A Funny Thing Happened - Leadville 2013!!!

My mother thinks I need to get my head examined.

Maybe she's right. Maybe I don't know what is good for me. But I'd be damned if I'll have ANYTHING get the best of me.

Especially races.

Last year, Leadville thoroughly whipped my butt. My weight above 200 pounds didn't help, and I realize now that I never even developed mountain legs for the event. The altitude also drove my heart rate to the stratosphere, completing my demise on the slopes of Hope Pass.

Hope Pass, where I met my demise in 2011.

As I stated before, that is when I had the epiphany to do triathlon training for these 100 mile ultramarathons. I knew I didn't want to try Leadville this year because it was too expensive. Vermont was clearly the logical choice since it was expensive and I had a crew willing to help me out in that race. If all went well in Vermont, then I can try Leadville in 2 years.

Triathlon training took me down from 28 hours to under 21.5 hours in Vermont (pdf file; 53rd place).

Not many people can proudly say that they PR'ed by more than 6.5 hours in a race.

The biggest difference was in developing my mountain legs. Lots of cycling and a good dose of trail running sealed the deal.

I was also 25 pounds lighter. That helps a bit.

So I had the go for Leadville next year. But I was holding off on doing the race unless I won the Western States lottery and make it part of the Grand Slam.

In comes my girlfriend (Nancy) and our mutual friend (Jules) in the Staten Island Athletic Club (SIAC).

Both joined our other mutual friend (Amy) in tackling the rough hills of the Mountain Madness on September 29. All 3 did extremely well, as I expected.

So well, in fact, that they were talking about doing the Transrockies 3 Day Race next year.

Thoroughly surprised, my jaw completely dropped.

Then my GF showed me the hill profile of the second stage of the race. Well wouldn't you know it, it looks exactly like Hope Pass!

A little more web searching and I realized it is!!!

Oh, and the Transrockies Race finishes 2 days before the Leadville 100. Oh my!

So here is a perfect opportunity to go out west with friends doing our respective races. How can I not turn it down?

So when registration for the Leadville 100 opens in November, I will be signing on to this race.

So I'll be training like a demon in the coming months, get my weight down to 170 pounds, get my diet squarely in order, and make sure my mountain legs are fully developed for this race.

And I'm going for redemption.