Lead King Loop 25k – 2011
Full report located here complete with Photos.
I entered a running race this last weekend, called the Lead King Loop 25k, held in Marble, CO. As a coincidence, a couple of years back, before I had heard of this race, I actually biked the loop when returning from a business trip to Aspen – and I was surprised to ride through a ghost town and see an amazing old mill – which turned out is one of the most famous historical relics in all of Colorado.
Much to my surprise, the race turned out to be the USA Track & Field state championships for 25k distance runners. Cool, so this meant the race had a lot of the states top runners on hand.
Like the weekend prior, I left Durango a midst a rainstorm, only this time I ended up going through snow at the northern passes! However, as I descended down to Ridgway, the skies cleared up and it appeared to be a bit drier than in the La Platas. That nice weather would hold through the entire weekend.
The plan was to stay over night in the small town of Paonia and then drive over McClure Pass and drop into Marble the following morning for the race for the 8:30-AM start. Paonia ended up being pretty cool, and I found the local micro-brewery – Revolution Brewing. The brewery is located in an old house, and they had a really nice Colorado Red Ale, which is made with all Colorado ingredients. I decided to carbo-load so I had four beers, including their IPA. 
I struck up a conversation with the owner about a bottle of beer on his shelf. He told me that Revolution is actually the third ever micro-brewery in Paonia, and the bottle shown below is from their first one – Fire Mountain. This was bottled in 1979 – and has never been opened. So much for Samuel Adams and their “we were first” claims like Gary Fisher and mountain bikes, eh?
Back in 1979, I believe I was in Greeley, CO and doing the roller disco thing, drinking “suicide sodas,” and actually working my first job as a paper delivery boy on a bike furnished by the Greeley Tribune. I only got the job because my buddy Jeff Vargas got sick of delivering the papers and gave it to me. (For the record, I didn’t last long – there were too many complaints about newspapers ending up on rooftops). Jeff and I later broke the bike frame doing parking lot jumps, BTW. Wow, that was a long time ago!
The race morning was chilly, with a 35F start. But since the route immediately took us up mountain – with a 3k climb right off the bat I just wore shorts, a shirt, arm warmers and thin fleece gloves. I also was fortunate enough to have my car parked about 75-ft from the start line so any last minute decisions were easy to make on the clothing. I knew the course would be very chunky and gnarly as I remembered a ton of rocks from the mountain bike ride a few years back, so I wore the Hoka One Ones I bought from Barb, and it was a great choice. I am NOT a runner, I just pretend to be one as I really only run 1 day a week, and ride a bike on four or five of the others days. The Hokas have a ridiculous wide and spongy base that allows me to run a course like as someone with cardio fitness and muscle strength – but completely inadequate joint strength required of a runner. It is amazing – and I cannot stress this enough how awesome the shoe was for this. This shoe compensates for lack of joint strength in my opinion.
We took off and I settled into the ~ 3rd group of runners. There were a few in the group that were pushing it hard and as we climbed they would drop out. A few people speed walked the steep sections, but I made it a point to run everything. My only limitation was tight Achilles tendons, especially my left leg. After tearing the right Achilles early last season (while biking in the Dawn til Dusk 12-hour race), I did my best to run on the balls of my feet, and take very short steps. If I can continue to get these tendons loosened up, I should be able to take bigger steps and move up faster for steep uphills, as breathing or fitness was not the issue. That said, I was positive in the climb as I passed more than passed me. The big descent would be my real test here, as the Burner 25K run last May proved that I had no business hanging out with runners on the descents due to the joint strength.
The top of the climb is around 11k, and it is stunning beautiful. We abut US Wilderness for a while and the ring of peaks were all snow packed. There was one runner in front of me who I had followed up the climb, but could never quite pass him, so I set him as my mark on the downhills and I was successful there in doing so. The downhill started out gentle and then got ridiculously steep. I did not quite have the muscle memory to run down at this pace and had to arrest a few times with shorter steps – which put a lot of stress on the thighs and butt. I ended up doing very well on the downhill run for me, as for the ~90-minute descent I passed 3 people and was passed by 5. After having what seemed like 100 people pass me at the Burner this was a success for me.
The 90 minute run actually trained me how to run fast downhills as I only got better and better it seemed. I had one loose shoe that became untied with 1.25 miles to go, but other than that it was the fastest I think I have ever run in my life. The last 2 miles are steep, but mag chloride treated back into town, and I only wish I knew how fast I ran there – it was crazy!
My goal for the big loop race was 2 hrs, 30 mins and I made it at 2:32 – which considering the loose shoe and a silly stop at one aid station to eat a goo (that I did not need) and fill up a bottle (that I did not drink) – I was amazed at how close I was to goal – considering my Garmin Computer was tucked away and out of site the entire race.
The race had some very fast people – some of the fastest in the state – as the course record was bested by 3 people. The living legend Bernie Boettcher came in fourth, which is surprising considering how many races he wins on dirt. I ended up doing quite well for me – I was very satisfied with the finish – and believe I got a top 30 out of some 140 racers for the 25k – and in my age group (40-49) came in top 5, as most of the runners in front of me were much younger – 20s and 30s. They moved only Bernie out of the 40-49 Age category – I assume because he was a pro or something of the sort – so that left me in 4th place 40-49 – just one spot out of a podium. Cool beans! I can’t wait to see the results posted.
I’m a mountain bike racer first, so this was nice feedback on how I have improved as a runner over the summer – even if it is the one day a week plan.
The food was excellent at the finish, and then I drove home. I took an awesome photo shot of Red Mountain on the drive back.
The skies are now blue and it looks like a lot of riding now needs to be done. I’ll get the bikes back together and try to go for my first ride since Vapor Trail this week. Cheers to fall!
-Matt