Saturday, August 22 - Sunday, August 23, 2015
Gear: Patagonia Air Flow Shirt, Lululemon Surge Tights, Sockwell Plantar Ease Socks, Sockwell Compression Sleeves, Pearl Izumi Thermal Sleeves, $1 Walmart Special Gloves, Salomon XT Wings Gloves, Salomon Bonatti WP Jacket, Suunto Ambit 2 (HR) Watch, Camelbak Handheld Bottle, Salomon Sense 4 Ultra Shoes, Tailwind Nutrition, Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem & Extreme Endurolytes, and Petzl NAO Headlamp
Race: I'm going to be honest, I don't get too nervous for any race but for some reason Leadville had me a little rattled. Originally it was because of the altitude but after Vermont 100 it was also a fear of my achilles injury flaring up. However, the week in Colorado leading up to the race really helped settle my nerves. Katy, the girls and I had an absolute blast the week leading up to the race! We spent a few days in Estes Park and one day in Silverthorne before heading up to Leadville. All those years vacationing in Colorado in the winter I never realized that I should have been coming here in the summer. Those beautiful summer mountains and that amazing crisp mountain air really got me excited for the race.
My friend Brian, fellow Rock/Creek runner and ten-time Leadville finisher let us rent his family's vacation home for the week. What an awesome friend! It's hard to beat a three bedroom, two bathroom house in Leadville that's only three blocks from the start/finish. I would love to plan a future trip to Leadville where we could spend a couple of weeks and get out to hike/run some of the beautiful mountains surrounding the town.
Our week flew by and before we knew it Friday was here and it was time to put the finishing touches on my race prep and do the pre-race meetings. To save some sanity Katy and I decided to let the girls hang out with Gramma and Granddad while we attended the pre-race meeting at the local high school. I have to commend the race staff, volunteers and speakers at the pre-race meeting. Katy and I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while... we didn't realize that the Leadville Standup Comedy Club was in session for our pre-race meeting.
The nice thing about staying in a home for the week was the ability to cook real food, and cook we did! Mary decided on homemade turkey meat balls, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner... be jealous! So, with full bellies and running shoes ready for some abuse we all laid down around 8-9pm. Being three blocks from the starting line REALLY paid off with a 4am starting time. It's hard to beat waking up at 3:15am, rolling out of bed, throwing on some running stuff, and making the short walk to the start/finish line.
My friend and fellow Grand Slammer, Joshua Holmes met at the house Saturday morning to leave his car and walk with us to the start. It's worth mentioning that Josh decided that his attempt at the Grand Slam would not be complete without adding a fifth race into the middle of the summer's festivities with a Badwater 135-Mile run to make it more of a challenge... what a glutton for punishment!
With about 650 runners, their crews, families, friends, and volunteers all coming out to cheer on the start, energy was pouring through the streets of Leadville. With a kiss from Katy and a hug from my Dad I said a quick prayer for everyone enjoying the race and settled into a starting position.
I was a little disappointed that I was so wrapped up in the excitement of the race start that I didn't even notice the famous Leadville shotgun blast start. Oh well, Katy had made a habit of videoing the countdown at each of the Grand Slam races so I knew I could see it later. A mad rush of people set off down 6th street for a quick 1-mile stretch of road before jumping on to the boulevard. The boulevard is a nice, VERY wide dirt road that would lead us about 5-miles down to the first section of single track at Turquoise Lake. It is very easy to get sucked into this section of the race because it is almost all downhill and because it's so early and everyone is so pumped up it can be easy to burn through some fast miles and pay the price later. So, thanks to the advice from a few of my buddies I made sure not to hit the first aid station at May Queen (13.5 miles) any earlier than 2-hours. As we made our way around the lake we got our first glimpse of the sun and some beautiful views of the mountains. We hit the pavement at the end of Turquoise Lake Trail and ran up the road, past the campgrounds and into the aid station. I wasn't going to see my crew here because they had been warned to skip May Queen on the way out because of the issues trying to get in and out. So, with a quick refill I was on my way again.
