Tanya Deeks was kind enough to send a very detailed report of all the fun doing the Leadville 100. Here is her report:
Leadville 73
By the numbers:
My Racing Life:
7 Ironmans
12 Half Ironmans
8 Cross Country Ski Races
2 Uphill Road Bike Races
2 Mountain Bike Races
7 years of Ironman Training
10 years of Triathlon Training
3 seasons of ski training
1 season of mountain bike training
Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race:
104 miles
12,000 ft of climbing
12 hours
Lowest elevation 9263 ft
Highest elevation 12,550ft
1900 racers
1200 finishers
270 females
120 female finishers
Why Leadville:
After 10 years of triathlon training and racing I needed a change. A change yes, but if you would have asked me back then if I would consider the Race Across the Sky I would have fallen on the floor laughing. Yet, after watching the Race Across the Sky 2009 video when Lance Armstrong smashed the record and won with a 20 min lead I found what I was looking for! I wanted to go to Colorado and experience this race. I wanted to race in the dirt, climb the 3000 ft up to Columbine Mine and I wanted to descend the dreaded powerline. For various reasons I knew I had one shot at this so I put my name in the lottery and let fate run its course. I knew it was a long shot. Everything about this race was a long shot. Getting a lottery spot was only the tip of the ice burg. It had been years since I did any serious mountain biking, I had never competed in a mountain bike race before, my asthma is bad and I had no idea how bad it would be at altitude and I just had my knee surgery and had no idea how it would hold up with that much climbing. What was I thinking! Well, actually I was thinking about how cool it would be!
Getting to Leadville 100:
Training was intense – 6 days a week of cycling, mostly on my new mountain bike (thanks Placid Planet for hooking me up with an awesome ride!) with 2 strength training sessions a week and throw in some yoga as often as I can. Climbing was on the agenda of course which meant driving to Placid twice a week and hitting the high peaks. This all amounted to about 15-20 hours of training a week with a total of 52 thousand ft of climbing in the last 6 weeks of training. June was a tough month, I felt sluggish and tired but by the time we arrived in Colorado the training had all come together. I was in the best shape I’ve been in since Ironman Canada in 2006 and I felt great. The only unknown was the altitude and how that would impact on my already limited oxygen intake. We arrived on the Tuesday before the race. All the research into racing at altitude indicated that if I couldn’t arrive weeks in advance this was the next best time to arrive and after a couple of days living at 10,000 feet I was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately my pre-race ride on Friday painted a different picture – race pace was slow and laboured with an elevated heart rate. How slow? About half as slow as the same effort at home – yicks!
Race Day:
Wow. I’m doing Leadville! How totally cool is this. No matter what happens this is the best day of my life (ok, second to my wedding day)!
All first timers were put in the very last corral which meant we were basically in a different county from the start line and the pros. We could barely hear the announcer and when the gun went off (in Leadville they use a real shot gun) we didn’t even hear it. “Look at them go” the announcer said, “It’s just a blurr of color whipping by us!” Yeah maybe where he was but back here we are still standing still! I don’t know how many minutes it took before we even started moving but it was many minutes before I crossed the start line! We were the tail end of a fast moving snake of riders, following the police escort for the first few miles until we would hit the dirt and the real race begins! After a few minutes I looked up and my heart jumped a beat. I was looking at what looked like a cloud of smoke from a large forest fire. It was billowing high in the sky and getting bigger and bigger, except this wasn’t smoke and there wasn’t a fire, it was dust. The lead riders had hit the dirt and without any rain for the past month the ground was dry and the dust was thick. The dust was so thick that when I finally got to the end of the pavement the visibility was about 6 feet. And so it begins. This was my first big challenge – keeping the dust out of my lungs. I pulled up my bandana that I wore for this specific purpose and despite looking like an outlaw and it limiting my breathing even further; I was able to keep most of the dust out of my lungs. So I was an outlaw for the first hour of the race until the dust settled down a bit on the first couple of climbs.
The climbs in Leadville are not very hard, certainly not as steep as what I was climbing in Placid but they are congested with traffic and even though I was able to ride the climbs I was often forced off my bike when it was impossible to pass all the walkers. I made it up the first two climbs and was pleased with my progress, the dust had settled and all I had to do was concentrate on breathing. Deep breaths out forcing all the oxygen out of your lungs forces your lungs to inhale deeply and I concentrated on this throughout the whole race. It was the only way I could keep going. The minute I lose focus, my breathing would turn shallow, fast and desperate. I had to keep on top of my breathing. I kept telling myself to concentrate on my own race, and under the circumstances my race consisted of 3 key races – a race to each cut off times. I knew it was going to be tight. I had to go as hard as I could, pushing all the way and concentrate on breathing. My breathing will dictate the race.
