Brandon Fuller

Run: Union Reservoir (9.71 mi)

So after over a week off, it was time to test this hip out. Felt it right away but thought it might be OK. After the first small hill, my right hip flexors flared up. Damn it. I stopped and stretched a bit then moved on. Ran OK with a dull pain until mile 7 when it went sharp. Felt my kneecap being ripped off. Didn’t want to run for fear of injuring something else. Alternated walking and running every 100 steps for 3 miles home. The walk of shame. No fun.

The good news is that my feet are better! I have been sanding them nearly every night and am breaking through thick layers of skin to expose nice pink stuff down below. Trying to get to a place where I have a good baseline of healthy (read not dead) skin down there. Evidence of the sanding by the holes in my feet.

I went to acupuncture last night for the first time. Didn’t hurt at all. I had visions of big sewing needles stuck in my legs. Half the time I couldn’t feel them even go in. She worked 3 areas on my right side: hip flexors, IT band, right butt cheek. The needles produces some very large twitches. That was cool. Weird sensation of pain but not pain…kind of like relief. She pointed out a variety of trigger points where you could feel knots in the muscles. The consensus is that the Piriformis Syndrome, which now feels dull and seems mostly resolved, pulled on my leg in such a way that it rotated my leg outward causing all this inner groin strain. So now I am dealing with the after effects of the original problem. So on one hand, I got better but on the other hand, its just moving the problem around. Not sure where to go from here. Probably just keep at it but lower the running again for a week because there is no use in walking it in.

I went 9.71 miles with an elevation gain of 213 feet in 01:29:23, which is an average pace of 09:12. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Band of Brothers

Today we had the pleasure of hosting a “catch up” party in which we invited friends and family to celebrate Kayla’s 1st birthday, my Leadville finish, and the beauty of summer! One big gathering to commemorate it all. 40+ people in attendance with kids and all. Would have loved to expand it even more but my wife couldn’t fit anymore food in the house. My parents were in town so it was an added bonus for them to get to be able to meet more of our friends!

Who’s not wearing shades? The highlight for me was being able to get so many of my running brothers in one place at one time and none of us had to sweat or try to PR! Its a miracle. But we pulled it off and polished off a decent amount of beer as we chatted about everything running. It was great seeing everyone. Surely, more great performances to come from this crew!

Green Day @ Fiddler’s Green

I feel like I go way back with these guys and we have grown together. I got my first taste of Green Day in college when the pot smoking hippie across the hall said hi. He was from Berkeley, California and knew everything about punk rock. He gave me a CD from an unknown band called Green Day, a hometown act for him. 1,039 was the name of the album. Its great stuff he said. Later followed up by an album called Kerplunk. Little did we all know the phenomenon this would later become. Green Day continued to make new music over the years but it got a lot of flack for the same old sound as before. However, with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, I think they got the credit they deserved — the sound and voice of a generation if you will.

I have been getting Kim out to shows with me once in a while but its a short list of bands that she will go see. No repeats. No big mosh pits anymore. But when I told her Green Day was coming for a summer tour (read outside!) she didn’t hesitate to say yes. So we flew in a babysitter for Kayla and set off on a date to see Green Day! Had dinner beforehand. I wasn’t in a rush to get to the show. However, upon arriving to the venue at about 7:30 things were oddly quiet. Hmmm. So we got a water and then heard a kid say AFI had just finished a 35 minute set and they were done. He was made because that was his band of choice. So Kim and I hustled and just as we crested the stairs, Green Day came on stage. Whoops! Almost missed the start. I have stood waiting for so many hours before shows that I will take a start upon my arrival once in a while.

I told Kim I only like to be in one place at this venue. So we started walking down. Through endless checkpoints of security. Down through the lawn. Down through the upper deck. Down to the lower deck. Basically past every seat in the place until you reach the stage. They checked our tickets which boldly said “GAPIT”…or general admission in the pit. Normally, the pit is a crazy place but not tonight. Mostly full of ladies getting their groove on. It was packed full from the edge. I looked at the security guard as if to say “what the hell is their problem?” to which he leaned in and said “we have a bunch of newbies here tonight, just push on in!”. So I did. I led Kim through and got the nastiest looks from a variety of ladies that had been there and you shouldn’t push. Fuck off. Its the pit. Go get a chair if you don’t like it down here. I wasn’t rude but she didn’t know how this works. We centered up and found a nice spot near the back rail and started to enjoy the show only 4 people deep from Billie Joe and crew!

I had previewed setlists online from prior shows on the tour. It was a long one with about 33 songs in total. A few songs in Billie Joe said that they were recording a live album at the show. Wow! That should amp them up for an even better show. Billie continued the antics by interviewing people, bring them on stage, and making them dance, sing, or stage dive. Classically funny stuff. He is on a short list of people who can write music, perform on any instrument, and then entertain 1000s of people without missing a beat.

Billie wanted somebody to sing Longview for him so asked people. Found them. Made them swear they could do it. Then brought them on stage. CHOKE. Bad. The punk girl didn’t know it well enough. She just jumped around. Next. A Latino dude comes up. Same drill. CHOKE. Spent half the time fixing his shirt while Billie whispered in his ear. Depressing. I am setting there thinking I can nail it but I recall my karaoke debut in Mexico and how badly I did when set to actual music. No thanks. One last chance, another punk girl with pink hair. She grabs the mic, walks the stage, and nails it. She can sing. Stays on stage for the rest of the song. If you didn’t know the band, you might have thought she was supposed to be there. Billie was so impressed that when the song was done he just unstraps his guitar and hands it over as a gift. Nice work!

