2012 Leadville 100 Results
August 18, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 38 Comments
This year’s Leadville 100 was as exciting as forecast. The weather was great, but a course change in the week before the race added a few miles (rumor is 3) and a decent amount of time to all competitors attempts.
At least three different men – Thomas Lorblanchet (post-Leadville interview), Mike Aish, and Anton Krupicka (post-Leadville interview) – were in the lead once the race opened up. Eventually, Aish withdrew while Krupicka was slowed by blown quads. That left methodical Frenchman Lorblanchet as the winner by the time they returned to Leadville. Zeke Tiernan continued his series of strong Leadville runs in taking the runner up position this year. Nick Clark added to his collection of third place finishes at major 100 milers, while 50+ year old runner Jay Aldous rounded out the top five by achieving his goal of a sub-19-hour finish.
On the women’s side, Aliza Lapierre lead the field out through midway with Liza Howard always close on her heels. By 60 miles, Howard had made a move to take the lead. However, that wouldn’t last as Tina Lewis (post-Leadville interview) took over the lead en route to the mile 76 aid station. Lewis continue to build her lead into a win.
You can find our full play-by-play of the race as well as a collection of our pre-race interviews and preview on our 2012 Leadville 100 Live Coverage page.
Thanks to New Balance, a sponsor of the 2012 Leadville 100, for supporting iRunFar’s coverage of the race.
As usual, we’ll be updating this article with addition results as well as links to Leadville-related articles, photo galleries, and race reports.
Ps. To get all the latest ultra news from iRunFar.com, subscribe via RSS or email.
Early morning before the start of the 2012 Leadville 100. Photo: Matt Trappe
2012 Leadville 100 Men’s Official Results
- Thomas Lorblanchet (Salomon) – 16:29:28 (post-Leadville interview)
- Zeke Tiernan – 16:44:20
- Nick Clark (Pearl Izumi) – 17:11:16
- Anton Krupicka (New Balance) – 17:21:09 (post-Leadville interview)
- Jay Aldous – 18:42:42
- Andrew Catalano - 19:28:39
- Brandon Stapanowich – 19:32:23
- Mike Arnstein – 19:37:14
- Craig Howie – 19:50:11
- Tim “Lucho” Waggoner - 20:12:36 (2012 Leadman champ!)
Thomas Lorblanchet climbing Hope Pass. Photo: Matt Trappe
2012 Leadville 100 Women’s Official Results
- Tina Lewis – 19:33:45 (post-Leadville interview)
- Liza Howard (New Balance) – 20:44:08
- Ashley Nordell (Pearl Izumi) – 20:47:58
- Aliza Lapierre (Salomon) – 21:14:32
- Darcy Africa (Pearl Izumi) – 23:20:06
- Jen Segger (Salomon) – 23:26:02
- Alyssa Wildeboer - 24:03:05
- Jaclyn Greenhill – 24:11:32
- Carrie Stafford – 24:49:31
- Valerie Wrenholt - 24:49:54
Tina Lewis running Haggerman Pass Road. Photo: Matt Trappe
2012 Leadville 100 Articles, Race Reports, and More
- Matt Trappe’s Photos
- Aspen’s Tiernan Second in Leadville 100 – The Aspen Times
- Photos from Buzz Burrell and Ultimate Direction
Scott Jaime atop Hope Pass. Photo: Matt Trappe
Race Reports
Men
- Zeke Tiernan race report & interview (2nd)
- Nick Clark (3rd)
- Anton Krupicka (4th)
- Jay Aldous (5th)
- Brandon Stapanowich (7th)
- Tim Waggoner (11th OA; Leadman champ and new series record holder by five hours!)
