Part 2 of the Leadman series took place this weekend, with the Silver Rush races. Folks taking part in the Leadman (or Leadwoman) series can take their pick from either the 50 mile mountain bike race and or the 50 mile run. I decided on the mountain bike race thinking that the chance for an injury was less, though admittedly I made that choice much earlier in the season before having spent a great deal of time on the bike or having done any runs of that distance. Still, having finished the mountain bike race without any mishaps, I am happy with decision. Mountain biking is much more dangerous than running to me. Perhaps a lot of that is due to my skill level (or lack thereof) on the bike, and running basically takes no skills, just a lot of practice. Also, I completed the Wyoming Double Marathon at the end of May and came away from it without any serious injuries, such as IT band syndrome, etc. So, looking back now, I realize that either race would have been OK for me to take part in.
Both of the races start at the Cloud City Ski Hut on the southern edge of Leadville
. I assume that both races have the same start, since the course maps looks identical on the Leadville 100 website. The start is straight up the ski hill
. So, that means for the mountain bike, a mass hike-a-bike start, with everyone rushing to get to the top of the hill where the timing mats are located at a bottleneck leading back into the woods. The first male and first female to the top of the hill each get a silver coin, but I wasn’t too worried about being in that group. Still, I did hustle as best as I could to get to the top, not wanting to be stuck in a massive line of folks jostling for position to get across the timing mats
.After that, the course leads the riders up on jeep roads and such to the top of the Iowa Amphitheater
. The jeep trails were incredibly dusty, probably because it had been a few days since any rain had fallen. Whatever the case, the amount of dust was beyond comprehension, and we just had to grin and bear it as we sucked great lungfuls of finely powered dust, licking our tongues across gritty teeth for the 1st 10 miles of the race. At the top of the Iowa Amphitheater we left the jeep trails and got a nice descent for 4 miles or so back down a gravel road to reach the 1st aid station, Printer Boy, at mile 13.5. The 1st part of the course is not too steep, except for a short section just before the top of Iowa Amphitheater, where there is a little bit of muddy hike-a-bike. Printer Boy aid station is a welcome break and the treats are great. Folks are walking around trying to help you get bottles filled with water or Herbalife, and there are lots of great munchies too. I ate a cheese wrap, and it was awesome.
From Printer Boy, it is downhill for a ways, which is nice because it gives a opportunity for any food to settle a bit before having to get back to the business at hand, the mantra of Leadville eastside races; climbing. Thankfully though the Silver Rush races don’t follow the same start as the trail marathon did, because I can still remember how steep those trails were from 2 weeks ago.
Soon enough though, the race course starts to climb again, heading back to Ball Mountain, which we visited during the trail marathon. The climb up to the pass on its east side (elev. 1194) was still just as tough to climb. However once at the top of the pass, instead of taking the leisurely single track trail back around Ball Mountain’s north side, we screamed downhill on a very steep jeep trail that was strewn with loose rocks. It was at about this time that we started to encounter the faster riders (i.e. the winners) heading back in-bound. I wonder if there were any collisions on the north side of Ball Mountain, because it was all I could do to keep things under control during the descent, and I didn’t want to run into anybody who was trying to climb back up the hill. At the bottom of the descent, there was a single lane wooden bridge over a marshy spot, where we all had to take turns waiting to cross, and giving right of way to the in-bound folks.
More descending, along with a little level stuff, and even a little bit more climbing led to the next aid station, Stumptown, which was also the turnaround point. Just like at Printer Boy, the service and the snacks were great. I can’t say thanks enough to the awesome treatment the volunteers serve up at the Leadville races. Maybe this is a good time to bring up some time splits; I think I was 1 ½ hours to Printer Boy, and then another 1 ½ hours to Stumptown, close enough anyway. Another rider I spent some time beside mentioned at how we had gotten out of transition for the turnaround in 3 hours and 20 minutes, so we could probably make it back in to the finish in under 6 hours. Well, that turned out to be a little optimistic.
