Leadville

August 21st and 22nd are big dates for many running folks here in Colorado. On the 21st, there will be some 700 plus runners lining up for the Leadville 100. A few hours later in Manitou Springs, there will be another 1,500 runners make the trip up Pikes. Over the next 24 hours, many runners will fail and succeed in crossing the finish line.

Before the cut off time of 30 hours hits many folks in Leadville on the 22nd, yet another race will have already started. The Pikes Peak Marathon.

Early in the year, I had desires of doing either PPM or Leadville. As the early months ticked away, my focus went directly towards Leadville. Shortly after Lake City, I just realized I wasn't physically ready for the challenge.

So with so many folks lining up this weekend, I will not be one of them. However, I get the opportunity of doing the next best thing. Pacing my friend at Leadville.

While at Lake City, I bumped into an old running friend from my days in Durango. Scott and his wife Sharron were both running the SJS50 for the second year straight. The day after the race, I got the chance to catch up with Scott a bit and quickly realized he was running Leadville this year. His first 100 mile race. Within minutes his invite to pace and crew was accepted. No way I was going to pass up this opportunity.

Fast forward to less then 2 days before Leadville. Numerous phone calls and emails have been exchanged between Scott and I with the following plan in place (assumption being all goes to plan with Scotts goals):

Saturday - 9:30am: I will be driving over to Twin Lakes (from Denver) to meet his wife Sharron. From here we'll get Scott whatever he needs and get a much better feel for how his race is going. This will be the first time Sharon has seen Scott since the 4am start.

Saturday - 2:00pm: Meeting Scott at Winfield with the goal of pacing him back to Fish Hatchery some 26/27 miles later. My goals are simple. Not to slow down Scott. To make sure he's eating and drinking on a consistent basis. To offer up as much encouragement as possible. To make sure he gets back to Fish within a 7 to 8 hour time frame.

Saturday - 9:00pm: Sharron will be pacing Scott to the finish line. From here I'll rest up a bit and make my way to Mayqueen.

Sunday - 12:00am: Take over crewing duties and make sure both Sharron and Scott have all they need. Food, liquids but most likely correctly clothing as I'm sure temps will start to dip by now.

Sunday - 2:00am: Finish line at Leadville.

Scott's goals for Leadville are like everyone else. 1) Finish. 2) Finish within 25 hours. 3) Finish within 22 hours. I feel Scott get that 22 hour goal time. He's finished under 5 hrs at PPM. He's paced numerous times at Hardrock. He's gone under 12 without killing himself at the SJS50. Most importantly, this guy loves to run trails.

Looking forward to exciting weekend and reading all the race reports that will for sure follow.