I’ll have a full report up on my run at Leadville in the next few days. For now, I’ll simply share the good news – I finished 10th and, more importantly, broke 20-hours with a 19:54:26. I’ve longed considered the 20-hour mark at Leadville to be a hallmark (it’ll nap one top-5 most years) and am proud as hell to have broken it. The skinny on the race is that it went marvelously for 80 miles, then I started puking and bonked big time before I reached down and gave what I no longer had in order to break 20 hours.
I couldn’t have broken 20 hours without my wonder crewguy – Steve Burton – or my phalanx of pacers – Jaime Falcon, Ashley Arnold, and Joe Wolf. The dozens of folks who cheered me on gave me countless lifts. (Special spectator props got to the Jones-Wilkins family, the Vasque crew, and my TransRockies friends – Adam Chase, Martin Gaffuri, Devon Crosby-Helms, Gordon Wright, Caitlin Smith). On top of that, the entire day was made all the more special in that I shared the trail and so many miles with good friends and idols. I seriously tear up thinking about being out there with the likes of Andy Jones-Wilkins, Garett Graubins, Luis Guerrero, Aaron Schwartzbard et al. Look at the finishers list and the only guy between 7th and 12th that I didn’t know well before the day was Jason Koop. I couldn’t have scripted a better day!
Me getting a pat on the back from Larry Hall,who I paced up this section at last year’s Leadville 100
Thanks again to all those at the race and those who shared their support before, during, and after the race!