Heading back though felt pretty good. I was feeling good primarily because I figured that I was in good shape to meet the time cut-off of 8 hours. Based upon some of my training rides above Colorado Springs, I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to ride 50 miles of trails in Leadville. Maybe I had let the race description of the Silver Rush 50 on the Leadville website psyche me out a bit too; “Many riders have likened it to the infamous Leadville Trail 100 with the easy parts removed.” Also I have had my lunch eaten pretty good by the trails up above Colorado Springs, where the uphill is all hike-a-bike, followed by a screaming, technical descent back into town. Well, all the hike-a-bike uphill training in Colorado Springs was serving me pretty good today, because they have a lot of that stuff here in Leadville too.
It wasn’t too long after turning around to head back that we encountered the steep, north side of Ball Mountain again. This time it was hike-a-bike hell, which seemed to take a good while. At the top, we hopped back on our bikes and began an equally steep descent back down the south side, though thankfully it wasn’t as loose as the north side. At the beginning of the race, I had seen someone riding around on a unicycle, which I thought was just another rider doing a warm-up. Well, I encountered the same unicyclist on his way up to the pass as I was heading down. I heard later that he made it to Stumptown 10 minutes after the half-way cut-off of 4 ½ hours. That blows me away. I can’t imagine how much harder it must have to cover that terrain on 1 wheel instead of 2. I shouted out some words of encouragement as we passed each other.
After the descent from the pass on Ball Mountain, there is a little more up, some nice downhill stuff, and then a gradual uphill climb to get back to Printer Boy aid station again. Along the way, I stopped to help another rider fix a flat, loaning him my air pump for a few minutes. Though I lost some time, I felt good about the chance to help someone in need. At the aid station, I grabbed another cheese wrap, which I had also done at Stumptown, and then headed back on the road to Leadville. I knew that most of the way to the finish was downhill, but first we had a little climb to get back up into the Iowa Amphitheater.
The gravel road up into the Iowa Amphitheater really worked me pretty good. It never got steep enough to have to get off the bike and hike it, though a few of the riders around me did just that. However, it took most of what I had left in me just to get up the thing in granny gear. The road meandered around various corners, teasing me into thinking that the top must be near, and no, my GPS must be wrong because surely it had to be less than 4 miles to the top. Well, the GPS was right. Well, maybe it was only 3.5 miles, but it surely was the longest part of the day.
After reaching the high point in the Iowa Amphitheater, it was mostly a nice descent back down into Leadville. Nice descent should be qualified a little bit I suppose. There were still lots of loose gravel and larger rocks to surf through on the way down. Letting your guard down wasn’t an option, as I witnessed a rider taking a head-over-heels tumble off to the side of the road. I stopped and asked if he was OK, after he said yes, I sped onwards, down the trail to the finish.
Slowly familiar landmarks from the morning started to emerge, letting me know I was getting closer and closer. So to, the dust clouds from the morning started to raise up again, even though there weren’t as many riders trying to negotiate the trail simultaneously at this point. I think I must have eaten 10 pounds of dust today. Finally, at the bottom of a steep hill with a sharp right hand turn, we encountered the one last steep uphill section where about 4 of us pushed our bikes to the top. Then it was a short downhill to the finish line; 6 hours and 17 minutes, good enough for 212th place overall. This was out of over 620 riders that had started the race.
So, I was pretty happy with the day; no injuries, no problems with the bike, and I was qualified to move on to the next Leadman event; the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race on August 14th. Setting my bike down, I grabbed a diet coke, went to stand in line for a Smash Burger, and called my wife Lisa to let her know I was finished. She was still up in town sightseeing and shopping
.It was totally awesome for Smash Burger to be an event sponsor. They had fresh, hot hamburgers and fries ready for all of the riders. I got a burger and fries and went to find a spot in the shade of one of the various tents that had been set up in the area to support the race. Lisa found me just as I was finishing eating.
After loading the bike back up into the vehicle, Lisa and I stuck around for the awards ceremony. The race winner’s time was an astounding 3 hours and 50 some odd minutes; good enough for a new course record. I suppose he probably rode his bike uphill on all those sections where a lot of us were hiking. After I collected my Silver Rush commemorative silver bracelet to go along with the very cool finisher’s medal, Lisa and took off back to Colorado Springs. It was 4:30 PM. We arrived home somewhere around 7:00 PM or so, and I spent the rest of the evening getting cleaned-up and readying stuff for the Barr Trail Mountain Race before going to bed around 8:30 PM.
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