Leadville Trail Marathon Race Report

I'm a little nervous.  Its been awhile since I've run a race.  Like 6 months.  I haven't raced since Yankee Springs in January.  Now I'm standing on the starting line for the Leadville Trail Marathon, advertised to have 6,300 feet of gain over the 26 mile out and back course that is run entirely at over 10,000 feet above sea level.

Since I've been in Colorado I've had the opportunity to run with a bunch of great people, and most of them also signed up for the marathon.  We camped out in Leadville the night prior to the race after hanging around the cool little mountain town all day.

Then some guy fires off a shotgun and the stampede begins.  I'm a little amazed how hard everyone is running from the get-go.  Its faster than I'm used to.  And all uphill, errr maybe up mountain is more appropriate?  Soon I'm gasping for air.

A wee bit more climbing than I'm used to

I get a glimpse of the trail ahead.  More switch backs and more climbing.  Hmmm.  I'll slow down a touch I think.  I'm still gasping for air.  Damnit.

The first aid station is at about 4 miles into the race.  If you can't tell by looking at the elevation profile, its quite a climb up to that point.  I got some water and a gel and was on my way.  I think at this point I had settled into 25-30th place and was just trying to keep moving at a reasonable pace.  I typically try to move through aid stations as quickly as possible, and I continued this.  After cresting the Ball Mountain aid station and running quickly down the old mining roads, I started feeling a little better.  A combination of some downhill and scaling back the pace a little bit seemed to be paying dividends.  I occasionally looked around, and was greeted with gorgeous views of mountains and bright blue sky.

Survival mode

Coming through the aid station at the bottom of Mosquito pass, I really started feeling better.  Which is strange as you are still running at 10,000 feet above sea level.  I had passed a few more people, including some fellow retching and making awful noises in the bushes.  The climb up Mosquito starts off actually fairly gradual, and after a good amount of downhill to reach this point, I decided to run as much as I could.  

Since the race was an out and back, and the turn around point is at the top of this climb, the trail became rather crowded, as we had rejoined with the half marathoners who were both going up and going down the pass, depending on how far along they were.  Luckily we are on mining roads, and very rarely was there not enough room to maneuver around people.  It was kind of nice to have so much mental stimulation during the climb, which could be quite brutal.  I ran, then hiked, then ran, then hiked, alternating on shallow and steep grades and using my breathing as a guide as to when to settle into a pow-hike.  I actually really enjoyed this section as I felt I had a good grinding gear.

I passed several more marathoners, and had the pleasure of seeing the leaders come blitzing down the pass.  Then a marathoner passed me; he was running the whole damn climb, I couldn't help but admire his consistent climbing cadence.  

At the top of the pass I quickly filled my bottle (2:18), stepped on the timing mat, and when I was told that I was somewhere around 11th or 12th place, I decided to let it all go on the descent from Mosquito and see what happened from there.  

I'm a fairly good downhill runner, especially when I'm in the mood to take some chances.  I took some chances. This was evident as I passed 3-4 other marathoners on the descent.  Including the guy who had climbed so well up to the top of the pass.    Actually I still don't know how I didn't trip or fly off the edge of the mountain on this descent, but thankfully it all worked out.  The descent seemed to shake something loose in my GI track, and I was eagerly anticipating a port-a-potty stop at the aid station at the bottom of Mosquito.  Unfortunately I saw two children who were cheering on family go running into the bathrooms right as I ran up.  Crap (pun intended), I'm not waiting around for that.  I started to run up the deusche grade mining road to the top of Ball mountain and after a while my need for a reststop reseeded.  This is lucky as there is nothing but shrubbery and rocks above treeline.    

At this point, I've run enough races to know that the return trip was going to be interesting.  I'd been running at threshold for almost 3 hours, something I don't practice often.  

I kept eating and must have been feeling ok, because I kept reeling people in.  I would jog with them for a brief moment, chat and recover, then take off to catch the next person.

I kept up that routine for the rest of the race, except as I got towards the finish I tried to make my passes rather emphatic, especially on the downhills.  Trying to take care of myself until the very end of the race, I took an S!cap at about mile 21, as I noticed I was very satly, but had not yet started cramping.  

Speaking of downhill, for me, the last downhill was a sufferfest.  It was technical as there was plenty of loose rocks and washed out ruts on the mining road, slightly rolling, and lasted 3-4 miles.  I was putting everything I had into the first couple miles, but as I couldn't see anyone in the distance I let up on the pace for a tad and almost tripped over some rocks.  OK, lets finish this out strong I decided.  So I hammered my legs into oblivion running downhill at sub 6:30 pace.  I ignored my screaming feet as I had reached that point where you don't care about pain and just want it to be over.  

As I crossed the finish line, I was told I had finished 6th overall (500ish starters?) in a time of 4:05.  I was very pleased, I had been thinking anything under 4:30 would be very good, and hadn't dreamed of running 4:05 in a race with 6,000 feet of gain.  I didn't care as much about the overall placing as running a time that I was satisfied with.

Our whole group finished strong, and had a big grin (grimace?) on their face when they finished.  It was a great social environment with all the finishers being extremely friendly and congratulatory.  The race gave out coffee mugs as the finishers award, which I like (I think some ppl were disappointed and wanted a medal)  We hung around for the rest of the day and I rehydrated with Michelob Ultra (blech). 

Yeehaw

Liz and I both collecting our gold mining pans as age-group awards
 (we're the goofballs still in our running shorts)

Final thoughts:  While the trail race is a little expensive, it was well worth the $.  There were tons of goodies, plenty of food and beer, and a super enthusiastic environment.  While I don't usually like races with 1,000s of people, I do see the allure of larger events which really have a great environment.

