Leadville Trail 100 Training Camp Day 1

Leadville Trail 100 Training Camp Day 1

Mount Elbert and Mount Massive the morning of Leadville Trail 100 Training Camp Day 1

Leadville Trail 100 Training Camp Day 1

May Queen to Twin Lakes

On day one all the runners meet at the Mining Museum in downtown Leadville for breakfast at 6:30am. This is the first opportunity for the runners to all meet each other and start to make new friends.  After breakfast Ken and Marilee introduce themselves as the Leadville Training Camp directors.  Ken discusses the purpose of the Leadville Training Camp as a means to become familiar with the Leadville Trail 100 course.  It is not a race and I would advise first time runners not to run it as a race.  Ken also introduces the panel of experts that will be helping during camp.  This year he also asked all previous Leadville Trail 100 finishers to stand up whereby he directed all the new runners to tap us as a resource on how to finish the Leadville Trail 100 in less than 30 hours.

May Queen

After the introductions the runners are bused to the May Queen camp site where the runners will start the first days run to Twin Lakes. During the race this will be the May Queen aid station is the first aid station that the runners will come to at 13 miles; while the Twin Lakes aid station will be at mile 40 during the actual race.

May Queen Camp Ground - the start of the first training run

One of the strategies to having a good experience at camp is to try to run the each day’s run as though it is race day.  This is very hard to do since all the runners have fresh legs.  For example, this run starting at May Queen the runners will have already had 13 mile in their legs and at camp they are fresh.  Right out of the May Queen aid station there is a small incline that most runners at camp run.  Trust me, on race day the runners will be walking up this hill.  I use this hill as a great spot to refuel before running the next section.

From May Queen the runners run up to Hagerman Road which is a dirt road with a gradual incline; first time Leadville Trail 100 runners are recommended to walk this section. Again, for a 30 hour finish there is no reason to run this section.  During camp there is a small aid station on the very first hairpin turn.  Runners should be aware that this aid station will not be there during the actual race.

Turquoise Lake from Hagerman Road

Hagerman Road and leads up to the top of Sugarloaf Pass and descends the “power lines”.  This is the first long downhill stretch and it can take about 45 minutes to run down.  (Hint, so coming back at mile 80ish guess how long it is going to take to get back up).  Once the runners are down the power lines they come to a paved road and head to the Fish Hatchery aid station.

Fish Hatchery

During the Leadville Trail 100 this is the second aid station for the runners.  During camp the aid station set-up right off of the road, but during the race the runners will have to take a right-hand turn and run up to the Fish Hatchery.  It is maybe about .2 miles up the road, but during the race if you are not expecting to have to run up to the Fish Hatchery it can seem a like a very long distance.

Descending Sugarloaf Pass - aka "The Powerlines"

Tree Line

From the Fish Hatchery there is a long stretch of pavement until the runners come to “Tree Line”.  For many runners this is a mentally tough section.  It is slightly downhill from the Fish Hatchery until the runners turn onto Halfmoon Road.  I suggest that runners take advantage of not having to think about running and foot placement and run as much of the pavement as possible depending on race conditions.  If there is a strong headwind then runners discretion should be used since the headwind equate to running up hill. Again, during camp there is an aid station setup here, but on race day there is no aid station.   However, the runners are allowed to have crew access at Tree Line.  For crews there is plenty of space to park and it is very easy to see their runner coming in.

Box Car (aka Halfmoon II)

Last year the Leadville Trail 100 course changed slightly and no longer runs up Halfmoon Road through the camp ground.  The new course has the runners turn left at Tree Line and run into Box Car Gulch.  One of the benefits of the new course is that the runners no longer have to deal with all the traffic and dust on Halfmoon Road.  The new section is just as long and actually has more climbing than the old section.  Although there is more overall climbing the runners do not have to have the punishing climb out of Halfmoon camp ground that the old course dished out.  The Box Car aid station is at mile 30 outbound and mile 70 inbound.  During camp there is an aid station setup here for the participants, but during the race runners cannot have crew assess at this aid station.

Twin Lakes

From Box Car runners return to the previous Leadville Trail 100 course which connects onto the Colorado Trail.  This is one of my favorite sections of the course running through the pine trees and aspens.   During camp this year I was reminded just how much climbing there is through this section.  For me, I use the first time I can see Twin Lakes as a gauge that I have about 25 minutes to go and that most of it is downhill.  There are sections on this stretch of downhill that is on very, very narrow single track with some substantial drop-offs.  The single track drops runners off onto a very step and rocky dirt road leading into Twin Lakes.

Once the runners are at Twin Lakes they are done for the day and treated to a BBQ and beverages.  And since Coors Brewery is a sponsor of the Leadville Trail 100, there is no shortage of beer.  Runners are invited to hang out and relax until the last shuttle bus heads back to town.  At camp they run shuttles back to town often in case runners a ready to call it a day.

Leadville 100 Training Camp Takeaways from Day 1

Day 1 of the Leadville Trail 100 Training Camp gives the participants a firsthand experience of the 26 miles of the course.  Many of the camp participants that I spoke with came away with “that was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be”, but not an intimidated or defeated attitude.  Rather, they received the experience that the Leadville Trailing Camp is all about; it let the runners realize how they are going to need to train and how they will need to strategize on race day.  There are a few runners at camp that ran the Leadville Trail 100 last year and did not finish.  They are at camp this year with the regret of not having participated in the training camp prior to their first attempt at running the Leadville Trail 100.  In other words, for those of you who want to run the Leadville Trail 100 for the first time I highly recommend coming to training camp to give you the tools you need to finish in less than 30 hours.