Leadville 2021 - Preparations

Training Recap

After the cancellation of the 2020 Leadville 100 due to COVID, I – like many others, I imagine – was pretty pumped for the 2021 race. Training (again with Neal coaching) officially started February 2nd. As expected, not all of my training runs were great. Overall, training went pretty smoothly and with only some minor niggles. Because I’m a numbers guy: in 6.5 months of training, I spent almost 240 hours running 1156.87 miles, totaling 130,457’ of gain – and I ran/hiked two 14ers (Mt. Yale and Pikes Peak) along the way.

In July, they announced that we would get pacers starting at Twin Lakes inbound (62.5 miles) instead of at the Winfield turnaround (50 miles). It caught me off guard, but it didn’t take long for me to realize (also with a little tough love help from coach Neal) that it doesn’t change anything for me. Four weeks out, Neal and I did a Hope Pass “double” on which I felt strong the whole way – much better than my first experience back in 2018 – so I’ve nailed it before, albeit not after running 40 miles. Plus, that section gets especially crowded with pacers. 95% of the time I had no doubts that I would finish this thing. Occasionally I would worry about making the cutoff time, thinking back to the 21 hours at Never Summer, but Neal reminded me a few times how hard the Never Summer course is and how runnable Leadville is (partly due to only adding 2000’ more of gain over the additional 35 miles). There were a lot of uncertainties as the summer went on – in life, in general, but also with the race – and the athlete guide wasn’t released until 10 days before the race. Colorado’s COVID numbers crept back up in April and May but dropped again come summer. The race was on.

Leadville Course Profile in 3D (that someone shared)

The weekend before Leadville was spent gathering and organizing. A lot of the logistical details were covered in a couple of Zoom meetings in the weeks prior. I felt good about my preparation. I packed my drop bags and three bins for the crew to bring to each spot: fuel/nutrition, clothing/shoes, gear/first aid. I had way more than I would need, but that’s a whole lot better than not having enough!

Packing up before leaving for Leadville

My dad flew in Wednesday night (to help Courtney crew) and my sister Vicki flew in Thursday morning (to help crew and then pace me to the finish), and we all drove out to Leadville on Thursday afternoon. That evening, the four of us drove out to May Queen/Turquoise Lake.

With Courtney and my dad at Turquoise Lake (Thursday)

Neal and his family and pacers arrived on Friday. Friday morning, Vicki and I went for a 30-minute shakeout run. I felt a little stiff, but that was point… loosen the legs and get the altitude lungs working.

Vicki and I out for a shakeout run on Friday

Three of us (Courtney had to work) then went to the athlete/crew meeting on the football field, where we met up with Neal. They showed parts of Billy Yang’s video “The Why” – which we had all watched (separately) earlier. I loved watching all of the videos to pump myself up leading up to the race.

Athlete/Crew Meeting on Friday

Dropping off drop bags

We walked over to packet pickup after the meeting. I got the address wrong, so we walked a little more than planned. Oops. Luckily Neal gave us a ride back to our car afterwards. After a brief stop back at the house, we went back to drop off my drop bags. After an early-ish dinner, we had a brief team meeting to go over some things one final time before hitting the hay early (about 8pm). It was excitement rather than anxiety that interrupted my sleep. All-in-all, though, it wasn’t bad for a night before a race. Especially one like this.

Start line gear all laid out Friday night

Up Next: Leadville 2021 - Race Report