Today I went for a little hike with 2 of my
pacers. Kim and Anna. Ben is working Saturday morning but will be at Fish Hatch ready to pace me when I need him. All absolutely amazing people who I am really
looking forward to running with and hopefully having a laugh and
lot's of beer with on Sunday. Kim and Anna are also now going to be able to crew for me as well from the 23 mile checkpoint which is amazing news. I can't really describe how grateful I am. They are going to be up so early on Saturday to drive here from Denver to Crew and Pace and remember Anna is running miles 50-60 and then 86.5-99.5! Also Nicola who just arrived yesterday
from Oxford joined us to check out a short section of the out trail
from Mayqueen to Sugarloaf pass. Again this is an amazing little
trail through a forest then climbs up a long winding dirt road until
the top and then it descends down towards Fish Hatch. It is actually
a fair old climb up but not steep at all and just gradual but long.
Quite happy this is on the outward trip as it will all be downhill
coming back and a very gradual downhill. The view from the top back
over to Leadville around Turquoise Lake is stunning but the 13 miles
back around the lake look a very long 13 miles. I have heard people
in the race can take 5 hours to cover this on the way back to
Leadville! We also scoped out the start of this trail and again it is
a very easy going trail all the way around the Lake. Once back in
Leadville it is a short up hill on road and once you crest the road
you see all the way to the finish line 0.5 mile away. The feeling
coming over this road must be unbelievable , I just so hope I get to
experience it.
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| L - R Nicola , Kim(Tully) , Anna |
Today I met a man called Harry. He is the Manager
at the aid station at Winfield(halfway) and has been for the past 20
years! This is going to be his last race doing the job. I had a great
wee chat with him and it really was great hearing all these stories
about all the great runners he has seen and also some of the funnier
ones with people in way over their heads. Really great guy. Just
amazing little community over here during the race. Totally world's
apart from the big races I have done in France. You actually feel
like one big family here and everyone is so happy to chat and have a
laugh and not judge anyone at all. I have been chatting away to sub
20 hour runners and guys who have never finished after many attempts.
Just an amazing atmosphere.
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| We decided even though I have crew it's still best to use drop bags just in case something went wrong as we got told Winfield checkpoint can get gridlocked. |
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| So it is actually happening! Thanks Nora , the Chamball is in my final drop bag ready to get me to the finish. |
So this is finally my last post before the race.
Thank you so much to everyone for all the words of support and your
enthusiasm about all of this. I am ready now for this to start and
have a right good crack at it. I am not as nervous as I was when I first arrived
but still not over confident. There is going to be some really really
tough sections on this probably the hardest sections I have ever ran.
Without trying to sound like an expert ultra runner(which I am far
from) when I walk down to Harrison Ave on Saturday morning and the
gun goes off apart from thinking “oh my god I am running the
Leadville 100” I will also be thinking this is it ,this is what you
do and this is what all those training days have been for so get on
with it and enjoy it. I am not looking forward to the long flat sections on road but the trails are what I do and what I love and on these trails I am going to prove to myself how good I can run them. So here goes...
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