2015 Leadville 100: Pre-Race Jitters

08.18.2015 | 7:54 am

A “Quick Links to Previous Installments” Note from Fatty: Here’s where you’ll find the parts to this story:

• Part 1: Pre-Race Jitters
• Part 2: Starting Line Surprise
• Part 3: Return of the Son of Joyful Warrior
• Part 4: Conflict and Questions
• Part 5: Perception and Reality
• Part 6: New Objective
• Part 7: To the Finish Line and Beyond

I was at the starting line for the 2015 Leadville 100 — my 19th start, although (with any luck) it would be my 18th finish — and I was wigging out. Wigging out more than usual, I mean.

To illustrate, I was at this moment actually at the starting line for the race for the second time. The first time, fifteen minutes ago, I had arrived with The Hammer. Then, upon arriving — and as she serenely walked toward her red corral — I abruptly turned around and rode back to our house to use the bathroom just one more time.

I was nervous. I had my reasons. 

“OK, you’re standing here, now, just like you knew you’d be. And all those moments where you thought you’d lose the weight you needed to ‘later’ didn’t exactly pan out, did they?” I told myself. “You’re about seven or ten pounds heavier than you’ve been the past several years you’ve done this race. You know: about seven or ten pounds heavier than you’ve ever been since you started finishing this race under nine hours.“

And it was true. I was — am — heavier than I’d like to be, and I knew that this isn’t the kind of race where extra weight doesn’t matter.

It’s more than eleven thousand feet of climbing, after all, most of which happens at ten thousand feet and above. Sometimes way above.

“So I’m heavy,” I argued. “But I’m also really strong this year. The work I’ve done with TrainerRoad has made a big difference. I can feel it. I (spoiler alert) was the fastest I’ve ever been at The Rockwell Relay. I was (another spoiler alert) the fastest I’ve ever been at the Crusher in the Tushar. I was fast enough in the Cedar City Fire Road 100 that I got moved to this starting corrall all most all the way at the front.” 

“That counts for something, right?” I asked myself.

I looked around. I was surprised how many people I knew. There was Jason, a racer I had had words with in the distant past, but now consider a friend and racing doppelgänger. And there was Brandon Smith, with whom I had shared court time.

And right next to me was my nephew-in-law, Ben Stevenson.

He and Lindsey have been doing a lot of training rides with Lisa and me. Lindsey and I have similar taste in pre-race heroic poses in big puffy coats:

Me

Lindsey

I knew that Ben was strong, and that I am generally faster than he is (sprints definitely being an exception). So why couldn’t I accept that weight notwithstanding, I had pretty goo chances at hitting my objective?

Oh, that objective. Sub-eight-hours to do Leadville. I had said it out loud. Had written it down and published it.

“You’re an idiot,” I told myself. “You didn’t get under nine hours ’til your fifteenth try, and now you think you can be nineteen minutes faster than your best? A best (8:18) which — by the way — you have not repeated in four years. When you were in your mid-forties instead of your very very very late forties.”

“But I haven’t told people about that goal in a while,” I said. “I’ll bet most people have forgotten it. Lately I’ve been saying that my objective is to beat my best time, with a stretch goal of beating Rebecca Rusch’s time in her first Leadville 100 (8:14:53). I think that might be do-able.”

Why did I want to beat Rebecca Rusch’s ’09 winning time? Because I thought it might be a useful data point to have the next time she refers to me as one of the “not so fast” people in the race.

(And also, I chose her ’09 winning time because I know there’s no way I could ever touch her ’10 – ’12 winning times.)

To be truthful, I was mentally exhausted from a jam-packed week of riding, online webinars, clinics, fundraising dinners, and preparing for the race. Somehow, I had let my taper week become incredibly busy.

Of course, we had time for a great WBR-Fatty photo shoot, courtesy of the talented Linda Guerrette:

So to be really and truly truthful, I didn’t have much to complain about. I had had a lot of fun doing these clinics and webinars; I lose count of how many times people had approached me and told me how much they had learned. And Reba really is way more than the Queen of Pain; she’s a very knowledgeable and big-hearted person.

Fatty and Reba on Columbine during pre-race clinics. Weirdest. Selfie. Ever.

And I had completed and had a celebration around my Grand Slam for Kenya, announcing — and talking on the phone with — the first winner right there in Leadville.

I tried to put all the nervousness out of my head. I failed.

Dave Wiens’ son sang the most beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner I have ever heard. Honestly, he is an extraordinarily gifted singer, and the cheering after he concluded was huge.

The gun went off. It was time to put my stress and my jitters behind me. 

Once again, the future had become the present. 

I clipped in and took off.

Which is where we’ll pick up in the next installment.