The rest of the night involved more great music, lots of interludes, water guns on the crowd, toilet paper guns, more confetti than I have ever seen in my life, and a huge group dance party up on stage. A great performance. They ended the night with a long encore in which they played Jesus of Suburbia just for me once again. Then turned it down and Billie played Last Night on Earth, Walk Me Up When September Ends, and Good Riddance. Tre and Mike came back out and threw out some picks and sticks. Tre quickly turned and tossed 2 sticks my way. The first one got the group diving for it but the second just came right to my hand and I quickly shoved it into my pants before the crowd could hunt me down and try and rip it away. They were all going “I saw one right here” as I stood there still pretending I didn’t have the loot. I turned to Kim and showed her. After all these shows and all these years, I finally got a stick!

Great night with Kim and Green Day!

View all photos from this event.

Brownie Is Coming Over On Sunday

Getting the house ready…

Overriden

Who cares about my run anymore? This guy is stealing my thunder! Drat.

Jake Gyllenhaal was at the race as I said. Now, the articles are starting to surface with my pictures and quotes.

‘Born to Run’ movie rumors: Jake Gyllenhaal at the Leadville 100 with author Christopher McDougall?

Born to Run - Jake Gyllenhaal in Colorado to research a sports movie? In disguise!

Brownie and I need to get an agent!

Turning The Corner

As of today, the fluid in the balls of my feet has reabsorbed. I can push on the bottom of my feet without pain once again. I can walk normally and not look like I have a stick up my ass. All is right once again. Think I might go get a pedicure and have them aggressively shave all that dead skin away. Its going to get in the way again. They will be sensitive for a while but at least I can start over. The barefoot mentality says this excess skin is a very bad thing so I want it gone.

Otherwise, I am feeling just fine. My right hip is still mad though. I am going to give it a few more days before I start testing it out. If it doesn’t respond, it might be time to start some more serious treatment. Sitting in my chair, I am getting itchy on how best to utilize my fall running budget/schedule. I am contemplating 4 options and one involves doing nothing. That one has the least votes currently. Another involves the word ultra and my former hometown area. Why not. But its all hinged on this hip thing.

All of that recovery has me already talking shit to Brownie once again. Didn’t I learn my lesson? No. I am 1-2 against him now. But both his and my last wins came on days when the other was not 100%. Hence, we need to do this again. And again. We are already talking about 2011 match-ups. Maybe even a surprise 2010 one. The war rages on!

But it was noted that I am 1-0 vs. Krupicka in 100 mile races. Just sayin’. I bet most of us would have been happy (except Duncan?) to lose that one though.

My parents arrive today for a weekend visit. Green Day concert with Kim on Saturday night then big party here at home with friends on Sunday. Should be a great weekend. Summer is almost over and I will miss her. Its been a great one.

Mentioned my video from the race to a few people and apparently it was missed. It didn’t show in the RSS feed for example because it was too long. All my post race stuff was missed in that case too. Here is a re-post of the video in case. Its no big production. Natalee was shooting video hands free at aid stations when I came in. I find interest in the dialog though when I question things.

Ran across a better video! Its 10 minutes and mostly covers the first 50 miles where a runner finds himself hurting and DNFs at Winfield. Inspiring and painful at the same time. But it gives a great sense of the course, the area, the atmosphere and more. Makes me wish I would have recorded some of the race myself but I had a job to do. Excited for a real movie — I don’t get why this drama isn’t a reality TV special.

Watching parts of that makes me tingle. How many more days until we can do this again? I am so there.

The Leadville Poll Results

41 responses! Loved all the interest.

Question 1: Your name. Everyone got that right.

Question 2: Your email. Everyone got that right except Brownie…he said Yellow.

Question 3: Will he puke? The correct answer unfortunately was YES. I did puke once on the 2nd Hope Pass climb. 21 people said no. 19 said yes. So points for 19 of you.

Question 4: What time will Brandon finish in? 28:25 was the highest guess. I was 28:53. A couple people had me in the 28s and I frankly chucked at those when I saw them come in. Who’s the fool now? Got a dose of humility there. But on the flip side, I was so encouraged to see the average predicted time be in the 24 hour range. I wish I could have delivered that.

Question 5: Who will win the Showdown rematch? Brownie took it but you all thought I would 27 to 13. Guess it shows that I shouldn’t pick a fight with a repeat 100 miler finisher my first time out.

Question 6: Who will drink more alcohol at the after-party? Frankly, we didn’t have one. We drank some days before but after the race, it was too long between the finishes for partying. I am going to give the win to Brownie there given he had ~4 hours to sit and wait for me to cross the line after he did.

Question 7: Will Anton Krupicka break the course record? He DNF’d. 24 thought he would break it, versus 17 not. His chances were good but I guess that CR lives on.

AND YOUR WINNER IS….BILL KELLER! He actually nailed every single question. He will get a wonderful gift in the mail shortly.

I like doing these because it gives me a sense of the wisdom of the crowd. Thanks for playing!

Leadville Trail 100 2010

Mission accomplished.

On January 1st of this year, I set my goals for the year. The cornerstones were Boston and Leadville. Both were going to be difficult tasks in their own right. Boston went perfectly, but Leadville didn’t turn out to be the performance I dreamed of. It isn’t always your day. And I definitely didn’t peak like I hoped to. But I never quit and finished what I started. I have a buckle and nobody can take that away.

Pre-Race

Had a great time meeting people and hanging out. That was the best part of the weekend. Through my stories of this race, I had a lot of people who virtually knew me. They took the time to come up to me and introduce themselves. It happened randomly at street corners, the briefing, in the line at the grocery store, during the race, after the race, and more. It was pretty cool. I felt kinda like I earned my Rock Star moniker that JV uses for me. I always tried to recall or acknowledge all the folks. Some I knew better than others. Some had commented so I knew just a name. Others were complete strangers. If we met, give me a comment below so I can get better acquainted with you.