This next segment would carry us up and over the Sugarloaf climb and down the power line descent on the backside of the 11,500+ foot pass. The first couple of miles had us running along the Colorado Trail where we got to see some beautiful greenery and some technical rocky trails. A few miles later we popped off of the trail and back onto a dirt road that lead through a couple of long switch backs up to the top of Sugarloaf Pass. By this time the sun was above the horizon and looking back down toward May Queen gave some of the most beautiful views I would see all day.
I settled into a nice mix of running and hiking with a fellow from Colorado and before I knew it we had crested Sugarloaf pass and were starting our descent down the power line. The power line was not so steep that it was unrunnable and bouncing from side-to-side down the ravens it was just a short amount of time before we came out to the road that took us past the Fish Hatchery to the Outward Bound aid station (24.5 miles).
Katy and Dad made quick work of my bottles, refilled my supplies and sent me on my way. Leaving Outward Bound was pretty awesome. It felt like we were running in the bottom of a big mountain bowl. This section of the course ran through the lower basin of the bowl and beautiful mountain peaks surrounding us made up the rim of the bowl. After a short jog down the road we detoured back onto the trail heading back toward the tree line that would guide us around the base of the mountains all the way over to the Twin Lakes aid station. Coincidently, there was another aid station once we hit the tree line called Tree Line. The trail from here consisted of wide, jeep roads littered with small golfball-to-baseball sized rocks. Other than a few small climbs this section was very runnable and would be a nice section to run later in the race on our way back into Outward Bound. Just before the 3-mile descent into Twin Lakes the trail wrapped around a few bends along the ridge giving the first views of Twin Lakes.
The Twin Lakes aid station (39.5 miles) was the last stop before heading up to the top of Hope Pass. Despite my best efforts to have a "sick-free" race I had been queasy and behind on calories since somewhere around mile 30. My spirits were lifted coming into the aid because I found Katy, Dad, Mary, Heidi, and Harlow. Regardless of how crappy I feel it's always a great boost to see their smiling faces. I switched my pack, grabbed some poles and hit the trail wanting to start toward the base of Hope Pass.
Running through the meadows around Twin Lakes I decided to start my Grand Slam ritual and started my puking sessions at about mile 40... Well, at least this was one of the most beautiful places I've ever thrown up. With a quick wipe of my mouth I picked my head up and kept on trucking. The next couple of miles wound through the knee high grass meadows and 7-8 water crossings with one larger river crossing that was about knee high deep. At the base of the mountain the meadow trail turned to a nice double track leading up through the trees.
The entire climb up Hope consisted of 90% hiking and maybe 10% running. Not feeling queasy anymore I decided to make the most of my post retching high. I kept my head down, prayers consistent and my breathing steady. I knew that the tree line would start to disappear as I approached ~11,000 feet and would only have about ~1,500 feet more of elevation gain. After a short while the trees started to dissipate and I could see the trail opening ahead of me into the basin just below the final climb to Hope Pass at ~12,600 feet. There was an aid station about 0.75-miles shy of the summit and I made quick work there as my stomach was still not taking food. The views were breathtaking and definitely worth the lung-busting climb. I snapped a few pictures and started down the backside of Hope toward the turnaround point at the Winfield aid station (50 miles).
The trek down was pretty intense. Steep grades and multiple switchbacks had my gut turning because I knew that within a few hours I would be working my way back up this climb. After dropping a few miles the trail tucked back into the trees and eventually met up with the Continental Divide Trail and ran a couple of miles over to the dirt road into Winfield.
To my surprise my stomach held out during the entire Hope Pass climb and descent. It wasn't until about 0.25 mile from the aid that I found myself laid out again losing what little contents of my stomach I had left. Katy found me as I made my way down into the aid station. She walked with me as I tried a handful of items from the aid station. I grabbed a seat with my Dad and Katy, changed my socks and tried to get down some Ramen... no go. I was reminded of my 2-hour stop at Western sitting here puking and did not want to repeat that again... So, I knew sitting around wasn't going to do me any good and I got up and headed back up the road.
