Angie attends Leadville Trail 100 Silver Rush race weekend.

Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:57am — darbycomm

 

We were lucky to be in Leadville for the 2010 Leadville Trail 100 Silver Rush race weekend. On Saturday there was a 50 mile mountain bike race with 650 contestants and on Sunday was the 50 mile trail run race with 250 racers including Vasque’s own athlete, Duncan Callahan.
                     
In the beginning Duncan told us he was expecting to run the course in about 7.5 hours. We met up with him at the 6 a.m. start and he appeared to be very nervous and I wasn't sure he was going to pull it out. Chris, my husband,  Sophie, my 3 year old daughter, and I went back to the hotel and grabbed breakfast and aimed to get to the turn-around aid station at 9:30, thinking we would have plenty of time to see Duncan. We got there at 9:20 and missed Duncan by a minute and 2nd place finisher, Dylan Bowman, was 2 minutes behind him. It was an out and back course so Ken Chlouber, the race director, sent us through a back way to the 18 mile aid station so we could catch Duncan on his way back out.
We headed up to Rock Garden aid station and got to cheer racers on and help them at the aid station as we waited for Duncan. It was an incredible feeling to help these athletes achieve their goals of finishing this intense 50 mile race. Everyone was so sweet and nice and didn’t look as rough as one would expect at mile 18. Duncan came breezing through, still in the lead, dumped his H2O and asked to fill his bottle with Coke, I can’t imagine! He was running faster than I ever run on a normal run! We drove back to the start / finish line and started setting up the Vasque tent and were getting really pumped up about the idea that Duncan was smashing his assumption of 7.5 hrs. and was probably going to take the gold (or I should say silver ore) for the day.
                           
I talked to a photographer at the finish line and he saw Duncan with 7 miles to go at the top of a pretty intense climb, 2 minutes ahead of the next runner, and should be crossing the finish line soon. We grabbed Sophie and ran over to the finish line waiting for Duncan. Sophie was so cute, she kept saying “Where’s Duncan, Mommy!” “I want to see Duncan”. When I saw that green Vasque jersey coming around the corner I almost cried because I was so proud of Duncan and knew how important this was for him. Duncan ran across the finish with no arm waving or fist pumping, such a humble person, I was so impressed. The second place finsher, Dylan Bowman, came in about 1.5 minutes later and we got to hear them discuss the race. They talked about how hard the last hill was for both of them and Duncan was saying that he saw Dylan at the bottom was glad they got in the woods after that because he was able to get some time on him. Dylan then told Duncan that it was an honor to run the race with him. How often do you hear that between two competitors, very cool!
                            
The highlight of our day was sitting at the Vasque tent with Duncan and the first place female, Helen Cospolich, hanging out and talking about running the race. Such humble sweet people and amazing at the same time. Where else do you get to hang out with the stars of the sport in such a laid back environment. It was awesome! Duncan was incredible and he and Dylan finished 43 minutes in front of anyone else, oh, and did I mention this was the first time Duncan’s ever run the Silver Rush! Amazing athletes!