Start

We set the alarms for 2:45. I popped up at 2:30 and sat on the toilet. I was awake and feeling good. Had gotten some better than usual sleep. It would be the last I would get for a long time. Natalee and I had most of the gear in the truck and ready to go already. Took a few pictures before heading out into the night.

Natalee had custom jackets made for Runner, Pacer and Crew Chief so Team Shart was known!

It was warmer than expected out at the start. Probably low 40s. Had expected 30s. So it felt comfortable in my shorts, singlet, and arm warmers. Looking around, many folks had jackets and other big heavy things on. I was light and ready to run. I felt like I hadn’t run in weeks so I was pretty amped to get the show on the road. We huddled inside of the Provin’ Grounds early and compared outfits, strategies, and wished each other luck.

Time was getting close. Brooks, JT and I made our way into the crowd. Brooks went straight up front so I followed. Wanted to get a look at everyone on the front line. No Tony. 2 minutes to the start. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal was standing in front of me on the start line with his Flip camera shooting some video. Another crew was over further with some big lights. I gave Jake the head nod…what’s up. He responded. We started counting down from 10 to 0 and Tony popped in next to us and said hi. Bang! We were off.

To May Queen Outbound (13.5 miles)

The run down 6th Street was epic. It drops a bit then rises up a hill. Being all fresh and excited I ran with the group to the top of the hill. Someone noted “turn around and look back” to us all and it was a sea of headlamps. Amazing sight. We followed the pace truck down to the end of 6th Street where Natalee and JP had the H2 sitting there so I ran wide and said hi to them. JP yells at me, “Slow down…you are in 7th place!”. It wasn’t that epic. We were all over the street that first mile just getting the party started.

As we turned onto the Boulevard, I slowed my pace and the lead group drifted down and into the darkness ahead. Time to get myself in the game. Minutes later, Tony come jogging up from behind me. Guess he had some business. Told me to watch the speed and save my quads. Sounds good. Wished him a great day. I wouldn’t see him again until he was on his way back.

As we ran past Sugarloaf’n, Brooks came up from behind. He had been off the woods too. See…not just me! Wished him a good day too. I was expecting great things from him today.

We got out around Turquoise Lake and small packs were forming out in the front. I wasn’t 30-50 people back but we couldn’t see the leaders and the mass of runners had not come down to the lake yet. I felt my own nature call so I ran up to a campground bathroom only to find it out of order. Dang it. So I crapped next to the building as punishment. While sitting there, I could see the stream of headlamps coming down to the lake and I was losing lots of spots. It would be a long day so no big worries but I didn’t want to get in the predicted clusterfuck on the singletrack around the lake and at May Queen. I made good progress around the lake. Felt fresh and happy to be there. I knew that the key to this race was going out slow to save it for the day but I felt like getting a small jump on things to start wasn’t going to kill anything.

Started getting into May Queen and I felt nature call again. Those taper weeks always build up a lot in me so let’s get it out early. I knew where the camping outhouses where so I popped over and used those before jogging up through the campground. Coming into May Queen in the twilight was amazing. Because this is the first stop and we aren’t staggered out yet, all the crews were pretty much there. It was an organized madhouse. I ran up the small hill to see JP standing there. He popped out of the crowd and ran in front of me and took me into the tent, got my supplies and out lead me right to where Natalee was. In the sea of people, it would have been a multi-minute ordeal to locate here. However, none of that here. We were on. They gave me my pickup bag, I dropped my light, grabbed new bottles and was gone. I probably stopped moving for less than 30 seconds. Really shouldn’t have been in such a hurry in retrospect but it felt good to show that we could do the pit stop fast.

Split time: 1:58:49 - 11 minutes under prescribed 25 hour split pace. And I stopped twice to poop! So it was way too hot but it wasn’t really a big exertion like a hill climb so I was happy. Plus, I had my next section planned out to recover.

To Fish Hatchery Outbound (23.5 miles)

After leaving May Queen, there is a short stretch of paved road up to a campground and then we get on the Colorado Trail. Its a 2 mile-ish piece of singletrack in there that rises up to Hagerman Pass road. I love that trail so I ran it nice and steady. Popped out on the road in no time. Debating walking the road but had a flashback of walking the road up to Carson at the SJS50 and didn’t want to repeat. So I motored up to the turn off for Sugarloaf pass before employing my strategy. Walk time! I purposely walked every step to the top of the pass. Early on lots of people passed me but they eventually gassed and went to the walk. I ate, refueled, and recovered. We were in the 3-ish hour point in the race so it was a good place to reset.

As I ran over to the Powerlines, my final crap of the day came calling. My crew was supposed to give me little baggies of TP but we didn’t get that loaded at the last station so I was at a loss. There is literally nothing up top there. The trees are all pines with needles. There are no leaves. No large rocks. What to do. So I went and used handfuls of dead pine needles mixed with dirt. Primitive but it got the job done for now. Once I get to the aid station, I can check my work.

Time to descend. Excited to do get the first downhill of the day going. Ran this hard in training camp and learned my lesson so I was ready to take it nice and slow. Step. Ouch. Step. Ouch. What the fuck is that? My right hip flexor was on fire. This is different than my piriformous syndome because that is the back butt. I think this thing may have been related and tightened up and wasn’t happy. The further I descended the more it hurt. So I just kept backing off. Hordes of people were coming around me and I looked like a gimpy road runner trying my first downhill train run. Downhills are nice time pickups but I was losing a lot here. OK, just get down and reaccess.