- Scott Jaime (DNF)
- Ian Torrence (DNF)
The lead pack early in the 2012 Leadville 100 (l-to-r): Zeke Tiernan, Anton Krupicka, Mike Aish, Nick Clark, and Thomas Lorblanchet. Photo: Matt Trappe
Women
- Liza Howard (2nd)
- Aliza Lapierre (4th)
Aliza Lapierre on Hope Pass. Photo: Matt Trappe
Related articles:
- Anton Krupicka Post-2012 Leadville 100 Interview A video interview (with transcript) with Anton Krupicka following his fourth place finish at the 2012 Leadville 100....
- 2012 Hardrock 100 Results Results from the 2012 Hardrock 100....
- Thomas Lorblanchet, 2012 Leadville 100 Champ, Interview A video interview (with transcript) with Thomas Lorblanchet following his win at the 2012 Leadville 100....
Filed under Races ·
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Thanks for the great coverage as usual, Team iRF. Fascinating to watch the changes at the front from afar.
Love the coverage from you guys it’s awesome. Think it’s great too that you keep the results coming in for more
Than just the top 3 or even 10.
Wonderfull coverage. Exciting to be able to keep track of the standing during the race. Good to see one of my favourites, Anton Kroupicka back in Leadville again.
Thanks for the wonderful coverage!
This thing is going to make for a few lengthy blog posts, I’d say :)
Wonderful coverage as usual. Great race on both sides. Bryon, all the moderators were great as well with a great balance of updates, answered questions and measured reigning in of the discussion topics/tone.
Thanks again!
I loved the coverage! Thank you very much!
Is the Leadman Champ the first finisher from Leadville?
The Leadman Champ is the first man completing the Trail Marathon, 50 mile run or MTB, 100 mile MTB, 10km run, and 100 mile run in the same summer
Thank you Adam!
I love seeing an unsponsored athlete taking the win. Way to go Tina.
And a big thanks to iRunFar for covering the event, I don’t know what I’d do without y’all.
Thank you for the coverage! It was amazing to follow Zeke, an unsponsored teacher race with Thomas (Salomon), Nick (Pearl) and Anton (New Balance) and almost pull it off! Inspiring… great run Zeke and all the amazing finishers!
Interview with Jay, please. His performance should be _the_ story of that race. Unbelievable.
To clarify, I mean it’s his performance that was unbelievable — not a lack of coverage of it. :]
Can’t say enough about how cool it is to have your live coverage at these ultras…I followed Hardrock, Speedgoat, and Leadville yesterday-probably devoting more total time to it than I should, BUT loving every minute of it!!
Was pulling for Anton to win, but what an exciting race yest @ Leadville…knowing how he is, I would bet that TK will use yesterday to take a step back and philosophically use it to build on his comeback. I love his attitude,what he stands for, and I consider him to be a great ambassador for trail-running. As much as he seems to loves to compete, there is something SO likeable about a guy who is in it for the love of it-NOT necessarily to win every single race that he enters.
Peace!
+1
On the Jay interview please
P.S. from above- will visit the irunfar store to help support your gr8 work,Bryon!
Keep up the gr8 coverage,interviews,etc..
CW
Great coverage Bryon, Meghan, AJW, etc.! Can’t wait to see the Aish post race interview.
Unfortunately, we didn’t hook up before he left town. It was my bad. Lots to juggle while dealing with issues typically of onsite race coverage.
Can we still donate to help cover your efforts? You guys were great as usual!
You sure can. There’s a support tab at the very top of iRunFar.com. If you click on that, there’s a donate button at the bottom of the page. Also, there’s a donation link at the bottom of out Leadville live coverage page.
Sorry for not posting the links, but I’m on my phone. Maybe you or someone else can. :-)
Bryon-
Thank you so much for the attention to the Leadman guys! We were never really in the hunt for the over-all but my family (you talked to my wife and sister) were impressed with your interest. Great coverage as always, thank you!
Thanks again Bryon and Meghan for the coverage! Superb as usual! LUCHO… LUCHO… LUCHO!!! Congrats to all finishers. I’m in awe ;-)
If I throw you some cash, you gotta promise to fix your taillight? http://i.imgur.com/JSAvd.jpg
will you be @ UTMB?