On the climb up the back side of Hope there was a slew of crossflow traffic as runners made their way to and from Winfield. By this time the afternoon sun was shinning pretty bright and popping in and out of the trees made for some pretty hot segments. Once we got above the tree line the sun was really beating down on the switchbacks and I was really struggling. This was one of the lowest lows I've ever experienced during an ultra. I am pretty sure I was moving at about 40-45 minutes per hour on some of the really steep sections and was very thankful to have my poles for this climb. I found that poles worked really good as a prop when you need to lean over for a good retching.
Reaching the top of Hope Pass again felt almost as good as crossing the finish line. I knew that getting back up here for the second time was probably the apex of this race. I still had 45 miles to go to finish but knew that after completing this climb that the hardest part of the race was behind me. I said a few prayers thanking God for helping drag me back up this climb and put my head down focusing on getting back to Twin Lakes before the sun set. Sometimes in 100's it's working toward the the small goals that will ultimately help get you to the finish. A few more retching spells on my way down the front side of Hope and I found myself in a good rhythm with a couple of runners and together we worked to pull each other back into Twin Lakes just before the sun set.
Coming into Twin Lakes the sun was just going down behind Hope Pass and I was actually feeling pretty good. Just 5-miles earlier at the top of Hope the only thing I could think of was getting back to Twin Lakes and grabbing a few minutes of rest in a chair... Now, with a little new found energy I wanted nothing more than to get back on the move to knock out the last 40 miles. Katy did a good job of keeping me motivated also by telling me that this would be the first time she was going to get to pace for me in a race so I needed to quit being a baby and get to May Queen so she could run with me. What a great crew chief! #nosympathy
I decided to keep my poles for the 3-mile climb out of Twin Lakes and with the sun setting they also did a good job of keeping my upper body warm as I was hiking this climb. Once at the top, I stashed my poles and started working on this runnable section back toward Tree Line and Outward Bound aid station. It was riding the sugar highs and lows from drinking Coke and Perpetuem. I would get into a good grind and run for 2-3 miles strong and then hit an uphill section that was just a little too much to run and would slow to a quick hike. Some quick hits of Coke would turn this around pretty fast and before I knew it I would be back to running a descent clip. The next few miles rattled off pretty fast and I hit the road section that would take me down to the hard lefthand turn into the field that lead over to Outward Bound aid station (75.5 miles). Well, I hit a pretty low sugar crash on the road section somewhere before my left hand turn and I started nodding off as I was hiking/jogging. All of a sudden I came too and there were bright headlights coming right at me and I staggered back to the side of the road. Some lady promptly hung out of her window and told me that I had missed the turn off... crap!! I turned around and backtracked but never saw the turnoff. I turned back around and kept plugging down the road and found the turnoff... It was about 0.25 mile past where that lady had told me to turn around... not a cool thing to do to someone at about mile 75 of a 100 mile run.
Coming back into Outward Bound I realized just how cold it had gotten. It was about midnight at this time and the wind had really picked up in this section. I found Katy and Dad and grabbed pants, insulated sleeves, a dry shirt, jacket, gloves, and some warm mashed potato soup stuff. The quick change helped but I needed to keep moving. Katy walked with me out of the aid and up the road as I tried to eat some soupy-mashed potato stuff and that stayed down for about 20 seconds before I decided to see if it tasted any better on the way out... It really didn't taste any worse...
I told Katy from here on out I wanted nothing else to eat. I would stick to Coke and Perpetuem and would see her in about 13-miles. The next section was the last big climb. Runners leave Outward Bound and run back up the power line climb to the top of Sugarloaf Pass at `11,500 feet. After a few miles down a paved road, and a short run up a dirt service road I found myself grinding away at the power line climb. This climb is deceptively long. There are about 4-5 false summits, or that's about how many it felt like. I heard that there was an additional aid station that signaled the summit of this climb so every climb I crested or every corner I rounded I kept searching for that elusive glow of Christmas lights and music that I just knew would signal this God-sent aid station. Finally, I rounded a corner at the top of this climb and could see a faint glow of lights ahead and could hear some music. With spirits lifted I found an interesting crowd holding down the top of the mountain. I won't give too many specifics but this was the liveliest bunch of volunteers I had seen all day and I saw some pretty crazy scenes or some wild hallucinations. It's not every day you find a 6-foot tall Stormtrooper running around at ~11,000 feet with nothing on but his Stormtrooper helmet and birthday suit. Oh, and did I mention it was about 30 degrees and windy up on the top of this climb. Whether a hallucination or reality, I had some good laughs got a fresh flask of Coke... not that kind of Coke, and hit the trail down toward May Queen.
