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THE AWARDS CEREMONY

After less than five hours of sleep we got up to go to the awards ceremony. We missed the finish line hoopla the last hour of the race, when many runners come in and excitement builds to a crescendo as the last runners barely make the 30-hour cut-off.

This year one poor woman, Lisa Dougherty, came in only a minute and two seconds over the time limit. At the awards ceremony, Ken said he bet everyone in the audience would give her a buckle anyway. There were some cheers of agreement. Then he proceeded to name the last official finisher, Carolyn Luckett, who won the "Last Ass Over the Pass" award and got her finishers' buckle and sweatshirt.

The finish line, about an hour after the race ended

Lisa is listed as a finisher but no, she didn't get a buckle or sweatshirt. Jim and I agree with that. Unless the "deadline" for those awards is  honored each year, it becomes meaningless. (We also think the cut-off should be 31 or 32 hours, but we aren't the race directors and we don't get a vote in that!)

Sixty-two seconds over the time limit . . . imagine how many times Lisa's going to replay the entire 30 hours of that race in her mind and think of all the places she could have saved ten or fifteen seconds.

An even sadder tale at the awards ceremony was that of Dr. John Hill, the race's medical director who finished the first four LT100 events this summer and had "only" the 100-mile run to complete to get one of the coveted "Leadman" awards. John finished ten minutes over the time limit.

When Ken recognized him, John, circled below, struggled to stand up with the help of his wife and daughter (I think), who were sitting with him in the front row. I had tears in my eyes thinking about the pain he was in both physically and psychologically.

So close and yet so far . . .

I betcha he'll sign up for the Leadman series again next year, though.

Although the gym is always packed and noisy for the awards presentation, we like to attend so we can congratulate runners who finished, commiserate with the ones who didn't, hear interesting stories, and say good-bye to friends we may not see for several months or years.

This year's ceremony took a while with a whopping 274 finishers under 30 hours, a higher-than-average finish rate (54%) for this demanding race. When I saw how warm and dry it was in the afternoon Saturday, I figured there would be a lower-than-average finish rate this year. I guessed 45%. Shows what I know! Apparently the excellent footing and lack of storms on Hope Pass and during the night more than made up for the heat and resulted in a better finish rate.

Merilee and Ken at the awards ceremony

Although the course record was not broken, a lot of people were happy with their times. The rerouted course was a little faster than the regular one.

About eight runners received their Leadman or Leadwomen awards for finishing all five LT100 events this summer,

and most or all of the runners who were going for their 10th or 11th finishes earned their huge 1,000-mile buckle (below) or handsome personalized 1,100-mile jacket.

The 1,000-mile buckles have the recipients' names on them.
THERE'S some pressure to finish the race!

The awards are both handsome and high quality at Leadville. (That's one place your entry fee goes!) Besides the awards mentioned above, each sub-25 hour finisher receives a gold and silver buckle. Runners finishing between 25-30 hours get a nice silver buckle.

A happy recipient of a sub-25-hour buckle gets his photo taken at least three times.
Nick Coury, far right, also gets a gold and silver buckle  for his time of 23:12.

Female finishers also receive a gold and silver pendant because, as Ken says, women are very special in Leadville.

In addition, all finishers received a thick gold hooded sweatshirt with their name and time ironed on the sleeve. Here, Grand-Slam participant (3 down, 1 to go!) Paul Grimm displays his handsome sweatshirt at my request:

This time several tables were set up in the back of the gym for runners to pick up their sweatshirts. They could either have one of the volunteers iron on the personalization (usually put on one sleeve) or they could take their iron-on name and time home and put it wherever they wanted.

Overall and age group awards are also very nice. The overall male and female receive a large "ore cart" made from local materials, a bottle of whiskey, a Soleus watch, a pair of Vasque shoes, and other sponsors' gifts.

Age-group winners received a mining pan, Vasque shoes, and some other sponnsors' goodies (3rd place). Second place got all that plus a Soleus watch. First place got all that plus a bottle of whiskey. Here are most of the AG awards lined up before the awards ceremony began:

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

One of  the best stories from this year's race is that of the 11-year finisher (I don't know his name) who told Ken before the race that he wanted his jacket in his brother's size, not his own size. He wanted his brother to receive it because he'd been crewing and/or pacing him each of those eleven years and he couldn't have finished all those races without his brother's help.

Ken surprised the runner (shown on the left, above) by giving him a jacket in his size AND one to his brother. You should have seen the brother's face when he was presented with that jacket! (He's the guy on the right, above, with the big grin.) That was a crowd pleaser. I thought that was a very considerate thing for Ken and Merilee to do.

Here are some other notable achievements from this year's race:

• The female winner, Lynette Clemons, is a music teacher in Leadville. Her 20:58 placed her 15th overall. She's the first female winner of the race from the town of Leadville. Lynette beat out two strong competitors, Jamie Donaldson and Darcy Africa, who have both won major 100-milers before.

