Tuesday, July 7, 2009

We're Here!

Well, we made the trip to Leadville and it is friggin' awesome! A little hard to breathe, but awesome! I ran the first part of the Marathon course today and ran into Anton Krupicka. He is the former winner of the Leadville Marathon and 2X winner of the Leadville 100. It was great to be in the mountains and enjoying the scenery.

Leadville sits at 10,152 feet and it takes awhile to acclimate. Julie and the kids are still kind of struggling, but I am doing pretty well. Whenever you have to climb is when I am really suffering. The first half of the Marathon is going to have a lot of walking and running when I can. The second half will be a lot more runnable. This will definitely be a negative split. I ran up to about 12,000 feet today and it took 52 minutes to cover about 4.5 miles on the way up and 35 minutes on the way back. It is going to be a real challenge, but I know I can get under 5 hours.

Leadville is a very cool town and I could see myself living here. All the family loves it and I am not for sure if I am coming back. I am thinking of trying to summit Mt. Elbert, which is the highest point in Colorado tomorrow, but I am not for sure if that will push things. The race is on Saturday and I do not want to push it, but it has never stopped me before. After all, it is only about 20 minutes from here.

We are taking some great pictures and will post some when we get back. I cannot believe how awesome this place is. Later.

2 comments:

Bobby said...

Isn't Leadville where the Arkansas river starts? If so, try to get a picture.

tomdog said...

Bobby, yes the Arkansas River headwater does start here. I think it is just south of town. I will try and see if I can get a picture.