Felt like forever but finally got down the Powerlines and was out on the road to the Fish Hatchery. This is 1 mile paved section that rolls. And the downhills in the rolls hurt now too. Crap. What does this mean for my day? JP flanking me into the aid station getting the low down on my needs.

I made a few gametime tweaks - no headphones yet, take arm warmers, etc. Then we went up and ran through the aid station and I was back out. Never stopped moving. Natalee was setup just down the road but I stopped at the port-o-pots to inspect my work from earlier. There were 2 of them and I was jumping up and down waiting to get in. The crowd started yelling “Runner!” like if a spectator was in there they should cut it off mid-stream and get out. Natalee brought the gear over and we did the pit stop while I was in line. As a crew, you have to be flexible. Finally, the door swings open — its JT! You have to be kidding me! I was waiting on him. Hadn’t seen him since the start and here we are. He still had to check in so I finished and ran out of Fish Hatchery knowing he was back behind me but not very far.

Split Time: 2:05:53 - Now 3 minutes over 25 hour pace. Damn. That downhill just ate nearly 15 minutes. This isn’t good and I started to worry about my day already.

To Halfmoon II Outbound (30 miles)

From there, I motored down the road out of Fish Hatchery. We were on our way to Halfmoon aid station but there was a crew access point at Pipeline where I expected to see Natalee and JP again. Crews can’t go to Halfmoon so I needed to get my supplies for that at Pipeline. I was on and off my run on the way to Pipeline. For some reason, that road just takes it out of me so I ate and refueled then ran. Repeat. Finally, JT showed up behind me and we walked together for a 1/2 mile before going onto Pipeline. We ran up through the mass of vehicles to find Natalee and JP.

JT and I coming up the line.

We stopped and offered JT anything he needed. He was good so he went on. I stayed back and got suntan lotioned up and took some swings of Mountain Dew. Wasn’t going to see the crew again for hours so this was a final checkpoint of sorts. Got my headphones on and moved on out to regain JT and make my way to Halfmoon.

Randomly, JT popped up from behind a few miles later. He said something about a wrong turn but guessing he was in the woods. Anyway, he was moving good. I was transitioning walks and runs but he was staying on the run nicely on the moderate inclines that I was happy to walk. He has discipline. Over the course of the next few miles, he inched forward and finally out of sight. I was cool with that. Allowed me to relax and focus on my own game.

Made it into Halfmoon and ate some random food they had out. Stuffed my pockets with chips and pretzels and made my way out. 1/3 of the race was now done and it was still early the morning. It was going to be a long day.

Split Time: 1:35:51 - This aid station was moved last year so a lot of the historical data is wrong because it was for a different location. However, my gut told me I was slow.

To Twin Lakes Outbound (39 miles)

Back on some rolling terrain and the any descents continued to suck. Even small ones. I was just slow. People were coming blasting by me. I did that same thing to people at training camp earlier in the summer. Not today. I was getting passed on easy non-technical downhill because of my hobbling nature. I continued to let runner after runner by knowing that this was bad and something is going to have to be changed in the strategy for today.

Coming into Twin Lakes, I could hear the crowds and was pumped up to see everyone again after the 3+ hours of no crew. Ran down the hill to find them conveniently setup. Kim had joined them at this point. Her and Kayla slept in given they might be up and out with us late tonight. I was excited to see her and be able to kiss somebody in the crew. She told me I was looking great. Knowing she has seen the best and worst of me at races, I thought that was a good sign. At this point, I opted to go with the hydration pack for the long up and over Hope Pass. Said my goodbyes and made me way through the small town of Twin Lakes were people lined every street cheering me on. No runners immediately around me so I had the crowd to myself.

I made Natalee try and pull out my leg to shake my hip out. I laid down and she yanked on me for a while. Then I tried to stretch a bit. Nothing was helping.

Split Time: 1:37:59

To Winfield (50 miles)

Winfield is an old ghost town that sits on the other side of a ridge of mountains from Twin Lakes. The races goes up and over that at a place called Hope Pass. Its at 12,600 feet. While not a 14er, it packs quite a punch. However, to get to the start of the climb we had to traverse the boggy backside of the Twin Lakes themselves. It was wet! I got familiar with wet shoes at SJS50 but this might be different. First big puddle had a way around. Cool. Next one. Nope. So I stood there for a fraction of a second then said “fuck it” and splashed in. It wasn’t knee deep but it was cold and my shoes were completely soaked. This sucks but it liberating because I continue through each of the next few ponds of water and mud quickly now. Finally, I hit the river. A rope was tied to a tree on each side. I grabbed the rope with both hands and steadied myself across. It was knee deep and it was cold. My feet were burning. After getting out, I had to walk because my feet were tingling. Also wanted to get the water squished out. Ended up walking to the start of the climb.

I knew the timing on this climb from training camp so I put it into hiking gear and made my way up. Moved pretty well I thought. Definitely fatigued from running 40+ miles already but I never stopped moving. Step after step I plodded to the top. Got passed a few times and passed a few but definitely wasn’t losing to the crowd up the hill. This made me think I might have fallen off my early hot pace during the downhill trouble and back to a more comfortable place in the rank order of racers.

As I was just getting to treeline, I saw a blaze in front of me. It was Tony and Dakota moving swiftly. I was excited to say hi and relieved that he passed me nice and high versus down in Twin Lakes. Reached Hopeless Aid Station and was excited to see all the llamas. This aid station is near the summit and offers pretty much full service aid. They use the llamas to get all the gear up there. Then they take the llamas back down to the snow melt and get jugs of water, filter it, and serve it up. What a job! I was good on everything so I didn’t even stop. While my climb was decent, I thought I needed to pick up some time so I just blazed through.

