2024 began with the hope and dream of running the Leadville 100 Ultra Race. It had become clear to me that I've been building and preparing for that adventure for over 6 years now. I have spent time on various parts of the route including Hope Pass. I have been envisioning what it would be like to run through the night and to cover all that scenery. I've even envision various members of the family pacing me along the way. I've been learning more and more about ultras and in particular running further and how to train the body to do it. Even my family summer schedule was lining up for this to be a great year for me to train and race it. I signed up for the lottery and was anxiously waiting by my computer in January for that welcome letter saying I had been selected. I had a good feeling about this. Until I didn't. I was not selected. On January 8 the e-mails came out and I got the bad news. The rumors of the difficulty of getting into the Leadville 100 proved true.
Thus began my first sidetrack of the year. As I waited for the lottery result I didn't even want to consider a plan B I was so confident I would get in. When the bad news came I had to be ready to pivot. I had done the great 50-mile race in Michigan at the Marquette 50. There weren't any other 50-milers in the Midwest that were speaking to me this year or that fit my calendar. Leadville's Silver Rush 50 quickly rose to the top. I was hesitant at first about running a course almost entirely on old dirty mining roads, I was worried that wouldn't be very scenic. That is, until I watched a YouTube video of someone on course. My heart quickly changed. It was gorgeous. Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive, the two highest peaks in the state, were in view most of the way. I was quickly hooked.
The Silver Rush registration opened up on January 9, a day after the Leadville 100 lottery results came out. Silver Rush was first come, first served. I registered right as it opened. In 2024 it looked like that was unnecessary but I wasn't taking chances. I think it took a couple weeks for it to ultimately fill. My excitement for the race quickly grew.
Five days after signing up for the race I had a bad fall on some ice on my driveway at home. Within 24 hours it felt really bad. I was worried I had a torn ligament and surgery could be on the horizon. Just like that, I was already worried a July race might be in jeopardy. Within days it was improving but I could tell there was definitely something wrong. On January 31 I was able to see an orthopedic and they took x-rays. Thankfully the x-rays said the bones looked good and nothing was broken. The doctor suggested it was likely a PCL strain. It should heal on its own.
As I nursed the injury I had taken a good two weeks off running. I eased back into things with hopes the PCL injury wouldn't be a big deal. Much to my delight, it really wasn't. I mostly didn't feel it while running, it was only during other activities at home like crouching down where it gave me pains. What did come out of this ordeal was a bad case of patellar tendonitis. That was a condition I had been dealing with off and on for 2 years or so and I felt like I was mostly managing it. Something about the two weeks I took off for the PCL strain, and then my comeback, made the tendonitis all the more worse. It quickly began to be a factor in my ongoing training.
I certainly wondered in those moments in January and into early February how I was going to make it through 4+ months of training and then to run 50 miles. I would feel moderate discomfort and increasing tightness in my knees after 20-30 minutes of running. This chronic condition had become much worse than before.
If you want to read on about how my training went and what changes and accommodations I made I have a section later in this report about the training.
In hindsight, the big picture of both the lead-up and the race itself became a picture of surprises, twists and turns, and unexpected good. Spoiler alert, the race went incredibly well. I was having the time of my life out there and the result couldn't have pleased me more. Despite the early setbacks of the knee injuries, a last minute setback of sore calves, and the ups and downs of everything in between, I was simply in shock and awe of the blessings that race day brought me. It was a surefire lesson and moment about perseverance in the midst of turmoil because you never know how things are going to turn out.
Table of Contents
RACE RECAP
I was late for race start. It was my own fault, mostly. My father was dropping me off at the sled hill start at 5:30am but as we arrived I realized I left my drop bag back at the house. Thankfully we were only about 5 minutes away so we made a quick round trip to pickup my bag and then we were back. We initially chose 5:30 for arrival as it was so cold out and I didn't want to hanging out at the start freezing for longer than necessary. It was now 5:40 at dropoff. I headed toward the start area and it took me a few minutes to find where the drop bags went and then to get my name on it. They had their own clear bags for us to use with duct tape name strips on them. After drop bags I realized I needed one more bathroom stop and this is what nearly doomed me. As usual the porto lines are horrendous at race starts. I found the one that looked to give me the best option to make race start at 6am. It was close. I basically stepped out of the porto right as the gun went off to start everybody up the sled hill. Luckily I was pretty much ready to go. I was about 50 yards from the start and I hopped over there and began the chase up the hill. I was probably 10 yards behind the back of the pack. There were probably others still at the portos when I began so I wasn't exactly the very last.