Great coverage of the race!!!
Way to cover LT 100 Bryon. The interviews are great and the bonus stuff is hilarious. Thanks for the Leadman shout-outs also. If I would have seen you in Leadville, I would have bought you a cup of coffee or a burrito at Manuelita’s.
On a different note, the new trail definitely added time. If Tony is saying 25 minutes for the leaders, then I’m guessing it added 1:15 minutes to the back of the back. For me, I estimate it added 45 minutes. Lots of good runners missed that Twin inbound cutoff.
Coverage questions:
Was the new trail wide enough for a two-way race? Does its scenic value offset crowding issues, and was it worth it to avoid the dust bowl that is often the Winfield Road? What WAS the new length, and why weren’t the cutoff adjusted accordingly? Finally, does a highly commercial race, which can pay race officials to stay on the course longer, really need such strict cutoffs? It was highly likely that many pulled at Twin could have still hit the sub-30 mark (or was it?).
Not wide enough. One direction still needed to step off trail for large bunched up groups coming out of winfield costing even more time. I did not notice too much dust but others said it was dusty. Disappointed that in the age of GPS 24hr officials would pretend to not know the distance and elevation added. Glass half full and several other blogs have had gps stats from several months ago. Personal opinion is that cutoffs for all stations including finish should have went up 14 or 15 min’s per mile added. Mountain ultras should not be easy and late changes are part of the game but a big name corporate run destination race should be able to give accurate course descriptions early enough for runners to plan splits before arriving in town or at least know the mileage once they do implement changes. Of course this is all my opinion which is not worth much but I saw many strong runners cut off at twin inbound. Not all were tired looking stragglers by any means.
–Full disclosure: I was timed out so this is likely biased. Oh well just have to get stronger and fork over $$$ for next time.
well … the new trail was certainly wider than the trail on hope pass where coming down on the way to Winfield I had several pretty close calls with runners coming back up. I don’t think the new trail was really dusty. IMHO the gravel road between 1/2 Pipe and Fish Hatchery is worse. I never ran the original course, however I don’t even want to imagine how much dust was there due to all the cars. All the inbound cut-offs (including Winfield) were adjusted by 15 minutes, with the only exception being the 30hr cut-off at the finish. I think that runners and crews were briefed in great detail on this on Friday. During this briefing it was also mentioned that the race got the permit to use the new trail only few days ahead of the start … hence I do not blame the organizers for not being able to spread all the details about the course change in time. My 2c.
my personal opinion (being a 27:44 finisher): the new trail is mostly wide enough that two people need only to slow down a bit to get by each other. There is several tight spots where one of the runners needs to stop and step aside, but not really a big issue for me. The end of the new trail closest to Winfield is perhaps 1/2 mile of jeep road. Yes, its scenic value does offset the crowding issues (which are marginal in my opinion). I find it much worse to bomb it down Hope Pass and run into second and third wave front runners who sometimes do not feel like moving a single inch to the side on a narrow and pretty steep single track. Not sure about the new length, based on various reports it seems to add 3 miles in total to the race. Yes, 30 hour total cut of is pretty brutal for an ordinary runner, but that is also part of the game and something what makes LT100 so difficult. On the other hand the intermediate cutoffs are set pretty well based on “historical statistics”. If you do not make the cutoff somewhere in the middle of the race, it is truly highly unlikely you’d be able to finish on time at Leadville. Some people will always dispute this, but I tend to side with the organizers on this, since even if I feel strong and moving fast it always hits me how much I slow down during night. My 2c.
