One year ago today, as I packed up the car to head off for my second year of college, my mom was packing bags filled with watermelon and turkey sandwiches, about five fleece and waterproof jackets, two pairs of running shoes and her yoga mat. As random of an assortment as this may seem, this load of belongings had been planned weeks in advance. My mom was packing up to head to the mountains for one of the hardest trail running events in the state, the Leadville 100.
The Leadville 100 is a race that takes place over the course of 30 hours, all mountain trails sitting 10,000 feet above sea level, and up to 5,000 feet of elevation gain. With a start time of 4 a.m., runners from all over the world gather and set off to run 100 miles.
Now I know what you’re all thinking: this sounds crazy. And honestly, I am not here to tell you that it isn’t, because it is. It’s absolutely mad. My mom had been training for the event for almost a year and a half. With countless amounts of casual morning marathons, night runs starting at 9 p.m. and hikes that involved climbing from 5,000 to 12,000 feet above sea level in a matter of hours, preparing for a race like this is not easy.
I do realize that Ultra running is not a very well known sport, but through this piece, I hope to share a little bit of it with all of you, because I have to say that what I witnessed during this event was absolutely amazing.
I first want to point out that with events like this, it takes a village. Although the runner is doing every bit of the hard work (running 100 miles and all), the athlete's crew is there to push them, keep everything organized and get them through checkpoint after checkpoint. It is the crew's job to make sure that the runner has everything they could possibly need. This means extra socks, extra clothes, extra shoes and all the food they could ever want.
The crew also gets to help with another aspect of the race: they get to help run. After 50 miles, the athlete is allowed one pacer to help them get through the last 50 miles of the race. It is the job of a pacer to make sure the runner stays on the trail, eats food when they need to and drinks lots of water.
After running 50 miles, you can imagine one would be pretty fatigued, but continuing on for 100 miles can bring some people to hallucinations, sickness and just complete and utter exhaustion.
My younger brother met my mom at the 50-mile mark after she had climbed over a pass that topped out at 12,600 feet above sea level. The both of them then turned around and began the second half of the race. The rest of us were posted up in town on the other side of the pass, awaiting their arrival.
Finally, the two of them pulled around the corner. With the sky now a midnight blue, we had everything ready and waiting to get my mom through the night. This was the first time I had seen her since I had left to move into my apartment about 12 hours earlier, and I have to say I had never been so proud of her in my life.
Although there is no way I could cover all of the emotional ups and downs or the hardships and hurdles my mom overcame in achieving this incredibly inspiring goal, I can only attempt to put it all into words. After 29 straight hours on her feet, at 8:30 a.m., my amazing mom had finally completed the Leadville 100.
So to my incredible mom...
On that day, you accomplished something that was truly breathtaking. On that day, you showed every single one of your family and friends what perseverance can do. By completing this event, you proved that if you push yourself, love yourself and take care of yourself, you can accomplish anything that your heart desires. This alone is a lesson that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. What we all watched you accomplish on this day is not only something that opened our hearts, but changed everyone’s lives for the better. So cheers to you; for moving mountains and being such a beautiful inspiration.
