottle of
HP (400 cal) and eat some real food at every aid station. So this way I can
take down about 1000 cal for every aid station. Soon after I started, I
realized that gaterode was too sweet and tastes disgusting. It might also
give me side stitches problem. 3 scoops of HP per bottle was also a bit heavy.
But I do really like the taste of HP caffe late flavor. It tastes like
chocolate soy milk. So by the time I got to Mayqueen, I told fitforfun that
we were changing the game plan. No more gaterode. I would carry two bottle
of HP with 2 scoops each bottle. That still gave me 540 cal to go. And I
will drink as much HP as I can at every aid station. The plan worked well
for rest of the race.
In the race guide, the organizer said there will be GU gel available at
every aid station. Unfortunately, there wasn't any! They only have GU Chopms
, which tastes disgusting. But I have no choice, grabed four packs to go. So
I was out of Mayqueen aid station in less than 2 minutes after stuffing
some boiled potatoes and 3/4 bottle of HP down the throat.
Took of the headlight, skull cap and long sleeve shirt. Put on visor and
sunglass clip, I was good to go.
2. Mayqueen 13.5m to Fish Hatchery 23.5m - 10m, 2hrs02m
The course turned to Colorado Trail with some rolling hills. The trail was
quite technical. I started to pick up the pace a little bit and passed a few
people.
Once out of the technical trail, it came the first big climb of the day, up
to the Sugarloaf pass at 11,000ft. I ran/powerwalked most of the way uphill.
It felt great to be standing at the top of the pass. The sun was up and
warm. Turquoise Lake was at the back covered with fog. A big downhill at
powerline was ahead of you. And Grand Colorado fields and mountains was
covered with bright morning sunshine.
5 miles of powerline descend was very pleasant. Didn't push very hard as
trying to save the quad for later. I always tried to remember some unique
geographic shape or maker along the way as I will have to climb the exact
same hill back later in the night.
I popped some GU chomp to refuel and tried to swallow them without chowing.
Eating sugar could be so little fun!
Cruised into the FH aid station and grabbed HP drink from fitforfun. Boiled
potatoes were all gone. I grabbed some ham wrap. There was some cream in
there. I know it a bit risky but I ate them anyway with my HP. Until this
point, I hadn't craved for any salty food. So I think my electrolyte was ok.
3. Fish Hatchery 23.5m to Half Pipe 30m - 6.5m, 1hr34m
2 miles out of FH was mainly on the paved road. The heat was picking up and
there was no shade. I ran at 9min pace. When I left FH, I also grabbed a
cliff bar from fitforfun. I usually love cliff bar. But it was tough to
swallow them while running.
Soon enough, my stomach was complaining about the mix of solid cliff bar and
the cream from the ham warp. My pants dropped below the waistline third time
of the day! No big woods to cover this time! Whatever, I don't care now.
There was another crew access point at about 28 miles called Half Moon. I
got a bottle of iced HP from fitforfun. It tastes so good as I was thirsty
and just emptied my stomach. So I finished the entire bottle. That was a
huge mistake!
As soon as I started jogging, the waters start to swing in my belly and I
was so full! Had to walk all the way to Half Pipe and a bit further. Tried
to drink some coke at Half Pipe to help with the digestion and it helped a
bit.
4. Half Pipe 30m to Twin Lakes 39.5m - 9.5m, 2hr13m
The stomach issue lingered for a while after the Half Pipe and I felt better
after probably 32miles and started to pick up the pace again.
This section involves a climb onto the Mt Elbert trail head and then
downhill to Twin Lake. It's a shaded trail and not so technical. So it's
quite runnable.
When I was getting closer to the Twin Lake, it's another stunning view: A
big lake down there and the Hope Pass was not further away. You can hear the
spectators screaming down there. That gave people a big boost to rush
downhill. I was still very careful on the downhill and didn't want to trash
my quad too early.
There was a big slope when entering the Twin Lake aid station. It's a grand
entrance for some people, but maybe a grand shame for some others. It's so
steep that a lot of people fell there.
I hadn't sit down since the race started. So I zipped through the aid
station and took a quick break on fitforfun's chair before attacking the big
monster, Hope Pass!
5. Twin lakes 39.5m to Winfield 50m - 10.5m, 4hrs22m
Before the climb, runners had to go through a few major ponds and a river.