I took it easy with a light hike going up the hill and by the top I was basically caught up to the large pack. Thankfully the race quickly moved onto the large dirt roads that lead off the sled hill. While crowded I never found my movement hindered or my pace slowed anymore than I wanted it to be at that point. The route meandered down the side of the sled hill and eventually hit the paved Mineral Belt bike Trail for a short bit. We left that for dirt road heading due south. This meandered with slight ups and downs but was mostly flat. It was a nice place to find a good groove while also keeping things chill. I was monitoring my HR to keep it under 140 with this early effort. There was also some high-fiving and small talk going on between everyone to get to this long day started.
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A little bit of early crowding on course |
We eventually hit the big left (north) turn to start the climb up to Iowa Gulch. This put us into thin pockets of trees and the gain at first was modest. Here I began my climbing intervals of about 2 minutes of power hiking and then a 30 second surge. The surge was just a modest running pace. Depending on how I felt and on my HR I would sometimes change the lengths of these intervals. I noticed throughout these first miles I was slowly passing people.
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Beautiful morning heading up to Black Cloud |
Black Cloud to Printer Boy Out
The scenery got progressively more beautiful as I ascended. The trees were also thinning. The last couple of miles up to Iowa Gulch got steeper and more rocky. There were also many mini streams putting water over the trail and creating ponds and little creeks to dodge. I was still progressively passing people along the way. As I neared Iowa Gulch it was the first time in the day so far I really felt my HR going up and I was working hard. I took this as a sign to slow the pace a bit. I was probably around mile 10 in there and it was too early to burn any matches. I accounted a lot of this feeling to the reaching of 12000 feet in elevation and the steepness of the road.
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Mt. Sherman straight ahead |
There were some men from SAR with ATVs at the top. They were just hanging out watching us runners go by. I assume they were stationed there in case of emergency. The descent from Iowa Gulch was great. The road was nice and wide, well paved, and a good grade. In here I had my first opportunity of the day to figure out what my downhill intervals should look like. I knew I didn't just want to run for the four miles straight to the aid station. So I began a plan of doing 2 1/2 mins of running with a 30 second break. For most of the day that type of downhill interval would remain. At first I figured the breaks would be good for my knees but I figured during the day they were also a help for the quads to keep them from overloading. At every walk interval I was getting passed by people and I had to convince myself it was okay. On the run intervals I would sometimes gain those people back.
At the bottom of that long descent was a paved road with a short quarter mile ascent to the Printer Boy aid station. It was awesome first coming in as there was well over a hundred spectators cheering people on and waiting for their runners. Always love those running community moments. First big emotion moment of the day.
Printer Boy to Venir Out
At Printer Boy I continued to refine my aid station routine. It was here I decided to try the Skratch Labs drink the race was offering. I saw someone with a pitcher that looked yellow and lemon flavored. The other they had was billed as "caffeinated" and looked more like reddish. I was afraid it would be like a raspberry so I steered clear. I used my collapsible cup to grab pretzels and a few chips as well as M&Ms and I hit the trail walking. The M&Ms weren't quite hitting the spot so I ditched them, the rest of it I gobbled up for the calories.
The course was now one more mile of descent on a nice rocky dirt road all in the trees. It was pretty smooth moving. At the bottom of the hill, which the maps label as "White's Gulch", we crossed a road and then headed up an even more refined dirt road. This one was clearly regularly graded. This was an 0.8 of a mile climb with a couple hundred feet of gain. This spit us out into an opening with a junction where we made a right turn and began ascending more steeply. This continued climb was on a 4WD road, very rocky, narrow at times, and steeper. It was in my mind the most difficult climb of the whole day given all those combined factors. It was also in here we saw the race lead. We were about 3:45 into the race and I was doing some quick math on what such a finish time would look like, very impressive.
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On the slopes of Ball Mountain |
I happened to recognize the race lead from all my time spent following the trail and ultra world. It was coach David Roche. He is an elite ultra runner in his own right but also a well regarded coach with many of the elite athletes under his care. He was flying. The next male had to have been like 10 minutes back. I didn't recognize him but it turned out to be JP Giblin.