The summit of Hope Pass is always a great thing. Completing such a climb. But this was just the start. I had to go back down and then come right back up hours later. Saw 2nd place runner Duncan here. I guessed Tony had 45 minutes or more on him at this point. Nice. The descent down Hope on the south side is steep. I did well with it in camp but today — not so much. The hip was back in action and worse. I wasn’t moving fast at all. I am pretty sure my uphill pace was faster than my downhill. Got passed a lot. Had to stand in the switchback corners and let visibly timid downhill runners go before me. Sucked ass. I mean, this is one of those things I like running and do OK with. And its an advantage. If you are from Mississippi, you don’t have this kind of stuff to run on. Now, I am losing my advantage and my motivation is wandering because of it.

I kept moving though. The race started to turn into a reunion at this point. I saw Bob Sweeney moments later. He gave me some shit about tripping me because JT said to. He looked solid but something was off. He would end up dropping at Twin Lakes due to pain. Saw Lucho coming strong up the hill. Noticed he was sweating hard. He was working. Tim Long looked fresh because he just started his pacing duties. They also gave me some crap about JT. Turns out JT was just minutes ahead and he was planting seeds of negativity on me and passing them through the virtual grapevine. It was hilarious. Saw Brooks lower down and he was working hard. Everyone else took a second to talk but he was focused. I was excited to see if he was going to deliver a stellar performance.

I finally was down and started the 2 mile shuffle up the Winfield road to the aid station. I mostly walked this because everyone around me was. Hoping to bring it back together on the way back down. Winfield looked like a tailgate party. Cars everywhere. JT was just leaving as I was coming in. We stopped and talked for a few seconds. Natalee helping JT in.

JP found me and brought me through as always. Went into the medical tent for my weight. 142 was my initial weigh in. I thought I would be good here. I strategically did not pee over the last hour to build water weight. Hey, it counts. 140! Nice. 135 would have been the cut off. They were happy so I was released and went over and sat down with my crew. They emptied the rocks out of my shoes and got me fresh socks. The others were still damp from the river crossing nearly 3 hours ago. I was there for a few minutes eating random food and talking. Felt like I was ready to go and JP was all geared and ready for his adventure.

JP’s innocence. He knew this race but he didn’t know what he was in for minutes from now!

Split Time: 3:39:26 - I was about 45 minutes behind my target. While this is a long race, it wasn’t making me feel good. I knew it would take work to make that up and I didn’t feel like I was getting stronger or faster.

To Twin Lakes Inbound (61 miles)

We shuffled down the road to Winfield for 2.3 miles until the turnoff for Hope. Just then Kim and Natalee came driving by and waved goodbye to us. We wouldn’t see them for about 4 hours.

Now it was time to back up and over Hope Pass again. However, something changed at Winfield. My energy levels were down a bit. My motivation had wandered a bit because of the slow 1/2 split for the race. From the start, the climb is a hike. Its the steeper side so its very slow steps. Like 1 every 5 seconds. But I kept moving. Went to hands on quads pushing through the steps. Wasn’t flying but stayed steady. JP was encouraging but it was so brutal to see his freshness versus my fatigue. The pacers became the people saying hi and the runners just focused. I wouldn’t respond to anything but he would do all the talking for me on passing or whatever. I was just getting up to treeline when I felt really off. So I said I needed 2 minutes. I sat on a log, looked at JP and said “Oh no”! Turned my head and blew a bucket of red Gatorade all over the ground. Then a small follow-up. That felt better! Probably a bonk but I wasn’t sure. Felt like a high concentration of sugar and I just needed to tone it down.

We started moving again, but I hadn’t come back around totally. My lungs were literally burning now. Felt like I couldn’t get any oxygen. Would find myself gasping at nearly any pace and had to stop and catch my breath. At first, it was every once in a while. Then every few switchbacks. Then every switchback. Then 1/2 through a switchback. We were making progress to the top but I wasn’t moving good at all. The stop didn’t get me recovered. They just got me to avoid passing out. It was a bonk. However, after throwing up I fought eating and just wanted to get to the top then sit and refuel. Probably dumb but that was my plan. JP edged me but didn’t push me. It was classy.

Finally topped out and started the slow descent to Hopeless Aid Station for a break. Again, the hip was tweaked so this was slow. But we made it there and I sat. Got some soup and we probably took 10 minutes there. My longest stop so far. I needed to recover. At that moment, if there was a way to quit I might have considered it. But you are up at 12,000 feet so what are you going to do? There were people all around me hurt less and worse. A bit of triage going on there. Finally, I felt somewhat better and knew we needed to move before my legs tightened up.

I hobbled out of the aid station and started moving downhill. Oddly, my hip felt a bit better at this point. Over the course of the next few minutes, I started getting jovial and talking with JP about non-racing stuff. We talked to passers by. Joked. All was good. JP commented that I had turned the corner and was coming back from the dead. I felt 100 times better. I knew it would work that way but its always painful to experience.

About 1/2 down, I was getting better and holding myself in a position that didn’t aggravated the hip too much. So we moved quicker. I was motivated by the fact that we lost so much time on the ascent. Felt like we had some making up to do. JP took my hydration pack at some point to free me up. Then I took my shirt back off. Felt free and light. Very refreshing. Finished the descent and ran out into the open meadow to the river crossing at some good speed. Felt like I just had gotten started for the day. We got through the water and made quick work getting back into Twin Lakes. We ran into town getting lots of hoots and hollers about looking good. We did look good — but you should have seen us, well me, just an hour ago.

JP and I in the back of the pack coming into Twin Lakes.

We left the other 2 kids back in Longmont with friends but Kayla got to enjoy the time on course!