The water was freezing but it didn't give me much trouble as I've trained in
melting snow in Bear Mountain in the winter. Actually I dipped my leg in
the river for a few seconds to cool of the legs a bit.
The hope pass was visible from the twin lakes, but when you stand beneath it
, it's just a huge mountain in front of you and there is no sign of the pass
. So I kept wondering where it is.
The climb started in no time. Most people have hiking poles in their hands
for the hike. For me, I just used my hands to support my core and pushed up
and forward step by step. It was tough. The higher you go, the air became
thinner. I pushed but not to the level that I had to stop to catch the
breathe. I probably sweated most during this climb for the entire race.
At this time, elites were already coming down the mountain. The only times I
stopped on the climb was to give them the way.
The first stage of climb was over sooner than I expected. Out of the woods,
above the tree line, an aid station popped up. It's the hopeless aid station
. It's quite surreal to see so many llamas scattered around eating grass.
Llamas were used to carry the equipment up to the pass. And water provided
in the station was filtered from melting snow.
I drank a few cups of coke, filled some water and ready to attacked last
quarter of climb.
The view was stunning at the top of the pass. South side is a big deep
valley, north side is the beautiful twin lakes and Mt Elbert. This is
the highest mountain I've ever climbed in the US. But the clock was ticking,
didn't have too much time to enjoy the view.
Descend was actually a bit more difficult than the ascend. The south side of
the pass was much steeper. Plus, some mean runners wouldn't give the way to
those who were running downhill. It became quite dangerous at some point on
the narrow single path. My shoes didn't have very strong grip either.
So it took a while to get to the bottom of the hill. I saw whx again there.
He was definitely in a good shape.
Another 1.5 mile uphill cruise into Winfield. Got weighted, only dropped 1lb, hydration was working well. 25hour finish became almost
impossible. So I took my time at the aid station, drank two cups of Ramon
noodle soup, which refilled much needed salt into my body.
whx suggested me changing to trail shoes. I was quite confident with my
racing flats, so I stick with them.
6. Winfield to Twin Lakes - 10.5m, 3hr22m
When I left Winfield, it started drizzling a little bit. I put on my long
sleeves shirt just in case the weather got crazy at the top. I also dropped
off my garmin watch, visor, and sunglass to get ready for the night run.
The climb back onto the Hope Pass was surprisingly good. Maybe the salt from
the noodle helped a lot. Three pit stops deprived a lot of electrolyte from
the body and HP doesn't have a high contraction of electrolyte.
I passed a ton of people on the hike up. At this point, most of the runners
were very understanding and gave me the way when I passed them.
When I topped Hope Pass again, my legs were super fresh, now it's time to
fly down the hill, which I hadn't done for the entire race so far.
I passed through the Hopeless aid station, drank another two cups of noodle
and started to run at 8min pace down the hill. I was amazed by myself at
this fast speed downhill. I cut the time by 1 hour than earlier climb!
By the time I reached the bottom, I started to do the math, maybe 25 hour
buckle was still possible if I ran the rest 40 miles at the same speed as
the first 40 miles!
Sprint into the aid station. fitforfun helped me change to a pair of new
socks and shoes. Another two cups of noodle down the throat, I was ready to
chase the clock!
7. Twin lakes to Half Pipe - 9.5m, 2hr27m
When I exited Twin lakes, it's already totally dark. So the game was quite
simple, chasing all the head light ahead of me. Out of Twin lakes, it was 5
miles of long uphills, not as steep as Hope Pass, but still quite tough. I
even manged to run some uphills.
I cruised to Half Pipe in no time. Again passed through the Half Pipe with a
cup of noodle soup. A lot of runners were laying there trying to recover.
They gave me a lot of encouragement when I ran out.
8. Half Pipe to Fish Hatchery - 6.5m, 1hr32m
Met fitforfun at Half Moon. Told her my plan that I wanted to cut aid
station time as much as possible. She's totally on board with me.
When I left Half Moon, people were screaming "You are looking great". I
believed so too as I was on 8min pace.
There was not much thoughts in my mind at this point anymore. Just keep
moving forward and doing the math on time.
Again at Fish Hachery, zip through with a cup of noodle soup.
9. Fish Hachery to Mayqueen - 10m, 2hr38m
This was the toughest leg in the race for me. I was chasing the clock but I
had to hike to a 11,000ft peak in 4 miles. It's all dark and I was all by
myself. The powerline above the head was sending out weird buzzing sound. I
could care less about them and push forward.