The downhill to May Queen aid station (87 miles) was pretty good. A lot of very runnable downhill with the last couple of miles on the Colorado Trail that were pretty technical. Not as much running through here but it was a good break from the downhill trying to shake the Stormtrooper images out of my head.
I found Katy ready to run just outside of the May Queen aid station. I sat down, ditched a few items and grabbed more Coke and Perpetuem and the most beautiful pacer. Katy and I run occasionally but haven't had a chance to run together on any of these Grand Slam runs so this was something I had been looking forward too for quite some time. I was a little worried about the run because the first few miles of the Turquoise Lake Trail are pretty rocky single track. I knew Katy hadn't run much at night and her light was so-so at best. She wouldn't take my light and never once complained about the technical sections. When I ran, she ran. When I hiked, she hiked. She kept my spirits up and did a great job of keeping me focused on the trail and before I knew it we were coming up on the Boat Ramp aid station at about mile 93. Katy knew that no matter how cruddy I felt that the last 5-6 miles of any race was going to be an all out grind to just get it finished. Once you get close enough to the finish of any race it's easy to find another gear to just set in and pound out some miles. I would have loved to run those final 6-7 miles in with her but she knew that it would be better for both of us if I just put my head down and ran and she would meet me at the finish. So, that's what I did. I thanked God for getting me this far and knew that less than 3-weeks earlier I was still barely able to walk following the Vermont race. The day had been long and hard, probably my hardest 100-miler to date, but at the same time was the most rewarding. The week leading up to the race had been some of the best family time we had ever spent together and views of the mountains reminded me how small we really are in this world and how Great our God really is!
I knew that the next 6-7 miles to the finish were pretty much all uphill, especially once we hit the boulevard, and would hurt. But, I think that's just the kind of hurt I needed. I knew that I wouldn't be finishing with any kind of time that I was exceptionally stoked about but knew that I could finish and finish strong and would forever be proud of that. I was treated to a beautiful sunrise and a second wind to give me some extra energy to run those last miles.
Rounding the last turn onto 6th street I hit that last climb to crest the hill about 0.5 miles from the finish and immediately started scanning the finish area for my family.
I was so excited to see them there, all of them, Katy, Heidi, Harlow, Dad, Mary, and even a few friends from Chattanooga to cheer me in. The ultra community is so inspiring and I love that I can be a part of this crowd. There were people there cheering me just as much as my own family and it's the same at every trail race I've ever participated in. I grabbed some hugs and kisses from my family, a handshake and hug from Ken Chlouber and his wife who were there congratulating each and every finisher. I stick with my rendition of Ken's moto... "With the Lord you are stronger than you think you are... you can do more than you think you can!"
I have to start with a huge thanks to my Lord and Savior. Immediately followed by another huge thank you to my loving family/crew, the Leadville community and volunteers who made this race possible. The course will forever be one of my favorite courses with the beautiful landscape making this area so inspiring.
Also, one thing I mentioned in my Leadville Preface blog was that I was 100% certain that no matter what happened in the race that God brought our family/friends to Leadville to bring us closer to Him and each other. Thanks to the idea of our Chattanooga friends Jenny and Franklin Baker, before race day we put together a message group for family and friends who might be interested in following the Leadville journey through message group updates and who would also help support my effort through prayer. I know that I didn't have a sick-free run like I hoped but I ended up completing the hardest 100-miler I have ever attempted to date and was carried for almost 60 miles on next to nothing as far as food goes. I didn't get myself to the finish, it was the prayers of so many people who believed that the Lord could carry me when my legs gave way, and I am so thankful for each and every person who helped get me to another finish. I hope that these runs bring you some enjoyment/encouragement because without your support I would have failed before I ever began.
#3down1togo
Until Wasatch,
Nathan D. Holland
2015 Rock/Creek Race Team
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