Donald Beuke and I coming in. Donnie was one of the many folks who I have met over the course of the last year through my blog and Facebook. Many of these folks said hi while on course and it was great having friends in misery while sharing this experience.

The sun had gone down behind the mountains and the air was cooling. It was time for some night gear. We changed to dry shoes, long sleeve shirts, and put our lights on. It would be dark soon. To my surprise, Homie was there and helping my crew with a few things as he is a resident expert at this race. I mentioned our 25 hour time goal and he gave me some words of encouragement and told me what to do but I knew it was game over at this point. The 25 hour goal was going out the window. I just lost too much time on Hope and with the descents. Now it was just about finishing.

Depends on what you read, but they say you have big changes (like 85%+) of finishing if you leave Twin Lakes inbound. Back on Hope Pass, I questioned leaving Twin Lakes but upon arrival, it was very clear to me. I was hurt and I was slow but I could still move. I had absolutely nothing else in the world to do this evening but stay out and run and experience this. Quitting right there would have been the dumbest decision ever given my circumstances. So it was a no-brainer. We are moving on out into the night.

Split Time: 4:26:18 - 25 hour goal was over in my mind after missing the goal pace by 45 minutes.

To Halfmoon II Outbound (70 miles)

JP was on me all day about drinking and eating. So our climb up and out of Twin Lakes was about fueling. I was pretty steady and maybe only took one breather on the climb up while trying to get some more fuel down. While that was encouraging, I could feel my internal accelerator dialing down. The night was refreshing in a peaceful way. Not in a let’s crank it up way. So we kept moving on. At this point, I figured we could just walk it in and finish respectably. No big buckle but the big work was done. Just stay focused and move it in. This is actually a fairly standard strategy at Leadville. Work the first 40 moderately, then get your double Hope Pass crossing done, then just bring it home slow. After being on my feet for longer than I ever had and the impending all nighter, this sounded good to me.

Minutes later, we passed by a runner with no pacer who was hobbling. His walk wasn’t good. He wasn’t going to finish on that. I was actually walking really good. So I didn’t want to mess that up. When we tried to run, my fatigued legs would just blow up quickly. So I finally resigned myself to not running much more if at all through the night. I didn’t’ want to try and get a minute or so up just to fry some muscles and be messed up. So we walked, talked, ate, and just enjoyed the adventure.

My GPS watch (Garmin 310XT) beeped low battery at this point. Been a long time. So I got out my clip and Duracell charger and hooked it on. Charging! Felt kind of cool to be refueling my gear while moving. Also gave me some sort of progress bar to stare at for a while to take my mind off things. It would end up being fully charged by Halfmoon and ready to finish out the race.

Until it got cold. I mean real cold. I don’t know where it came from but some combination of the sun setting and my slower walking pace put me in a cold spell. I was shivering. JP was freezing too. Not good. People get hypothermia on this course every year. We just focused on moving and getting to Halfmoon. They had soup and that should help. Otherwise, we have to wait until we see Natalee again.

We got into the aid station. While sitting there, I turned around to see Chris Labbe. He was in the hurt box. I chatted with him but he is a veteran and I figured he would turn it around. We stayed at Halfmoon probably longer than we should have but given the 25 hour goal was off the books, it felt right to be fueled and comfortable moving forward.

Split Time: 2:36:53

To Fish Hatchery Outbound (76.5 miles)

It was a total hobble getting started again. My quads were stiffening up. Took me about 5 or 10 minutes to get loosened up and moving again. Plus, I was shivering. Trying to move and build body heat was difficult. It was only 3 miles until Pipeline and we might get lucky. I told Natalee she had the option of meeting us there. Was giving her an out in case she needed a break. But at this point, we were starting to telepathically demand her presence. We just kept grinding and eventually hit Pipeline and eventually got to the line of cars sitting there. A good number of folks were out. We walked down the line and I saw Natalee standing there wrapped in a blanket talking with some other folks. We were so glad to see her. We went over to the H2, opened the back and started going through the clothes bags. I jumped in the driver’s seat and got naked and layered back up with tights, shorts, shirt, long sleeve shirt. I got out and threw on my North Face 550 down jacket that I brought for Natalee to wear in case she was cold. I put on a hat and zipped up. JP layered up too. We weren’t warm yet but should be very shortly. I grabbed a large can of Red Bull and started down the road by myself. Looked and felt very non-runner at this point.

The road to Fish Hatchery should have been run but I had nothing to give it. I was cold, heavily dressed, and my legs were tight. If I could have run, I would have only shaved 3-4 minutes off my walking pace I suppose and over 3 miles that isn’t a huge amount of time. So we walked. Got passed in there but just a couple people but never stressed. They were running a bit but I saw a few of them at the next aid station so they didn’t make big gains with the extra exertion. For the most part, the line of headlamps behind us was holding pace if not slowing.

We saw Natalee just outside Fish Hatchery. We had no needs so we just said hi and moved on. Kind of a waste of a crew pit stop but we were good. Went up and checked in and they weighed me again. I was 142. 142 was my starting weight. Had a lot of clothes on so that added to it but I wasn’t sweating either.

Split Time: 2:39:07

To May Queen Outbound (86.5 miles)

There was some relief leaving Fish knowing that there was only 1 aid station to go. However, the final big remaining climb of the day was the next objective. We had to go up and over Powerline to Sugarloaf Pass with over 75 miles on us. However, something else was more interesting. On the road into Fish Hatchery and the road leading out of it, the ball of my right foot started to hurt. It was subtle. It has happened before during longer outings. Wasn’t quite sure what to make of it and there wasn’t anything I knew to do about it. So we just kept on. I found myself walking on the outside of my feet a bit more as time went on. I just pushed on knowing that we would get off the road shortly and a change of surface would hopefully do the trick.