On the way up, there were a lot of false summits as well. It was more
hopeless than Hope Pass.
On the descend from Sugarloaf, I saw whx again. He seemed to be in a lot of
pain. I was pushing the downhill at 9min pace. He managed to tag along until
we hit the very technical section of the Colorado Trails. Sorry buddy, I
had to leave you there.
When I arrived at Mayqueen, I have 2hrs10m to go for 25hour finish. It's
definitely possible if I just ran a mediocre half marathon.
I only finished one bottle of PH in this leg. So I dropped the empty bottle
to fitforfun and ran out with one bottle in hand. fitforfun found a pacer
for me. But I did't think it's gonna be of much help as I was pushing a fast
pace and I didn't have breathe to get familiar with the guy. whx could use
more help with a pacer.
So I was out of Mayqueen at 7min pace on the paved section.
10. Mayqueen to finish - 13.5m, 3hr09m
The trail around Turquoise Lake was well marked with glowing stick initially
. Even though it's quite technical, my pace didn't drop much.
By the time I got to boat ramp, there was 7 miles to go and I have 70
minutes left. It's still promising given that trails would be easier later.
All of a sudden there was no more glowing stick after boat ramp. I was totally lost.
I even yelled some f words loudly in the wood, probably waked a few campers
there. The more frustrating you are, the more likely you got lost in a
trail. That's what happened to me.
I lost about 10 minutes in the woods trying to find the trail until I saw
another runner coming up. The big buckle is still possible, if I run 8 min
pace rest of way, I told myself.
But it's getting very cold 4am in the morning. I hadn't ran for the last 10
minutes, my body temperature dropped significantly. When I hit another
technical descend, my quad finally gave up and it's tough even to walk
downhill.
Back to the wider trail, it's a steady climbing. The time was slipping away
and it was freezing. So my race officially ended at about 95 miles.
A pacer catched up with another runner and saved my day. He lent me his
jacket for rest of the run. It turns out he was the pacer fitforfun
originally located for me.
Pretty much walked rest of the 5 miles to the finish line except a few
hundred yard sprint uphill to the finish line, exactly at 6am. Didn't really felt sleepy at all.
I went into the medical tent simply because it's much warmer in there and I
can lay down in a sleeping bag for a bit rest. Took a nap for about an hour
and I was up looking for food. The chicken noodle soup was really good and I
finished three cups.
After the food, I felt re-energized and walked around outside the medical tent as the sun came out and it got a bit warmer. The only complaint from my body was actually not from the legs. It was the non-stop hiccups! I guess my lungs was complaining. 26 hours of running in the thin air was tough on the them no less than the legs.
8am, whx still hadn't returned. I started to worry a bit and went out to the
finish line to check out. Only 10 minutes wait, I finally saw whx walking
to the finish line with fitforfun. That's was epic, especially him crippling
and walking with a wood stick in hand.
Helped whx into the medical tent and took off his shoes and socks. That
was brutal. Probably 8 out of 10 nails turned black. Big blisters between toes
and under the foot. Left shin swollen like a big bum. The doctors there wasn
't of much help other than advising him rest and took a few tylenol. He told
us that we were the first two Chinese he ever saw at the race. I wasn't
sure if I should be proud for that.
While whx was resting in the medical tent, I was off to a local hotel for a
shower. I was really craving for some real food after the shower. A big real
cheese burger was preferred but decided on some pizza, which I hadn't eaten
for a very long time.
Then it's the award ceremony. Nothing special except to learn that the woman
winner Lynette Clemons just had a baby three month ago. Truly tough woman.
I was wondering if she breast fed her baby on the course as she mentioned
that the baby was a part of the crew.
The trip from Leadville back to Denver airport was quite a bit of race
itself. There was heavy traffic on I-70. fitforfun was "racing" pretty fast
once we got out of traffic in Denver and I got to the airport about an hour
before the flight took off.
By the time I got home in NYC 1:40am, it just felt surreal. The whole race
already felt like a while ago. There wasn't any pain in my legs, just some
soreness like after a marathon race. Maybe I didn't push hard enough, quite
pitty.
8/22 Monday
I held myself and didn't run to work today. Had one hour 2500 yard recovery
swim druing lunch break and felt fresh.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net