I did almost no run intervals on this steeper climb. The climb finally opened up a bit when we arrived at two large piles of mining tailings. Here the climb wasn't over yet but it eased up enough to make progress less impeded. From there it was only another half mile or so until we topped out around 12000ft for the second of the day on the southwest slope of Ball Mt. It was open and beautiful up there. We began a quick descent from there of another half mile down to the Venir aid station.
Venir to Stumptown Out
From Venir it was only 5 miles to the turnaround. It was in here that I had a look at my overall timing just to see how I was doing on the day. My overall goal was to beat 12 hours and I was thinking I needed a 5:45 first half to have a chance at my goal. I think I was around 4:30 to Venir and if I could make the turnaround in an hour I would be in great shape.
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Monarch Mine area |
The course after Venir was less memorable. Not a bad thing, but it was a number of smaller ups and downs as the mining roads meandered around. We passed the Monarch Mine and more large tailings piles. I was increasingly encountering runners who were on their return trip already. It was nice to be on the mining roads at this point and not on a crowded singletrack. With almost 600 runners on course this was certainly a perk the whole day, it never felt too crowded.
I remember being amazed through here how well I was still feeling. I remained quite fresh. I think I had been moderating my effort well enough to keep this up. This was miles 19-24 though it certainly did not feel like it. I was really just enjoying myself. I kept thinking I was having the time of my life with how well everything was going.
Stumptown
There were some short uphills to get up to the Stumptown aid station and turnaround. Just before the loop that is a part of the aid station we encountered the crowds and crews. I happened to find my Dad in there waiting for me. We talked real briefly and I told him I wanted to hit the aid station and my drop bags and then we'd regroup. Much to my dismay the loop involved a short but steep uphill then followed by a quick downhill that spit us out into the aid station on the lower part of the loop. The dropbags were just past the aid station so I really didn't hit the aid at all other than for liquid refills.
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Me walking out of Stumptown aid (Photo credit: Denny) |
As I hurried through my drop bag and returned it I then made my way back out to the crowd and crew area to talk to my father another few moments. He was having a great time checking out the race atmosphere and keeping tabs on me. He had rented an e-bike out of Leadville and was making his way around to the crew points. In all I clocked 15 minutes at Stumptown which includes probably 5-6 minutes of just hiking around the loop.
Stumptown to Venir In
Venir to Printer Boy In
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Pano from high on course |
Printer Boy to Black Cloud In
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Me coming down the road from Iowa Gulch Mt. Sheridan in background [MarathonFoto.com] |
Black Cloud In to the Finish
Hydration
- The race start was around 38 degrees and clear skies. It was a typical mountain morning. Such a cold start meant wearing my jacket and gloves for the wait at the start line.
- Through the morning the temperatures did warm up gradually but they remained comfortable for running at the high elevation. The skies remained mostly clear.
- Into the afternoon the temps topped out around 70 in the lower parts of the course. Some clouds provided occasional moments of shade along the way.
- The vast majority of the course was on dirt mining roads. The only true single track was on the mountain bike trails over parts of the last mile and a quarter. The climb up Bill Hill before reaching Venir In had the feel of a single track in the trees but it was wide enough to be considered double track.
- On the section above Black Cloud heading for the Iowa Gulch trailhead there were numerous small stream crossings, none of which required the toes to get wet.
- As a whole I enjoyed the course much more than I could have imagined. Though I do love single track trail it was easy on the mind to always have open views and to see progress being made.
GARMIN FENIX 7
The Fenix 7 watch proved invaluable again during the race. I had set up a Data Screen in my Trail Run activity to show "Current Pace" - "Lap Time" - "Heart Rate". I used this the vast majority of the race. The Lap Time is what I used to track my intervals. I also followed the HR a lot and especially early in the race sought to keep it in the 140s or lower. I didn't want to go anaerobic at all. The Current Pace I used seldomly but on occasion would be curious to get a rough estimate of just how fast I was going.
I also set up Courses for my watch to be able to use the Up and Coming waypoints page. Much to my dismay, the Aid Stations were not showing up. In the Garmin course editor I had noted those waypoints as Aid Stations while I also put in other waypoints on the course with the default settings. Only the default waypoints showed up.
GEAR
I used my Ultimate Direction Ultra Vest 5.0 today and it served me fine. It was a little tight in the back when I had it full of gear including my jacket. I had my two soft flasks in the front as well as some snacks in the small front pouches. In the back of the vest I was carrying a baggie of toilet paper, some extra body tape, my jacket, 3 containers of drink powder, drink funnel, collapsible cup, bandanna, and gloves. At Stumptown I left my jacket with Dad to create some space in the vest as I figured I wouldn't need it, I was right.