As we turned onto the Powerline, you could look up and see a dozen or so headlamps making their way to the top. I was committed to get up this thing in better shape then that previous Hope Pass bonk crap. So I found a good pace that worked for me and just moved up that thing. I never stopped. Passed a few people. Got passed a few times. But it was solid movement and I was gritting it out. I started getting hot so I would drop my coat off my shoulders and then bring it back up. I had a water bottle in my pocket and I was still trying to consume as I could. I felt solid and knew this would be over soon…well, not really.

It was about 90 minutes to the top of Powerline and then we had to go about another 30 minutes to the top of Sugarloaf as I recall. Sugarloaf has lots of false summits. We would turn and think we were there only to see more headlamps way off in the distance. Damn. Kept going and finally got it.

The ascent wasn’t so bad on my feet it seemed. However, I think all the pressure made the problem worse. As we started to descend, my walking was impaired. Basically, I needed flat sandy ground and I couldn’t find much of it. The road is littered with rocks and stepping on them with the ball of my foot was agony. So I zig zagged the road all the way down finding the best line and trying to keep my feet on something flat. Some folks were jogging this down and I would have loved to have done that. Would have been a nice time boost but not tonight.

We got out on to Hagerman Pass road and I felt a sensation that I had not since a long time ago. I had to pee! Yeah. I had been way behind on it but just couldn’t get it going. Finally. Looked at the color with my headlamp and it was clear. I was expecting solid dark yellow. I was encouraged.

We made our way down on to the Colorado Trail. This wasn’t good. Rocks everywhere. Lots of bigger rocks all along the trail. I was trying to push it to May Queen before addressing the feet but I felt like I needed to take 5 and see what I had. So we found a rock and stopped. I sat and pulled off my right shoe and sock. The ball of my foot had a large blister across it. Not a thin “pop with a needle” blister. This was a deep painful pocket. I pulled out some moleskin and applied it to the sides of the blister to develop a supportive platform so the blister wouldn’t be the first thing smashing into the sole of my shoe. I put my shoe back on gently and we moved out.

It wasn’t much better but maybe a bit. But I knew what I was dealing with now. I found a random branch and fashioned it into a walking stick to take some weight off the foot. Not sure it helped either but it gave me some sort of boost. We made our way through this 2 mile section of forest and eventually popped out at the campground. We had about a 1/2 mile on the road until the aid station.

Looking up at the sky at this point was amazing. There were a billions stars out. It was so clear. You just don’t see sights like that from the city. JP and I called it out to each other.

As we neared May Queen, JP started saying his feet hurt too. He had signed up for 50 miles tonight but at this point, we had gone the time we expected to be on course together, just not the distance. We were 13.5 from the finish and if that 25 hour goal were still in place, we would be close to down about now. He has events coming up himself and started worrying about his own feet. He knew I was motivated to finish. I just had to make it to town. So we made a gametime decision. How about JP gets to drop here and we sub Natalee in as pacer? She had no clue this was going to happen so we will just see how it plays out.

By now, my left foot had developed the same blister issue. It hurt just as bad. I contemplated medical attention at May Queen but that was going to eat time and I didn’t think it would help. I was moving so I will take the condition I have versus the one I don’t know how I will operate in.

We found Natalee just outside of the May Queen tent sitting on a box zoned out. I went into the tent and got some soup and sat for 5 minutes while the volunteers filled my bottle and I got warmer. Then I came out and found Natalee and JP discussing tactics to the finish. They were swapping gear, getting Natalee dressed, etc. She went through my clothes bag and got some more layers on. I gave JP a hug and thanked him for his service. With that, JP took the gear to the truck to drive back to Leadville while Natalee and I left May Queen under a dark starry sky with one mission. Make it to Leadville before 10 AM!

Split Time: 4:09:34 - 39 minutes off 25 hour goal pace for this section. Still had those splits in my mind even though we weren’t on the overall pace. With the feet condition, this was probably about right but if I could have run a bit, it still would have been tight. Thinking that pace chart is bullshit now.

Finish (100 miles)

JP and I had gotten pretty silent just due to the amount of time out there. So getting Natalee out there was fun because we had a new set of things to talk about. She filled me in on how my friends looked at various point and other stories about busy aid stations and more. We motored through the May Queen campground and got on the Turquoise Lake singletrack that would be our home for the next 8ish miles. I let Natalee lead and I just followed in her footsteps. Its a lot of ups and downs. The pain in my foot was worse but had kind of dulled out. Or I was just getting used to it. It didn’t matter at this point. I had no plans for using my feet anytime soon after this race so I was going to grind them down and deal with it.

A few minutes later, Natalee’s phone rang. I hadn’t seen or heard a cell phone in 24 hours. It was like a magic device! It was Kim. She was at May Queen and had bumped into JP and got the low down. I was sort of sad that she did but also worried that she was up early. Wanted her to sleep in and see us at the finish. But with the change in line up, this might actually be a really good thing. We told her to meet us at the Tabor Boat Ramp instead. It was a couple miles ahead of us. However, Kim was having trouble locating it. A crazy phone conversation with directions occurred. I just kept moving while they tried to coordinate.

Finally, as we neared the boat ramp, the sun rose. My 2nd sunrise on this adventure. While it would have been cool to finish before it did, it was just as cool to see it happen for a 2nd time. Yeah, I have been out here that long. We came into the boat ramp and couldn’t find Kim. She had just took Kayla back up to the parking lot. Natalee scampered ahead looking for her while I was walking along. I heard Kim’s diesel engine up above so I squatted down and could see her car up through the trees. I walked up the hillside through the brush and found her in the car. She got out and gave me a kiss and said, “how are you?”. I hadn’t seen her since Twin Lakes the evening prior. I had been out all night long but things were just getting interesting.

