Leadville Trail Heavy Half Marathon - Leadville CO

This race kicked off a week of vacationing and racing in Colorado. I planned to do this race, the Vail Hill Climb the next day, and the High Mountain 50K also in Leadville the following week. In the interim we planned to visit Manitou Springs and run Pike's Peak every morning, partially to train for next month's Pike's Peak Ascent.

I had no high expectations for this first race after flying in the night before with no time to acclimate. The race starts in downtown Leadville at an elevation of over 10,000 feet and goes up to Mosquito Pass from there. Indeed I was quite lightheaded at the start. I took my time and enjoyed the scenery. The streets of Leadville turned into fireroad which continued for quite some time. After several miles we hit some single track and kept climbing. We passed a number of snowdrifts and ran past spectactular wildflowers. I ended up not following the full marathon signs and got caught up in the half marathon. It was still quite challenging, and I felt lucky to finish in 3:07.