At the first aid station I was getting used to pulling my pack off, pulling out the flasks and maneuvering everything without dropping it all on the ground. One great routine I figured out during the day was to use the collapsible cup to carries pretzels and chips from the aid station so I could continue hiking while eating. I further refined this by carrying the cup with its loophole in the lower strap on the front of the vest. This meant I could hit every aid station and not even take my vest off. The cup was accessible and I could take my flasks out for drink and keep moving. This was a good innovation for me.
The entirety of this race allowed trekking poles. A number of people used them from the beginning. I debated it. I ultimately resolved to grab my poles at the turnaround at Stumptown. I figured I wanted to experience half the course unencumbered and feel good running in that regard. The latter half of the day I would want them to help with the fatigue and the hills. I can't argue that this plan seemed to work well. I certainly enjoyed having the poles and I used them well on the ups and downs. I was power hiking as fast as anyone and passing people regularly on the uphills on the latter half.
A big part of my "gear" this year was the use of kinesiology tape ("KT tape"). My PT got me onto this when we were working out the tendonitis issues and I became a believer. I had some extra sticky Rock tape that I used to tape up my knees in a supportive fashion and it worked well. My knees were never a problem the entire day and even into the day after they were not sore. This amazed me. Where the KT tape possibly saved me is I also ended up using it on my calf muscles. While hiking Huron Peak and Mount Shavano on Wednesday and Thursday before the race I delivered some exterior soreness in both calves. I could feel it coming on on Thursday morning as we began Shavano. Being an idiot I continued on with the hike of Shavano and on Friday morning they were definitely sore. It hurt to flex them or do any sort of up or down steps. Mentally I was beginning to do the math on whether I could hike the 50 miles on Saturday and still make the time limit. It dawned up me during the day I should see about taping the calves. I found Rocktape's YouTube video on how to do it and with some help I taped both calves on Friday night. The hope was this would give them support from the bouncing of running and possibly stave off the soreness. Long story short, it worked like a charm on Saturday. Between the taping and also some good rest on Friday the calves were a non-issue during the race. Once more, amazed.
CLOTHING
- I wore my Hoka Challenger ATR6 trail runners the whole way today. My feet felt great and never had a hot spot the whole day. With them I just wore my normal socks. My feet had no issues. They stayed dry other than one splash in a creek crossing on the way up to Iowa Gulch, but that seemed to dry.
- I wore my long-sleeve white tech shirt and my black compression running shorts. This all worked well. The shorts with that side leg pocket were very handy. I kept trash and sunscreen in that side pocket which was very handy. I had my Ultimate Direction running jacket on for the first 30 minutes until I warmed up and that was the last I used it. Likewise my simple running gloves were on for maybe an hour or two at start and then I ditched them into my pack as well.
- I wore the white sport hat that I had picked up for the Grand Canyon RRR and kept it on the entire day. I also brought a long a bandanna to use for sun cover. I didn't wear it in the early morning. Once I got out into the morning sun I wore it for an hour or so. At some point I was feeling warm with it and so I took it. I probably had it off until the descent off Iowa Gulch on the way in. I wore it again for sun cover and kept it on til the race finish.
- I wore my regular sunglasses pretty much from when the sun finally found us on course in the morning until the finish. I started the day with a heavy coat of sunscreen on my face and neck. I carried extra with me during the day but never did decide to slow up to put anymore on. I was pleased to find I had no major sunburn in the days that followed despite the heavy amount of exposure on race day.
MANTRA
In 2022 on my Marquette 50 ultra I was really into using a mantra during the day to keep motivation and spirits high. This never really came to me either before race or during race at Silver Rush 50. I was so engaged with the course itself and the decisions I was making with intervals and pacing during the race that I never really needed anything like a mantra to keep me going. It was just that sort of day that my mind was engaged and I felt good and while everything was clicking I used this as a good feedback loop to keep things positive and moving in a good direction.
Leading into training I was feeling very fit. I had spent the fall and the winter leading into 2024 just doing basic fitness and improving my speed and pace. I had been largely following the Garmin Fenix 7 training recommendations since they do a nice job of mixing up different types of workouts. I don't know how scientific it is but it is creative enough to keep me going.
