Race Recap: Leadville Silver 15 mile trail race

About 6 months ago, the leader of Trail Sisters Chicago Northwest asked me if I wanted to join her for Leadville Silver. She was planning on running the 50 mile race but told me there was a 15 mile option. Several of the other women were considering it as well. Since I'm writing this recap, you know what I decided. I asked my youngest son if he would be interested in running with me and to my surprise, he said yes! My oldest son and his girlfriend also joined us for a fun weekend in Colorado.

Living in the flatlands of northeastern Illinois definitely presented challenges in preparing for this race. Since I do a lot of running on the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin, I knew I could get lots of hill training. I also did a 15+ mile trail race in April, Earth Day, which provided me a lot of climbing in a trail race experience. My strength coach, SJ, also provided plenty of workouts in the gym to help strengthen the muscles I would need for the climbs. 

The only thing I could not train for was the altitude. I did some homework on this and 3 months before the race, I started taking iron supplements as a way to boost my hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a molecule in the blood that carries oxygen, so obviously, the more you have of it, the more oxygen that gets carried to the brain and other vital organs. The other piece of advice that we heard from all the locals was to hydrate like a boss the week before the race. I also planned my travel accordingly--most of the advice I found recommended either arriving 2 weeks before the race to give time to acclimate, which was not an option for me, or arriving within 24 hours of the race so that my body didn't have enough time to be affected by the altitude. We landed at 3 pm on the day before the race.

After we ate dinner, we stopped at the local Whole Foods to stock up on supplies. We checked into our condo in Copper Mountain and by the time that was all done, it was time to go to bed. As expected, I didn't sleep great and when I did wake up, I had a splitting headache. Altitude? Or allergies?

I had some coffee and drank a protein shake before we left for Leadville. It was about a half hour drive from Copper. The drive was breathtaking! We drove through Leadville to get to the race site. Leadville is such a cute Western town and the races there have brought it back to life after the mines closed down in the 1980s. The race instructions told us to park at the high school and take a shuttle to the race, but there was plenty of parking at the race site. We picked up our packets and got our gear from the car. I wore my Ultimate Direction Ultra Aspire race vest--I had Tailwind in the bottles and water in the bladder. Matthew wore a Camelback with water in the bladder. We took photos and met up with my Trail Sisters. It was nice to see familiar faces at a destination race!

The weather was perfect and at 9 am (the 50 milers took off at 7 am), we were off! We headed up a steep hill to the top, where we would find the trail. Matthew ran up it and ended up being #13 to the top. I struggled to walk it--I was really sucking air and my body felt weirdly tingly. He took off down the trail. I walked for quite a while to let my breathing calm down, but once I started running, I felt surprisingly ok. My first mile was 12:38, which made me very happy. Maybe this would be ok?

The first uphill let me I know what I was in for. I did my best to run as much as I could. When my heart rate got into the 160s, I felt it and had to slow down to a walk. I didn't mind walking--so many of the runners around me were doing the same thing. The scenery was just spectacular. There were snowcapped mountains all around us and a stream running along most of the trail. 

Around mile 4, we started a steady climb. We were at 10,000 feet at that point. The trail was very rocky in spots. I was worried about a toe injury I had aggravated the week before the race, so I kept my head to the ground to avoid stepping on any rocks that would bother it. I eventually caught up to one of my trail sisters and another man from home and walked with them until we reached the aid station at mile 7.8. About 3/4 mile before that, we saw my son coming down the hill. He looked great and said he was feeling good. That gave me a lift because at that point, I wasn't feeling so good.

The aid station had Roctane for fuel, which I had never used before. I drank most of my Tailwind on the way there, so I decided to try the Roctane on the way down. Nothing new on race day? Ha! They also had watermelon, and I ate a few slices, which gave me life. I filled my pockets with pretzels and headed back down the trail. Downhill, baby, and nimbly running down the rock strewn trail was something I had trained for on those rocky trails in Wisconsin!

I made some good time on the downhills and was feeling pretty good, except for being chased by bees and flies. Apparently, they like Roctane. There were a few uphills that I walked, but I was so happy to be able to run and make up some of the time I lost with all that walking on the uphills.

Around mile 12, I started to do a lot more walking. Between the altitude and the course elevation, I was feeling fatigued. I caught up to a guy from Indianapolis, who kept me entertained with stories of his job. We ran the downhills, though, and still maintained a pretty good pace. I hoped we could finish under 4 hours.

A former participant, perhaps?

But no. The last couple of miles were back uphill, with mile 15 being the worst of all. A couple of the 50 milers passed by, which actually excited us. This portion of the trail looped around the woods like a roller coaster and I was over it. At mile 15, we came to what we thought was the finish line but NO! We ran under the banner and were told 'You're almost there'. That was cruel and a lie. Unbenknownst to us, we still had almost another mile to go. 

After a few more loops through the woods, we came to the top of a very steep hill. The volunteer told me that the finish line was at the bottom of the hill. I asked him to confirm this and he laughed. I took off, flying down the hill, along the chute, and crossed the finish line.  There were enthusiastic volunteers handing out medals and they made me feel like I won the race. My son came over to hug me and told me he finished in 3:23. I started to cry and told him how proud I was of him.

We walked over to the food and beer tent, where we were served tacos. The beer was from Avery Brewing in Boulder. I had the White Rascal Wheat, which hit the spot. Matthew had the IPA. We recapped our races while we ate our food. My trail sisters came and sat with us and we all talked about the race. It was hard, for sure, but I think we held our own. We later found out that Ilisa was pulled from the 50 mile course 5 miles before the finish line due to health concerns. She was disappointed, obviously.

Reflecting on my experience, this was probably one of the hardest races I have ever run. My official finish time was 4:07:28 and I finished overall 118/143. My Garmin finish time was a little different but it showed a final distance of 15.8 miles. My feet hurt but overall, I felt pretty good after the race, probably because I did so much walking. Obviously, I would have liked to run more and walk less, but the altitude really made that tough. I was well-trained for the climbs, the rocks and for the descents and that made me very happy! I loved the camaraderie of all the trail runners that I met along the way. Running this one with my son made me so happy. He told me that his rugby experience taught him to push through the pain. That served him well at this race. He says never again, but now that he has this one under his belt, who knows?

What a great experience! I'm going to take some time to recover and regroup. I'm so glad to have earned this beautiful medal!

Have you ever run a trail race in the mountains? What's the most difficult race you've ever run? 

I'm linking up with Kim and Zenaida for Tuesday Topics, with the Runners' Roundup: Debbie, Deborah, Jen, and Lisa.