With all that said, let me tell you this from the start: I had NO BUSINESS being in Leadville to run anything. You see, since i've come home from winning The Iditarod Trail Invitational 1,000 in March, it's been next to impossible for me to get ANY type of running mojo leading up to this race! I'll be completely honest here; I probably didn't run more than 10 miles in any given week after Alaska. Oh, I made some pretty looking training plans, months out and was serious about being in ultra running shape. That didn't happen. Not even close. Therefore, I was more or less running a couch to 100 miler. Not only that, but I was gonna be running up to 12,600 feet during the race!
I arrived in Denver a couple days before the race and my brother, Scott picked me up from the airport. Scott was supposed to be a pacer for me but after my friend Kyle Durand wrote me and told me he would not be able to be my crew chief because of an injury, Scott stepped up and took over. I could tell that he was ready! Scott was now going to be my crew chief and pacer! He picked me up in my Dad's old Ford F-150 and it was loaded up with everything you could possibly think of! I was in Colorado and in good hands!
Next we had to pick up Anna Katherine! Who is AK you ask? Anna Katherine is a freelance writer who had flown out from Virginia to be a part of my crew. She is going to be writing a 4,500 word essay on me for www.longreads.com and this was her first time meeting me and my crew! We picked her up and headed back to Scott's house in Boulder, CO. It was easy to see that AK was going to fit right in and be an important piece of my Leadville 100 puzzle.
Randomly, my sister, brother in law and their kids were in Colorado and we got to see them at Scott's house. My Dad's brother, my cousin and a few others came by and it was great to see family for a few hours! What a treat!
We made a few quick gear stops, one Colorado "Green" stop and we were heading to my rental cabin in Leadville. We got to this awesome cabin on a small lake that wasn't 15 minutes from Leadville and I was a happy camper. Not long after we arrived, my dear friend Keri McMeans showed up from Dayton, WY and my second pacer was on board! Usually, I do these races without pacers or crew but this trip was to be different. I wanted to share The Leadville 100 experience with as many friends as possible. Keri, AK, Scott and I had a very enjoyable day just hanging out. I was trying to stay off my feet as much as possible which is not easy in Colorado! We went into Leadville Thursday evening so I could pick up my race bib and not have to come early the next morning!
I got a great night sleep and woke up to a beautiful Friday. I skipped the runner meeting because I HATE runner meetings. All this nervous energy and all these folks strutting around trying to show off their finisher buckles and jackets. It's not my scene in the slightest and I was very happy I made the decision not to go. Of course I called my NC friends Jason Tischer and Nathan Leehman to have them call me if anything noteworthy was brought up. Of course, I never heard from them!
My crew, minus one, had a very nice Friday evening! I found some time to have some quiet reflection as I was quite nervous if I had what it took to slay this dragon! I promised myself I would give everything I had and use every single trick i'd leaned over my years of ultra running.
This was going to be really hard on me and I knew it! Hell, this is what I deserved with my lack of training. There wasn't much I could do at that point about my lack of training so I just let it go down river.
I went to bed Friday night and felt like 5 minutes later my alarm was going off. It was 2:30 AM and the race was to start at 4:00 AM. I ate some food, went to the bathroom and got all my gear on! I was ready for an adventure! My brother Scott and Keri were up and wanted to join me at the start! We drove 15 minutes into town and there I was at the start! I vividly remember, just before the starting gun sounded, I locked eyes with my brother! He seemed as excited as I was and I loved having him near! This was going to be a tough race and I loved having my brother looking after me!
4:00 AM and we were released! I surely didn't want to mess with the folks at the front as I could only imagine they had trained more than 10 miles a week! I found a spot next to a couple other athletes who were also sporting a Dad Bod in the middle of the pack! Boom, we were off! I felt really good early in this race. The miles were clicking off and I was feeling much better than I deserved too. This lasted quite awhile.
My stomach felt great, my feet were in great shape and I was feeling very strong mentally. After passing through a couple aid stations, I wondered if maybe, JUST MAYBE, I could put together a rockin' race without much training. I had a sub 25 hour "A" goal and a sub 30 hour "B" goal. When I arrived at the 40 mile Aid Station, I was 1 and 1/2 hour UNDER my "A" goal. How in the hell was this happening? I felt like I was floating. In fact, when I left this aid station, I had my arms out like I was flying! I knew the miles between 40-60 were gonna be rough as I would have to climb Hope Pass which is at 12,600 ft.
As I started making the climb, the altitude started crushing me. I literally felt like there was a vice on my head and somebody was tightening it down. I was hurting for certain but I felt like if I could just get over the pass, I would be better! HA!!!! I finally got to the pass and felt like a shell of my former self. I could not believe how quickly I went from feeling great to feeling terrible. I was humbled, but not dead! I made it to the 50 mile Winfield Aid Station and was to pick up my first pacer of the day!
Darcy Piceu is not only one of the most successful female ultra runners in the USA, she also happens to be from my same hometown in Michigan! We had never met each other but I had reached out to her to see if she wanted to pace me at Leadville and she said yes! Therefore, I picked Darcy up at mile 50 and it was now her job to help me make it back to mile 73 ish where Keri would take over pacing duties.