I started tearing off my hat and coat and iPod. I just laid it all in a pile on the ground then told her what was going on: My feet are shot but I am going to push on. We are running against the clock. I am nervous about the 30 hour cutoff so I need to step it up. Take my clothes and see if you can follow us along to the finish. Natalee ran ahead but I will find her and send her back. I love you. See you soon.

She cheered me on and I got back on the trail. With less layers on I felt light so I tried to run. I got about 100 feet and I started wheezing. My breathing was impacted. That Hope Pass ascent fucked up my lungs. I felt it then and it was back when I tried to hard now. So resigned myself to walking but it was the hardest fastest powerwalk I had in me. I found Natalee and told her where Kim was. She ran back to her and I hoped to see Natalee again. She said she would catch me and I hoped she would. I motored around the lake constantly doing pace math in my head. Sometimes the calculation had me finishing an hour before cutoff while the next time it was a week from Thursday.

Natalee came charging back up on me before we got to the Matchless Boat Ramp. She was moving good and could roam around, take pictures, and then come back to me. It was nice to have that energy on board. She originally was going to pace the last mile in but this opportunity that developed was much more fitting. She probably didn’t intend on running (well, walking) a 1/2 marathon in Leadville this morning after staying up for 24 consecutive hours but that was what duty called for. There is your endurance right there, people! I may have been able to do it solo but this was much better. I enjoyed sharing those final hours with her. It worked out perfectly.

We popped out on Turquoise Lake Road. This was a busy spectator spot in the morning when we were outbound. Now it just had 4-5 cars and Kim was one of them. She snapped photos and cheered us on as we cut over and down the steep slope.

We kept moving well and finally arrived at the Sugarloaf’n intersection where Kim was hollering at us like a rabid fan. She was telling us we were good on time and we were going to get this. Everyone around us was walking too so it started to set in that we really were not in jeopardy and I could relax just a little and focus on the work and not the lack of result. Less stress.

We turned onto the dirt road that leads to the Boulevard and kept motoring. I was not looking forward to the Boulevard given the prior training run. It was going to be a long 3 mile uphill journey on a dark road. However, it wasn’t anything like that in the daylight. We found some lines with less rock and we were powerhiking hard. I was just a notch below wheezing level and holding it. We were passing clusters of people at this point. Some looking worse than I. I was strong and just pushing through it. It was completely psycho to look down at my GPS and see 97.XX then 98.XX on the watch. Holy crap. I might not ever see those kinds of totals again. Amazing.

We heard more cheers and I knew we were almost there. The road curves and Kim was there again standing on a big dirt mound taking our photos. I had my own roving cheering and photo squad. Pretty nice!

We hit the pavement and I said I wanted to run until 6th Street. It was only a few hundred feet but it hurt to pound on the blisters. We turned onto 6th Street. Another hill! This is the final ascent. Just a normal in-town road but it goes up and you can’t see the finish line until the top. We marched up it and the random spectators began to really start cheering me on. We topped out and could finally see the finish line. I looked at my watch and knew we were going to be sub-29 and that was a decent enough mark. I had several minutes to make it but I gave it one last push. We jogged down the hill and Natalee was trying to keep me fired up. I was there but it was an exciting moment. I kept pushing and all of a sudden my right foot popped and liquid gushed out of my shoe. Popped that pad. Oh my god that hurt. I didn’t miss a step but returned to the fast walk.

There were only a couple of intersections to go and I was passing people. My walk was faster than theirs. Felt good to still be gaining but brutal to pass someone with 100 feet to go. However, I don’t think anyone cares. The finish line was the prize and it was so close.

So without a single tear in my eye, I pushed one more time and ran up on to the red carpet and broke through the tape at 28:53. I was done. No emotion.

I got my medal from Merilee and limped over to Kim and Natalee. Drank some water and chatted about some finishing stories.

JT showed up minutes later and congratulated me on my first 100 mile finish. I inquired about his race and was proud of him for hitting his marks and cracking 24 hours. He won the duel fair and square. I was the dumb one that picked the fight with a multi-time 100 miler finisher. Surely, we will go at it again some day. He gave me some dirt on Brooks, Tony, and other finishers and friends. I felt like I had been out of touch for so long. No clue what was happening on course except in my little world.

Kim handed me my Crocs and I put them on. They actually hurt more but I couldn’t bear to put the other shoes back on. I was walking around a bit but I was on the outside of my feet. Felt like the worst looking of all the finishers. The feet condition definitely put a damper on my post race desires. As I sat, a few people came over and congratulated me on sticking it out.

Natalee went and got the truck and picked me up on the corner and we headed back to the hotel. I wasn’t sleepy tired or exhausted. My feet just hurt and I was just glad to be off of them after nearly 29 hours. Holy shit.

Split Time: 3:57:45 - Again the 25 hour split was 3:30 for this. Got after it with literally no running here. Any running and I could have hit that split. Probably could have made time just a bit too. But felt OK with it given the condition.

Continue reading "Leadville Trail 100 2010"

The Leadville Trail 100 Is Under Way!

The run has started and I am on my way to Winfield and back covering 100 miles in (hopefully) less than 25 hours.

The best place for updates is on my Twitter page at http://twitter.com/BrandonFuller. The official race feed is at http://twitter.com/LTrail100. You can also view other tweets from people about the race by searching for #lt100 or just follow this link.

For reference, here is the 25 hour plan I posted earlier. See if I stay ahead of it!

Feel free to comment below. Will try and have the crew check it through the day and pass them on to me as I continue onward!

Race report to follow of course. But give me some time. Might be a long one.

Run, Brandon, Run!!!