Due to my previously detailed knee injury and the increasingly chronic tendonitis I didn't really start formal training until mid-March. That still gave me a full 17 weeks and essentially 4 months of preparation. I set about my main goal as trying to arrive at race day feeling as good as possible even if I wasn't hitting big mileage goals along the way.
My training plan was large a custom plan I made for myself. In previous years I had been using Krissy Moehl's plan for my two attempts at the Marquette 50. This year I planned out roughly what I wanted my long runs to be and the weekly mileage totals, but then began the plan using inspiration from the Garmin watch for the day to day running. From the start I was also adding in basic hill workouts as well.
As the early weeks passed and my knee tendonitis was increasingly an issue I pretty much went entirely off day to day what I felt I could handle and work with the knees. I tried to preserve my long run plans and keep close to weekly mileage targets and for the day to day I just made things work. The big addition in this year's plan was a lot of treadmill miles. A lot. I would move the treadmill up to the 10 degree angle which calculated out to 500 feet of gain per mile. I did a ton of days at 4 miles and sometimes 6 miles to get both the gain and the time on feet. For these I mostly did intervals of 2 minutes powerhike and then 1 minute at about a 10-mile run.
The tendonitis also had me avoiding the pavement and heading to the trails as much as possible. I spent a lot of time at Munson Park and the River Raisin Battlefield as they were my local trails. They're all flat but I had hoped the softer surface would help. I would have weeks where all my miles were on these two trail systems or the treadmill.
The week of May 6 was my first 50+ mile week. I would only have one more week that large thereafter and a 47-mile week. I've definitely done more in the past. Here again I was hoping the prioritization on rest and recovery and feeling good for race day would outweigh mileage goals and training.
I was able to accrue my largest totals for ascent training ever. In February and March 2024 I was around 15,000 feet each month. In April and May I was up to about 23,000 feet each month. In June I maxed out at 31,520 feet. The bulk of this was on the treadmill where I calculated my ascending at 500 feet per mile. I felt very strong with my power hiking during the race on the climbs so I am inclined to believe this was of great help.
What I didn't do a lot of in this training cycle was the strength training and in particular the mountain running strength (MRS) workouts. I just never got a routine going with them. They are still a workout I would consider for future training.
Early reaction after the race on training: as a whole I did feel rested and in pretty good shape for the race. Outside of the niggles of the knee tendonitis I was good. In that regard training was a success. I do still need to fine tune my acclimation plans for these Colorado races. I went out there on Tuesday for the Saturday race hoping several days in high altitude would be good. That in and of itself worked. However the two 14ers we did on Wednesday and Thursday created some DOMS-like soreness in my calves. I had really been metering my effort on those days but still had soreness. My quads thankfully were good unlike what I had done to them in 2016 before Pikes Peak. As aforementioned, I taped the calves and this seems to have saved the race. In the future I need to decide whether to just go out west 24 hours before the race or find a way to acclimate without putting my legs and training at risk.
Total Miles: 48.31 miles
Total Elevation Gain: 7,494 ft.
Total Calories Burned: 6,305 cals
Total Time: 11:28:02
RACE DAY SPLITS Top of the Hill 01:53 -- 27:34 pace -- 570 of 586
Hill -> Black Cloud Out
01:40:39 -- 13:21 pace
2:52 at aid station
Black Cloud -> Printer Boy Out
01:29:31 -- 13:32 pace -- 360 of 580
2:26 at aid station
Printer Boy -> Venir Out
01:12:25 -- 15:18 pace -- 330 of 565
2:38 at aid station
Venir -> Stumptown
00:58:13 -- 12:36 pace -- 312 of 536
13:55 at aid station (incl. aid station loop)
Stumptown ->Venir In
01:07:14 -- 14:30 pace -- 290 of 536
2:43 at aid station
Venir -> Printer Boy In
1:05:59 -- 13:52 pace -- 255 of 498
4:25 at aid station (met w/ my father)
Printer Boy -> Black Cloud In
1:37:20 -- 14:46 pace
5:22 at aid station (w/ bathroom stop)
Black Cloud -> Finish
01:40:22 -- 12:27 pace - 226 of 526 at finish
11:28:37 (11:28:02 by my watch)
168 of 376 males
48 of 91 age group, M40-49
Big Splits
5:33 out
(13:55 at turnaround)
5:41 in (so close to an even split for the day!)
The embedded map has my track from race day as well as waypoints for the aid stations, the four major peaks, and a few other notable points along the way.
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