   
Female winner Lynette Clemons; unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of her face!

• Forty runners broke 24 hours. Fifty-nine broke 25 hours to earn a big gold and silver buckle.

This year's race winner, Timmy Parr

• Bill Finkbeiner (below) has finished the race 26 times in its 27-year history. I don't know what happened that other year, but that record is remarkable.

• Dan Brenden (age 58) has finished five Grand Slams in row. If he finishes Wasatch in three weeks, he'll set a record with six consecutive Grand Slams.
• The incomparable (bionic?) Hans-Dieter Weisshaar won the men's 60-69 age group, outrunning his rival Stuart Nelson for the second year in a row. Stuart used to beat him here. Both are at the top end of the age group at 69. Hans is barely the second-oldest finisher this year (Stuart is only one week older) and he placed in the top 28% of the runners: 76th out of 274 under 30 hours. Hans plans to run six 100s in a row this summer and fall, ending with The Bear in late September. [Later: Angeles Crest 100 was one of those six, but it's been cancelled because of massive forest fires in the area. So Hans is running the Wasatch course again one week after the official Wasatch 100 race.]

   
Merilee and Ken get a big kiss and hug, respectively, from the ebullient Hans-Dieter.

• Eight men in their 60s finished the race. None of the seven M70+ entrants finished.
• No women 60 and over were entered in the race this year. Only four females 50+ finished. I don't remember how many were entered. The fastest F50+ time was Liz Bauer's 27:55. Jeanie Grooms was 2nd, Beth Simpson-Hall 3rd (next photo), and Joy Robertson 4th in the AG. Good job, ladies!

• I don't know if this is the most finishers ever at LT100 but I'm guessing it is. I wasn't able to pull up prior results on the web site when I wrote this entry.

You can find a link to results on the LT100 website. Congratulations not only to the runners who finished, but to everyone who had the courage and optimism to start.

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT LT100

A large part of the charm of the LT100 run is its laid-back character. Despite the recent proliferation of 100-mile trail races in this country, Leadville retains some unique qualities found in no other event. For example, where else does the race organization's president, a former miner, not only condone but actually encourage pacing and muling during the event?? "Muling" is carrying another runner's gear or supplies, a big no-no in most races.

But human nature being what it is, when folks see all the glitz and high-tech features of the LT100 bike race, they start to wonder why the LT100 run results can't be posted on the internet in a similar timely fashion, not three days later. It's not like race management doesn't have the ability or money to do it. It's obvious they choose not to do it for the run.

And therein lies the rub.

Just how much high-tech is enough? too much? Do we want the run televised each year, like it was when the Tarahumara and Ann Trason ran several years ago? Do we want helicopters and ATVs all over the course, filming us as we run so there are cool real-time webcasts and videos to show our friends and family afterwards? Do we want to wear timing chips around Turquoise Lake, on the Colorado Trail, and over Hope Pass?

Where do you draw the line and not ruin the charm of the LT100 run?

Fewer people might be one way. Jim and I do not like the solid train of runners on the single track trail around Turquoise Lake near the beginning of the race.

It's also more difficult to keep times in and out of aid stations with over 500 runners in the first half of the race (traditionally, about half are out by 50 or 60 miles). One of the reasons Hardrock can keep up better with times, despite its even more remote aid station locations, is that the timers and hams have only a quarter of the runners to track.

I realize that it is highly unlikely that race management will decrease the number of runners allowed into the race. I think it's more likely that they will start using chips to time results if enough people express the desire to have faster results. Prepare for even higher entry fees, or less of something else, if that happens, however.

Jim and I don't like to just gripe about something about a race. If we have any comments we feel are constructive and will improve a race, we may share them with the RD afterwards and include positive comments about things we really liked. If a race seriously disappoints us or doesn't appeal to us for one reason or another, our response is more likely to just not ever go back to run and/or work it.

We care enough about the LT100 run to want to be part of the solution regarding timing and results and not just gripe about this year's problems. We weren't even trying to track anyone. We just wanted to feel like the efforts we made were of some use and not wasted.

We don't have the computer skills to know what the best solution is, but we'll remain in contact with Bruce this year regarding better ways of reporting and recording results. As director of ham radio communications, he has more clout than we do. He isn't in charge of timing and results, however. If we discover before or during the race next year that nothing has improved in this regard, we'll find other ways to volunteer during the event besides communications and timing. Our time is valuable, too.

One thing I missed this year was more direct involvement with the runners during the race. That is more meaningful and fun to me than putting times into a computer at net control. So I may decide to work at an aid station next year, where I can offer more encouragement and assistance to the runners.

Next entry: photos from our runs and hikes in the mountains around Leadville

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the Ultra Lab

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© 2009 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil