January 14, 2019
”I’ll just check this one last time, then I’m going to bed,” I muttered under my breath to no one in particular. My phone unlocked and the mail app came up. “Updated just now” — no new messages. I just wanted to know one way or the other, but I would apparently have to wait until tomorrow.
The next morning, I still did not have an email – still did not know. Then at 4:58 a.m. CST, I read someone’s Twitter feed about the announcement being on Facebook. Fortunately, there was also a link to a video of the lottery selections being made. There were Ken and Maryann smiling at me.
I couldn’t stand it. I wanted to know, but now that the moment was here, I couldn’t stand to look. On December 1st, I had filled in and submitted my name for the lottery for a starting position at the 2019 Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race in Leadville, Colorado. It is billed as the Highest and Hardest Mountain Bike Race in the Country. Let me tell you why I would want to do such a thing.
The town of Leadville sits at about 10,151 feet above sea level. To locals it is the Two-Mile High City perched above the Banana Belt at the headwaters of the Arkansas River in Lake County Colorado. It is a mining town and was at one time home to Doc Holliday so it has been around a while — since 1860.
The city was founded by miners, Horace Tabor and August Meyer, in 1877. Within a few years a dusty hilltop had a post office, gas lighting, water mains, streets, multiple churches banks, hospitals and a school. The opera house still bears the founder’s name.
Tabor was an interesting character in Colorado history. After striking it rich, the 53 year old Tabor divorced his wife Augusta to marry 29 year old Baby Doe McCort. The divorce and affair would maybe not have been especially noteworthy except that Tabor was a U.S. Senator at the time and the scandal drew attention beyond the Colorado border. Tabor’s fortune was lost in 1893 when the United States Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act that required the government to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver every month. When the demand evaporated over night, the price of silver plummeted.
Mining in Leadville during the closing decades of the 19th century transformed Colorado from a Wild West frontier into one of the richest states in America. Leadville became the center of attention with a population of over 15,000 by 1880 and annual income from mining and smelting close to $15,000,000 (adjusted for inflation that’s almost $370million). It was sudden and seemed to have no end.
In 1893, fortunes did change. The price of silver nosedived. To keep the mining operations going, lead and zinc mining grew. During World War II, molybdenum was being pulled out of the Climax Mine at a such a rate that Leadville was producing 75% of the world’s supply. By 1981, the largest underground mine in the world, Climax Mine, responsible for most of the tax revenue in Leadville closed. Again the market price of its resources had an effect on the city’s fate.
One of the Climax miners, Ken Chlouber, began looking for ideas about how to revive Leadville’s economy after the closing of the mine. While looking for a way to attract people to visit and stay in Leadville, he came up with the idea to have a 100 mile foot race named for the city. In 1983, the first Leadville Trail 100 race was held. In 1994, the mountain bike race was added making it the second oldest mountain bike marathon race in the country. It is arguably the most well known though.
The MTB course is an out and back course from Leadville over pavement, single track and double track, fire roads and pastures. It features 100 feet of climbing per mile. The race starts at 10,150 feet with 3,000 feet of climbing to Columbine Mine (over 12,000 feet above sea level). The winners have includer MTB Hall of Famer Dave Wiens (6 times), Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, three-time Marathon World Champion Alban Lakata, National Champion in multiple disciplines Tod Wells and recently Olympian Howard Grotts just to name a few.
It’s known for its difficulty. Lance didn’t win his first time out and did not return to defend his title. Many hard men and women have DNF’d (Did Not Finish) and many people have pulled themselves inside out to get there and race only to come up short. There’s always next year, or maybe not.
The Leadville Trail 100 MTB is unique. Many try to enter, so many that a lottery was established for assigning entries. Qualifying for starting position was instituted and several qualifying races are held during the year. The men and women race the same course at the same time. Getting a spot requires luck, skill and both. Finishing will take everything you got.
So there I was, in front of my computer on a Monday in January. As I watched the names scroll down like the credits at the end of a movie I saw the names starting with “J” come into view. Then I saw MY NAME!
Almost six weeks of waiting and ten years of preparation, I finally have my green light to proceed. Now the hard work begins . . .
Never Go Alone USA 