We left Winfield and I was somehow feeling ok again. That would not last long. Once Darcy and I were heading back up the steeper side of Hope Pass, I started feeling VERY sick. Poor Darcy was leading the way and I was stopping at each switchback to gather myself. After sitting for a few minutes, I realized that I was going to get sick. I didn't really have a choice. I was sweating profusely and throwing up. One time, I even did a throw up / shart which was very special. Luckily, Darcy had told me that she's "seen it all" in ultra's so I didn't worry too much about her thoughts. I had enough to think about.
After throwing up all over my shoes, I picked myself up and made my way down the trail. Darcy was so understanding and fun! She had a great attitude and it felt like I was running with Elvis Presley because every other person who would run by would say something to the effect of "hey, that's Darcy Piceu; she's a Hardrock legend." She took it all in stride and made other runners feel special.
Darcy and I got back over Hope Pass and we saw one of the weirdest things happen. It was late at night and we were going down the most technical section of the whole trail. Next thing we know, some old dude flies past us and another 5 runners. I have NO IDEA why he was running so fast (6 min/mile ish) but he caught his foot and did a full superman fall. After watching him dust himself off, I think the only thing he truly hurt was his ego, which was a surprise! What in the hell did we just watch we laughed?
As we were getting back to the 60 mile aid station, I have to admit here, I wanted to quit. I was sick, tired, out of shape and over it. I decided this was going to be my very first DNF. I was surprisingly ok with it. I told myself that when I got back to 60, I was gonna tell my crew I was done. Looking back, I can't freaking believe how low I let myself go. I was being directed by my THOUGHTS and that's just sad. I found my crew at 60 and sat down. I was done and I told my crew what I was thinking. They weren't having it. Every single time I said something about quitting they would say something about "calories". I was sitting at mile 60 at 17 hours into the race. My mind could not compute how I would be able to run the last 40 miles, averaging over 3 MPH especially since that din't leave room for anytime in the checkpoints.
Finally, Keri came over to me and looked me in the eye and said "Pete, you are NOT stopping here and you need to head to the next checkpoint". She looked very serious and all I could muster was "yes Ma'am." I got my chaffed monkey butt out of that chair and told them that I would try to make the next checkpoint. Once I said that, my brother turned to the crew and simply said: "he will finish". I needed to hear that because I was not so sure myself!
Darcy and I ran into the night and had a lot of fun getting to the next aid station. The weather turned nasty on us and we were running through snow. We were both unprepared for this and we both got to the next aid station nearly frozen! Darcy had done her job like the CHAMPION she is and she passed me off to Keri!
I met Keri and her husband Matt while I was running the Bighorn 100 a few years ago and they've been dear friends ever since! Keri was such a great pacer. She was chatty but that is exactly what I needed at the time. Keri got me through some of the roughest miles of the race and I am forever grateful to her. She would push me when needed but also understood when I needed to take the foot off the gas. Keri has a bunch of ultra running experiences including finishing Leadville so she knew what was needed, effort wise, to get me to the finish! Keri's job was to get me from mile 73 to 87 where my brother Scott would pick me up to take me home!
Scott and I are brothers but were also pretty different people. Scott is type A and he can't contain his excitement sometimes! When Keri got me to Scott at mile 87, I could tell he was fired up! I wasn't. I needed to tell him to settle down a touch because we still had 13 miles to go. I was in my pain cave at the moment and didn't much feel like talking. Scott, on the other hand, knew that we needed to motor to make the sub 30 hour cutoff. I felt bad because I was low and not in a good place. Scott would try to bring up high school football and I would tell him I didn't want to talk about ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY high school football. Scott seems to always get me at my lowest times during these events and sometimes I wonder why he continually put's himself in these situations? He does it because he LOVES ME and he takes the high road every single time I say something that would simply deserve a "fuck you" back.
We made our way around a lake and then found ourselves on the road to downtown Leadville. I STILL wasn't sure I was going to make the cutoff until I was about a 1/2 hour from Leadville with an hour to go before the cutoff. I started wrapping my mind around the fact that I was going to finish this race. Not only that, I was going to finish this race, after being very ready to give up. I was getting emotional, like I always do when I saw the finish line! I was running with Scott and then I looked up and saw Keri, AK, Darcy and Darcy's daughter Sophia waiting at 99.5 to run in with me. I was so happy and proud. I crossed the The Leadville 100 finish line in 29 1/2 hours.
Again, I had no business being in Leadville this year but i'm so glad I ran it. My crew was world class and I can honestly say I would've had my first DNF if it weren't for each of you! Scott, Keri, AK, Darcy; THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO HELP ME THROUGH THIS AWESOME RACE. I'd be honored to crew or pace for y'all anytime you need it.
Lastly, I just want to say how much I love the ultra running community. I have found my tribe. I will keep doing these races as they bring me to such an incredible place. Maybe next year, i'll run Leadville again with a bunch of good, tough training and see what I can do! Yee Haw!
