Returning to Leadville for Unfinished Business

Returning to Leadville is all about completing unfinished business to bring closure.

After I finished the 2011 Leadville 100, I was deflated. I didn’t sign up for another ultra for almost eight years. Without moving to the mountains, I wasn’t sure I could compete at the level I desired. With unfinished business gnawing at me, I attempted to return to the 2022 Leadville 100. After two failed lottery attempts, I convinced my husband to fork over the most money I’ve ever paid to enter the race by foregoing the lottery with automatic entry. When he handed me the credit card, I had lofty goals in mind. Then I had my first ever DNS after suffering a cryptogenic TIA and had to dish out more money for a 2025 race entry.

After navigating the uncertainty of my health, I am limping to the start line of the 2025 Leadville 100. For the first time, I’m toeing a start line injured, battling Achilles tendonitis for the past six months. For the entire leadup to Leadville my training has been lukewarm since the most critical pieces of my training: hill repeats, speedwork, and long runs usually left me hobbling the remainder of the day and making getting out of bed the following morning extremely sobering. I remind myself that my watch isn’t lying to me as my times slow more and more as a feel a shell of myself as I inch towards the big 40.

It is evident I no longer have the youth that sprung me to the finish line in 2010 and 2011 at the Leadville 100. As I slogged through 15 minute miles on training runs, the question of “Can experience prevail over youth?“ echoed my thoughts. Now the moment of truth is here.

Times have changed

Moments before the start of my first 100 miler, the 2010 Leadville 100. Can you believe I still have everything I’m wearing in the photo except for the headlamp and my bib!

A lot has changed since my last time at Leadville. To start, my name doesn’t even match. I was a green runner, with the 2010 Leadville being my 3rd ever ultra and what I chose as my first 100 miler. I got terrible side aches from Gatorade, now there are dozens of liquid nutrition and electrolyte options. According to my post-race notes that I ate a ton of Powerbars, which I haven’t consumed in years. I can only recall requesting a peach from my crew (that hasn’t changed, I still crave juicy fruit during long runs).

During my absence we saw the rise and fall of the barefoot running craze (luckily I stuck with the same running shoe throughout that same time). Who knows what today’s magic bullets of HRV, ketones, bicarbonate, continuous glucose monitors will yield, but I’m pretty old school still using the same training blueprint and coach (me!).

Technology has evolved trail running with supershoes, Strava, and smartwatches. Back then, I didn’t know my pace or how many miles to the next aid station beyond my old school pace chart. I was petrified I’d make a wrong turn especially at night since there wouldn’t be anyone there to tell me, now my watch can be set to beep to notify me within steps.

Years of experience

Although it’s been nearly two years since my last ultra, the 2023 Barkley Fall Classic, I have now completed more ultra races than I can count, with many training runs reaching ultra distance, plus individual pursuits such as two unsupported multi-day FKTs. These FKTs give me the confidence I have the capability to take on 100 miles, but it’s a matter of how fast. I was empowered to take on these challenges after learning so much from adventure racing teammates. My 2011 self would have never imagined the doors that adventure racing has opened.

I became a mother of three where I stayed active to delivery day for each. I demonstrated a degree of pain tolerance with three deliveries without drugs. Now my children accompany me on more miles than any other training partners. They have demonstrated what we are capable of when our mind doesn’t limit our bodies. I have been humbled struggling to keep up on bike commutes, tapping down on singletrack when they bop by me, and have even been dropped on the way home from the trails. I wasn’t sure the day would ever come where my kids’ athleticism outshone mine, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it yet. As proud as I am of them during these moments, I have to also look back at recent solid race results on the podium to know my children are even more amazing than I could fathom.

Leadville training camp

To best prepare, I headed out the 2025 Leadville 100 training camp to run nearly the entire course and see sections that have changed since 2011. I felt the altitude, with nearly every step feeling like my legs were full of lead. My Achilles was so stiff after the first run that I could barely get out of my tent. I threw up for the first time ever from working out on day 2. As I walked, I marveled how I ran so much of the course previously with many more miles on my feet. But I finished the run on day 3 up and over Hope Pass feeling the best I felt since arriving, allowing me to leave Leadville with confidence.

My 2011 pace chart where I nailed my splits on the first half of the course and disintegrated on the second half.

Then reality hit when I began constructing my pace chart and comparing my training run times to my actual splits during the race. It seemed like it was a different person. I departed Twin Lakes and climbed up and over Hope Pass to Winfield and back in 5 ½ hours halfway through 100 miles but took 7 hours after getting a full night’s sleep during the training camp!

I’m blown away at my speed going up and over Hope Pass during my 2011 race - two hours faster than my standalone training run this summer!

Bringing it full circle

My plan was to follow up 2024 Leadville with the Marji Gesick, the race that drew me back into ultras in 2019 after a 8 year hiatus following my 2011 Leadville 100. The plan was to step up my game with my first 200 mile ultra. After achieving an unsupported Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the 210 mile North Country Trail (NCT) Wisconsin segment, I decided to take on a bigger challenge by attempting to be the first woman to finish the Marji Gesick 200 bike, which I did! Now with a nagging injury, I’m intending to take time off to let my Achilles heal following the 2025 Leadville 100; but first I want to vie for a team win at the United States Adventure Racing Association (USARA) national championship just four weeks after Leadville.

Early miles of the 2011 Leadville 100 where I was so in the zone I never noticed that I only had one sunglasses lens! Photo credit: Meghan Hicks

So as I toe the line less than 100% for my first 100 miler since the 2022 Kettle Moraine 100, I feel blest to still be active and loving running 14 years after crossing the finish line at the 2011 Leadville 100, this time with my husband and three children rooting me on. I haven’t felt myself running in a long time, but I know I’m a competitor. So once the shotgun blasts at 4 am, I’m hoping I can race to my potential, but whatever the day brings, I want to slay the demons that have eaten at me for more than a decade. I want to be proud that I pushed to the end rather than crumble, allowing myself to become complacent. This is the last time I toe the line before hitting age 40 and I don’t know how many more opportunities to compete to my best potential I have. So I can’t allow any more to slip away.

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