This past weekend I landed in Leadville, Colorado to learn how a small, high mountain town plays host to one of the most prestigious ultra runs in the country – in doing so I learned that each and every one of us can be a trail runner.
Inspired by the beauty of the high Rockies and the warmth of the Leadville race directors and training camp attendees, I knew this was going to be fun. We ventured out and up the mountain at 7:30 am with approximately 100 trail runners who feverishly prepared to prepare for the grueling 100 mile race scheduled for late August. The training camp commenced with a marathon which had me stopping and manning aid stations referred to by veteran LT 100 runners as Fish hatchery and Twin Lakes. Amazed by the speed of the trainees, the day concluded early and we were eating BBQ by 2:00 pm, napping by 3.

Sunday began, once again with another marathon, this time over the acclaimed Hope Pass. Upon trail head check in, my fit & spunky traveling companions, Brian Hall, Vasque Senior Product Manager & Duncan Callahan, Vasque athlete and returning LT 100 champ, were off and running and I was hiking – with a dream of potentially, some day, catching up. After enough heavy breathing and killer views to last for months, I opted to head over to Winfield aid station to meet the guys at the turn-around. It is here that I discovered, maybe, just maybe, this was for me too. Wanting a little high altitude exercise I decide to run with Brian Hall back out from the Winfield check point to the trail head. Upon dropping him off and wishing him safe travels back over the mountain, I returned to my car, thus running against runner traffic. It was at this point I decided – TRing is for me. Why? Of course it is for the glorious remote areas the trail can take you and the reduced stress on the body – but, most importantly, I discovered that UR’s are the nicest people on the planet! Before I could offer encouraging words to the passerby’s they hollered to me, ‘good job’. I was blown away. I guess in the end I realized they were my support system as much as I was theirs…

I have just sent in my application for my first 25k in September. And, even better I got my office colleagues to run as well. Thanks for the TR bug! For the LT100 training camp attendees, good luck, I will be there to cheer you on!