Leadville Trail 100
The Race Across the Sky
Rebecca Rusch / 20.08.2009
We were all Leadville virgins, so I relied heavily on course information from other athletes and the race website. I knew the course was primarily fire roads, so I chose to ride my brand new Specialized S-works 29er hard tail for this event. It was a bit of a whirlwind getting the bike and myself sorted to race so soon after coming home from 24 hour World Championships. I did not want to pass up the opportunity to compete in the Leadville 100. It's a legendary event, but I did have some major trepidation about how I would perform at such high altitude so soon after a grueling 24-hour solo effort. It normally takes me at least four weeks to feel right again after a 24 and I was sitting right on three weeks for the Leadville start.
I spent the 3 weeks in between Worlds and Leadville riding the fine line between recovering, healing my body and trying to milk the season's peak to last a bit longer than originally planned.
My coach Matthew was once again able to pull a rabbit out of a hat and keep the elusive peak going for an extra few weeks. It's intoxicating to peak for an event and feel as if the race is almost easy. However, the weeks, months, years leading up to that peak are nothing but suffering, hard work and insecurity about your fitness. After events like Leadville 100 and 24 Hour Worlds where it all comes together on the right day, it's impossible not to be seduced by that feeling and want it over and over again at every single race. However, fitness peaks cannot last the whole season and what goes up must come down so that it can go back up again. It's a frustrating process, but oh so sweet when it comes together.
Leadville was one such occasion where everything fell into place beautifully. I was not sure of my participation until just five days before the race. At that point, I scrambled to get hotel, flight and logistics sorted. I also had to get my new Specialized 29er race ready. I've packed my gear enough times before and I got myself to the very early morning start on Saturday.
The town of Leadville sits at 10,200 ft and the weather Friday and Saturday was cold and dismal. I was flattered to be invited to line up on the front line with all of the big name athletes and past winners of the race. I had not seen a start list for the women's field, so I was unaware of whom I was racing against. The shotgun start was fairly civilized with a neutral roll out for a few miles until we hit the dirt road and started climbing. I felt the mass of 1500 people behind me and just concentrated on staying near the front pack and staying upright.
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