Race Report: 2024 Leadville Trail 100 MTB

Race: Leadville 100 MTB 

Date: August 10, 2024

AVRT racers: Kelly Brennan, Rachel Hwang, Riley Chapman

Top Result: Rachel Hwang 5th women but Riley finished overall before me

Course: 105 miles of dirt and road combined over 12,000 feet elevation gain, highest point of 12,500ft; out and back

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12114938576

Race Recap: (Rachel Hwang’s perspective)

I started in the green coral, 6:35am sharp.  I stayed pretty far back in the coral as I had a feeling I would be passed by a lot of the people.  My assumption was correct, and I never stopped getting passed.  Every time someone passed me, I told myself there was 105 miles of this, and to not make the mistake of burning myself out too early.  My goal was to get under 9hrs for a large belt buckle, and learnings from Tahoe Trail, to pace and not cramp.  By the way the cramping has only happened to me during races on this new saddle so I’m certain at this point it’s the saddle. To the last point, I had been making minor adjustments to my seat all the day before and it still didn’t feel good with a lot of pressure on my sit bones, and so at this point was hoping for the best.  

I was doing pretty well in the beginning. The weather forecast was mostly sunny, no rain – the most important part – and good temperature for climbing and descending.  The terrain was XC style, with one rocky section, some road, a small bit of flowy single track, before the big 3000+ ft climb in the middle of the race.  I had started out with 23/25PSI front/back and was so extremely saddle sore.  When I got to the rest stop before the large climb, I let out about 5PSI per tire and it felt infinitely better and comfier.  Definitely running 20s from the start next time.  The best part of the race was probably when I saw the first riders descending as I was climbing.  Keegan came down first on his drop bar mountain bike, and everyone cheered.  It was a while before anyone else followed, and a while after that I saw the first group of women.

The climb was brutally long, but not difficult.  About halfway up, Riley passes me (and I’m very surprised as I didn’t know he signed up, and he says, “You’re doing a lot better than at Tahoe Trail!”  I chuckled because yes.  Asked him where Kelly is and he said she flatted out about 10 miles into the race and is far behind.  RIP.  Near the top, was some of the most beautiful views I have seen in a while, mainly due to the never ending line of mountain bikers going up the beautiful mountain backdrop.  I love taking pictures, but opted out to know I gave it everything I had, but now I wish I had just taken a picture.  Anyways, near the top of the climb, the air was thin, my legs were cramping, and I got off like most of the people around me to walk up the chunky loose rock climb up, single file, as people one after another came racing down right next to us.  When I made it to the top, all I could think about was getting some calories and carbs in me, scarfed down one of their sponsored gels, chugged half a coke, and half a banana in hopes of uncramping.

The downhill was fun.  It wasn’t anything technical, and was just trying to keep upright and not crash and stay focused.  When I finally made it to the bottom and to the rest stop area, I was yelling out Clay’s name, my support crew, frantic, calling him frantic on the phone, other family support members offering me food and hydration, my pedaling up and down that stretch, only about 5 minutes later realizing I was in the wrong rest stop – SMH.

When I finally made it to the rest stop, Clay smothered some stuff on my legs to help me from cramping, and gave me a bottle of water mixed with liquid IV.  Quick stop, and I kept going.  I was starting to lose interest in the race at this point when I started following a guy’s wheel with three of us in a line, two in front of me.  He helped me get to the next rest stop where Clay and his two friends were waiting for me.  Immediately I jumped off the bike, Clay said “you’re kicking Lance’s ass,” I ran to the porta potties, and said to Clay, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”  Then, “There’s Lance, with the yellow bag.”  That was cool but I didn’t give it any more thought than that but wanting to finish the race.  By that point, I wasn’t thinking of nutrition anymore.  My bottle an hour turned into maybe a bottle every 2 hours.  I was already under fueling, and after that, severely behind, but my mouth could not stomach any more hydration mix so had a bottle of just water on my bike.

I kept going.  I had about 20 miles left, and as I read somewhere, every mile after 80 was the worst.  It actually wasn’t that bad, I just zoned out and pushed and thought about seeing Clay and that was all I could think about.  At this point, I also knew I wasn’t hitting my 9 hour goal and I was ok with it.  Time to hit 10 for the hoodie, which I never got by the way. Hmmmm.  There was another relatively large climb after that last rest stop which mainly was just steep as hell and definitely had to be walked – I had done it the day previously as a preride and totally doable then but not after 80 miles with my legs on the constant verge of cramping.  On that climb, it started hailing on us.  I hate rain.  I’m like a cat, but in those few miles, I soaked it all in – specifically in my legs.  It drastically helped with the cramping from that point on and it didn’t feel like I was constantly on the verge of cramping anymore.

The last 10 miles were a blur.  I kept passing a young girl and she kept passing me because her chain would drop.  There were quite a few small steepish climbs but I just gritted my teeth and did it.  I was going pretty fast (relatively to myself) for those last 10 miles because I just wanted to finish this race.  All I thought about was giving Clay a hug. Last few miles, they had a sign up every maybe 400 meters of the previous years winners, from 2023 all the way to the first year.  This was the 30th year and they made a big deal out of this year.

The last sprint.  It was straight, and it was a climb.  I sprinted.  I sprinted all out.  But it was so much longer than I thought it was and ran out of gas after about 20 or 25 seconds.  I ran out of gas and instead of crossing the line victorious, I crossed it thinking I was going to faint or yak or something.  Clay was waiting at the end of the finish line with a crowd filming me cross the finish line.  That entire second half of the race thinking about just finishing and giving Clay a hug went out the window as I crossed the finish line completely gassed.  Headed straight for the barriers, got off my bike, and couldn’t even wave and stand straight.  I ended up getting a trophy for that sprint haha… so yes, I was gassed.

Ended with an official time of 9:44:33. Wish I did better, but as my Strava description says, I gave it everything I had and if that’s the result I got, that’s where I stand in my endurance, skills, athleticism.  Honestly, for not having a structured training plan, and always making last minute adjustments to my bike, I did pretty well.  I would do it again, if only I could work remotely and not have to take a whole week off to come out and acclimate.  I’ve never been a fan of finisher medals, but in this case, was so happy to take it home as well as the handcrafted belt buckle. 

A while later, I saw Kelly roll past the finish line, asked her how it went, gave her a hug.  For having flatted out early in the race, she crushed it physically and mentally. 

It was a bucket list item and we did it.

Nutrition: attempted one bottle per hour of ~30-35g carb drink mix (Torq and Tailwind) with one gel every hour (Torq, SIS, sponsored Precision Fuel), + aid station banana, coke