I reached the top of Powerline and was greeted by a reality check. I had seen a lot of people stopped with mechanicals along the course but this was my first crash victim. A woman had crashed into a tree on the very early stages of the downhill. It was a good reminder that is downhill is not to be taken lightly. There is only 1 safe line to take, deviate from that and you’re on dangerous ground – rocks, washouts, and steep drops, all worthy of ending your race, or worse. Initially, I let a couple of fast guys pass on the few places that would allow this and used them as the carrot. I followed them down, staying on the racing line. It was so fun! My bike was at home on this kind of trail. All I had to do was trust my bike, stay on the line, stay alert and enjoy the ride. And enjoy the ride I did, I started laughing and grinning from ear to ear. I was so sad when the 3 mile down hill was over. That was the best downhill I’ve done in years!
23 miles done and only 17 miles to the first time check at the base of the Columbine 3000ft climb. I had to push hard to meet that time cut off. Unfortunately I was back on the sandy double and single track and the outlaw look had to come back. The trails were fun but breathing was hard particularly with the bandana. As I crested the last hill and saw the tent city of the first check point and aid station. I turned into an animal! To hell with monitoring the heart rate, my first goal is in site and I’ll be damned if they are going to stop me. I put it into overdrive and time trialed it to the timing mat. Everyone around me was feeling the same, I could hear them breathing as I passed them and I was wondering how many would be joining me on the climb up Columbine. My computer said 4 hours, the cut off was 4 hours, but they were using chip time and I really had no idea what my chip time was. I was hoping I had at least 2 mins but I really had no idea. I arrived at the aid station, flew over the timing mat, hundreds of people were cheering us on. I slowed a bit to start my active recovery from my time trialling session and one of the woman I passed rode up to me and asked if we made the cut off. I said “I don’t know but unless someone physically takes me off my bike I’m not stopping to ask! I’m not looking back, so keep riding!”. We rode together till I saw Paul waving our Placid Planet flag over the crowd. I made a quick stop, changed Camelbacks and was off again.
The climb up to Columbine Mine was interesting. The higher I climbed the less oxygen we could absorb. Many people were walking up while the fast guys and female pro’s were flying down the hill making it tricky to pass people on the way up. There were lots of accidents as people were desperately trying to make up time on the decent. As I climbed above tree line, the jeep track turned into a narrow, washed out “goat” track with only 1 good riding line which was being dominated by riders coming down the climb. This resulted in a lot of walking as the remaining track was deep sand and loose big rocks. So I hiked for the next 2 miles till I reached the ridge at the top and hopped back on my bike to ride the last bit to the summit and aid station. I didn’t linger at the top; I wanted to get down and back to Paul who was waiting at the bottom with another camelback if needed. So down I went, this time the best line was mine. It became evident early just how tricky this downhill was and why there were so many crashes. There were so many potholes and water bars that you just didn’t notice when you were climbing. So this meant I couldn’t go flying down the mountain as I was hoping. Paul will be worried, it took me longer to climb than expected and now it will take longer to go down. Yet after seeing the damage and injuries this downhill inflicted on others it’s best to get down fast and safe than superfast and broken up and on the back of a medical ATV.
The second time check was again at the bottom of Columbine. My lungs had taken a beating climbing this mountain and I had to keep concentrating on breathing but it was getting harder and harder. Meeting this time check was going to be tight and the mile or two before the check point are slow with some sandy parts. I knew I couldn’t risk stopping so I called to Paul to meet me at Pipeline - the third and final check point. I just hoped that I was going to be clear of this second one! So I sped by Paul and busted my butt to get to the check point just a mile or so away. I left a lot of people on Columbine and was passing people on my way to the check point. I said nothing to them as I passed as all I could focus on was reaching that check point. As I rounded the corner and squeezed through the farmers gate someone radioed ahead with my race number. That’s it I thought, they are going to cut me off. I could see the timing mat. All I could think of was getting across that mat as soon as possible. As I crossed it people we yelling to keep going. I was clear, I made it! I couldn’t believe it. I was getting a chance to stay in the race and go further on my Leadville adventure!
The next check point was 13 miles away and I had just under 1 hour to get there. The trail between me and that timing mat was mostly up hill, sandy and single track. Time to suck it up and give it all you’ve got. I had nothing to lose. I put the athlete ahead of me in my sights and focussed on running him down. I passed him on a corner and as I climbed the single track switch backs through the sage brush I could see my next set of victims. I chased them down and passed them on the switchbacks. And so it continued, I was chasing down each rabbit until I saw the check point. But the check point looked different – the mat was gone. I didn’t slow down, maybe there never was a mat... anything can happen, you can’t give up. By it wasn’t to be. I missed the cut off by only a few minutes. I was greeted by a very upset looking woman whose job was to tell people that they can no longer continue with the race. She kept apologizing and I her told I was fine. In fact, I was fine. Against all odds, I had gone farther than I thought my lungs would let me. I raced 3/4 of Leadville 100, I climbed Columbine and saw the world from 12,550 feet, I had a blast descending Powerline and I raced harder than I ever have in my life. I felt great! As I was telling her this, I realized I had TV cameras and microphones around me. I don’t think they were expecting someone to be so happy. That morning I decided that given my asthma I wasn’t going to worry about others, I was here to ride MY race. Well, my race was Leadville 73 and I had a blast!