Gear:  Scott T2 Kinabalu, The North Face Better than Naked shorts, Ultraspire Quantum belt, Ultimate Direction 20oz quickdraw water bottle.  

Food:  I don't remember?  Like 10 gels, and two bottles of sports drink?  No solid food.

Review of Salomon Sense Ultra

I've had the pleasure of tooling around in a pair of Salomon Sense Ultra's for several months now.  The short review is that they are a tremendous lightweight shoe with decent protection and decent durability.

First, I have to say that in general, all the lives of my shoes are dramatically reduced now that I'm running in Colorado.  But it seems the Sense Ultra is particularity susceptible to dying quicker in the Rocky Mountains. Its a sacrifice one has to make for a lightweight shoe I guess.  I wouldn't mind seeing a little more outsole on these guys.

I ran quite a bit in the original Sense, but it was never quite comfortable enough for me.  I'm not sure what it was.  I would get blisters on the outside of my pinky toes on both feet and never could lock the heel down quite good enough.  When I was at 3-Rivers Running Company, I had the chance to look at the Sense Ultras.  I thought the toebox looked a little wider, and the heel cup was slightly different, in so much as it seemed to offer a greater hook to come up over the back of the heel.

I actually decided to size down to a 10.5 from my typical size 11 (MT110, Speedcross 3, Pearl Izumi Trail N1) and the shoes fit nearly perfectly for most of their lifespan.  I have concluded that the heel cup is better and the Ultras either have a wider toebox or it is easier to stretch it out over the life of the shoe.  They accommodated my feet, which tend to be on the wide side, very nicely.

Grand Canyon R2R2R

I've put these shoes through hell.  I ran several long Poto runs back in Michigan in them.  After that they still looked like new, maybe with a little bit of midsole wrinkling, which didn't seem to influence the cushion.  Then I went to Colorado for a job interview and starting running in the Front Range  in the Sense Ultras.  Then I took them to the Grand Canyon for a R2R2R.  Then back to Colorado for more Front Range running.

I've taken them through numerous water crossings, both deep and shallow, and the shoes drained and dried out very well, which is perhaps unsurprising.  The low profile nature of the shoes also allowed them to handle well in the river when you aren't quite sure what you're stepping on.

I found the outsole to be plenty sticky on most rocks, as long as they weren't too wet and grimy (the rocks not the shoes).

Protection in someplace like Michigan is fantastic.  Protection in Colorado is decent.  Forefoot/midfoot is usually protected enough that you even if you catch a stinger, the pain is fleeting and doesn't last long. It seems Salomons special carbon fiber rockplate does its job.  I did notice that if I stepped on a narrow or sharp rock in the arch area of my foot it would be quite painful.   I attribute this to the flexibility of the shoe.  Its nice for running fast to have a flexible shoe, but it does allow for the occasional painful reminder that these shoes are intended to be a racing flat.

My longest run in them was the R2R2R at the Grand Canyon, which was 48 miles and I probably had the shoes on my feet for 13+ hours.  No blisters, which is great and I'm sure I wouldn't have had such luck with the regular Sense.

After about 300 miles now, the shoes are totally toast.  At least in my terms.

Missing lugs and outsole

After about 200 miles the tread started wearing down and lugs were shredded off.  I continued to abuse them, doing a Hope Pass double crossing and summiting a 14'er in them.  Now, there are several spots where the glue seems to have failed and I can peel back the outsole to expose more midsole.  In other places the outsole just appears to be gone.  One of the great things though is that the protection never failed on these shoes.  The rockplate is still in great shape, despite numerous attempts to puncture it by sharp rocks.  Kudos to Salomon.

Still not destroyed

Despite the wear on the outsole, I can probably get a few more miles out of these guys.  I feel that the traction is starting to be reduced, but really they never had tremendous traction in the first place.  Speaking of traction, the rubber is decently sticky, but they're no La Sportiva.  The shoes have a great ride on hard pack trail, fireroads, and pavement.  The small footprint allows them to be very maneuverable.  Unfortunately I found them to be VERY skatey in loose dirt/gravel on switchbacks and in the mud.

Holes in the medial sides of both pairs

Another hole forming on the lateral sides

The upper is probably the biggest issue with these guys right now.  I'm not worried about them ripping and becoming "unusable" during a run, but they have developed holes in the medial side of the toebox.  Now they let in a ton of dust and gravel.  Otherwise the mesh upper and Sensi-fit sock/sleeve thing was amazing.

Now I just need to save up enough $ to get another pair, or wait for a new iteration of these shoes.  I've noticed a few pictures from Zegama where it looked like the Salomon team had a pair of Sense Softgrounds!  When can I get these!  I think they will probably be a slight bit heavier, but the added weight for what I can only imagine is a more durable outsole with better traction would be a no brainer for me.  I just love the fit of the Sense Ultra so much, that a shoe with a more rugged outsole sounds like a great combo.

Looks a lot like the Speedcross outsole (Photo by Ian Corless)

Niice!  (Photo by Ian Corless)

Overall, the Sense Ultra is a great shoe.  Excellent fit.  A shoe that makes you want to run fast.  Protective for how lightweight.  Very maneuverable with their low profile/small footprint.  The cushion does its job even though it tends to wrinkle quickly.  The biggest downsides are the poor traction on anything that is loose or muddy as well as the relatively short lifespan.  Oh and they are so freaking expensive.  I should mention though that I've heard through the grapevine that Salomon plans on progressively lowering the price over the next couple years.