Saturday, August 20, 2011

Under Nine at Leadville

The Leadville 100 MTB Race
The Fifth Time is a Charm!
8 hours 40 minutes and 4 seconds.


Gotter' done!



The moon sets over the mountain as folks line up around 5:30am, for the 6:30am start.




Bundled up, got my place- now just had to wait.

Had some good company while I was waiting this time. It'd been a few years since Tally joined me for a Leadville 100.

A few minutes before the start.

About an hour and thirty minutes into the race at the bottom of the power line descent.

Riding part of the 2K vertical foot powerline descent.

A little over 4 hours into the race, near the top of a 3K vertical foot climb up Columbine Mt.


Draggin' a crew up the back up Powerline- the hardest part of the race, for me.



About 75 miles and 6 1/2 or more hours into the race you hit powerline- the last grueling big ass climb...





My sister Hope was at the base of the climb yelling at me to get my arse in gear. That helped! She also took most of these pictures.





Bombing down Sugarloaf, the Powerline climb done and over with.





On the pavement for a few miles. Just a couple of shorter climbs left. Chuck told me I'd be good if I got off the pavement at the top of St. Kevins with a hour left. I got off at 7:50. At that point, barring an disasters, I figured I had it. I just kept up the grind though.





My sister Hope popped up at the bottom of the last climb, the Boulevard, and told me to stomp on it. So I did, I put the afterburns on and motored off the path and over the rocks to clear this last section.



Smellin' the barn- only a dozen or so minutes left to go.




On the red carpet!



Wheehoo! 8:4o. Got the bigun this time!





The next day at the awards ceremony.


I placed 181 overall, out of 1276 some finishers. 1900 riders were registered.

I placed 71/ 343 finishers in my age group.



My five year record at Leadville.

(Click to enlarge)




The Shad Movie!



Mark Wallace's Shad Flick... thanks Mark!




Chuck and Karla's 11th Leadville 100 on an Tandem!