Agree with most of what you said Vlad. My ? for race mgmt is why add 15minutes in middle if not at the end? Adding 3 slowish miles on a 100 miler means a lot of folks that would have came in at 29-30 now get a DNF. What % of runners come across in that last hour prior to this year would be interesting to look up. Also if they found out early in the week they love to send out everything else via twitter and email so why not a course change? This is 2012 and they love to advertise how they are on twitter etc… Again, no excuses for my DNF just difference of opinion with how mgmt handled situation. Also the update on friday night was not very clear when crammed into a little gym with 800+ and crew/family/friends. Most runners already on edge, nervous, and crabby and then told oh yeah we added some miles but not sure how much. I think they could have just said we added 3 miles and 600-800′ because we know you’re all tough SOB’s and you can handle it. Then maybe there would not have been as much grumbling about it. But to just say oh yeah we added some single track and have no idea what the mileage/elevation gain is. I don’t agree with how it was handled and can see why there was and still is a bit of chatter about it. Completely agree that I prefer the single track for the actual running aesthetics.
Now I agree with most of what you said :) and certainly things could have been managed better. On the other hand, the old cliche says it pretty well … be prepared for the unexpected. Last minute (or unannounced) course changes, inaccurate mileage … I just have seen that way too often so I don’t get bothered by that anymore. Typically, in the big scope of things bad weather and my own mistakes have much larger impact than the imperfect race management (at the end its just 3 miles of 100 that we are talking about). However I do think that with the new trail the race became slower and even more challenging. Some people learned it this year the hard way. Hopefully they can learn from it, get better prepared for the next year and then value their finish even more than they would this year.
Btw.: The lady who spoke at the “support crew meeting” at the gym said that yes, 15 minutes was added, but her recommendation is to follow the old cut-offs. She said pretty clearly that she does not believe that anybody leaving Winfield after 6p has any chance of finishing on time.
I finished in 29:44. Most people I talked to around me said that the extra 3 miles added about an hour to their time. That hour is gained prior/after Winfield and 15 minutes doesn’t make up for the additoinal hour that the back of the pack had going into Twin Lakes. I was fortunate to get a burst of energy coming down Hope Pass or I could have easily missed the cut-off at Twin Lakes. I cursed those miles several times during my climb back up Hope.
Fortunately, I beat all cut-offs and finished in under 30. I’m proud I knocked out 103 miles but I can understand people being upset if they narrowly missed a cut-off. Other than the change I thought the race was managed beautifully. I have a hard time bashing them. They did a hell of a job. It seems like this kind of change isn’t too far out of the norm for an ultra. It’s part of the intrigue I guess.
Way better with the new trail. Added 45 min to my time, but courses change so you need to roll with it. If this is the new Leadville course, it will simply just be harder to buckle and that much better if you do.
If anything, they should ban trekking poles and headphones on singletrack Hope. With trekking poles, it expands someone’s width on a trail since the runner coming the other direction doesnt want to get wacked. The runner coming the other direction of the runner with poles has to step that much more off the trail to avoid their foot being stabbed. Headphones are another issue. I had several instances of trying to pass runners with headphones and guess what, they couldnt hear me when I kindly asked to pass.
Or we go the other way, one trekking pole required so you can just wack the person with the headphones:)
Or require everyone to use trekking poles and headphones – that would be hilarious.
Here’s an easy rule. In certain zones it’s required to have “one bud out” so you can hear.” Especially on an in and out like at Leadville. This way you are not banning people’s music but still enforcing courtesy. I am a big music-while-running fan, but regularly keep a bud out for courtesy to others.
I was not really prepare to run 3 more miles due to the fact that I would be cutting it close to the sub 25 time. I ended up just fine and got the big buckle although I had to push it. I think they should have added 30 minutes on either side or let everyone know the distance and vertical. I think it did add some depression and second guessing while running. I love poles and earphones and I had both of them but did not use them. I ended up carrying the poles and keeping the ear buds in with no music. I used the iPhone to track distance and it gave me updates. I rarely listened to music. I did not have any near misses and I was really alone the whole race. I Am used to chatting it up with runners but it was pretty quiet. Maybe a lot of people dropped early.