The Great Experiment 2023
Last year the Great Experiment was Mountain Man Invitational. The Off-Road Triathlon above 9700′. That experiment went well, albeit I was not able to finish the race as planned, due to some 2020 Post-Covid Pericarditis. My heart began hurting and at mile 85 on the bike, I decided I wanted to live to ride another day. I started the next day, finished the 15 miles on bike, and got in 7 miles of the run, before the heart began to hurt again. Live to run another day. I am a proud owner of Mountain Man Invitational Buckle, and to prove my worth, 6 days later I did a Sandia Crossing, up and over the Sandia Mountains.
So what could I possibly do to up the ante? What’s on the bucket list?
To Be the Oldest Female Finisher of Leadwoman
What is Leadwoman?
June 17th The Leadville Trail Marathon
July 7th OR 8th you get to choose between the 50 Mile Run OR the 50 Mile Mountain Bike
August 12th 100 Mile Race Across the Sky Mountain Bike Race
August 13th 10k Run
August 19th the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run
Although these are the dates for the 2023 events, the events fall on the same Saturday/Sunday in the relative calendar year.
How to Quantify Who the Oldest Female Leadwoman Finisher is
I have asked the Leadville Race Series to help with this. I have gone back through results. What I do know is that no one is their 60s has finished. What I don’t know is, who the oldest 50 year old that has finished, ages aren’t listed, only age categories. Why is this important to me? Having run into Ken Chlouber, and Merilee at my birthday dinner in Leadville at Treeline Restaurant, for my 54th birthday(how incredibly fitting!!). Their unplanned presence was a true present with itself. I whispered in Merilee’s ear having fun the Heavy Half for training in 2022, that I wanted to be the oldest finisher for Leadwoman. Ken had a lot to say about the matter. Something along the lines of, ‘it doesn’t matter to anybody else, it only truly matters to you’. He shared his story of climbing Kilimanjaro at age 70. Which brought back memories of my 1st work experience here in Albuquerque for Saint Joseph’s Hospital 60+ program, I taught an exercise class for COPD patients. One of my clients was 80 years old, and was training to climb Kilimanjaro. I know this experience changed me, changed the way I look at aging, and this was back in the mid 1990s. I know he went on to do it, without a doubt. In 2014, my friends dad, Bob Wheeler, succeeded obtaining the World Record at 85: https://www.ultimatekilimanjaro.com/85-year-old-is-the-oldest-man-to-climb-kilimanjaro/ . The following year in 2015 Angela Vorobeva successfully summited at the age of 86, and in 2019 Anne Lorimor successfully became the oldest person to summit at age 89:
It’s not about me, it’s not about my ego. It’s about getting more women in sport, and staying in sport. I have had some interesting time to meditate on it. Not to be confused with EGO. I want to show women it can be done. It doesn’t matter your age, or your gender. As a female mountain biker for over 30 years, our sport has been always dominated by men. And the older I get the less, and less women I see toe the line of events.
What’s the experiment?
The experiment is a hard year this year, and an easy year next year. And then, either 2025 or 2026 GO TIME.
I started this post in February of 2023. And it is now October of 2023. And most of my summer has come and gone, I have one event left on in my science experiment of 2023, and it’s time to share my experiences.
The experiment this year is 50k trail run, Silver Queen 50 mile trail run followed by a 50 mile mountain bike the next day, Hope Pass 1 week out, the 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race Across the Sky, Mount Massive, and 100 mile foot race, Javelina Hundred. So what happened. I’m tired.
My 1st event was Revenant Runnings the Great Divide Ultra in Divide Colorado. This event was carefully chosen the week after American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, in the town that Tim’s parents live. I have to tell you, Revenant Running puts on a good show! The course was alternating 15.5 loops over the same course, with tons of climbing, and some great vistas! I had no time expectations, and I had literally sat on my ass for a week leading into it, the air quality, and my high level of fatigue kept me away from doing any small, yet feasible runs. This type of taper is not ideal, and my performance was definitely impacted. However, it didn’t stop me from having an amazing day out of doors. Divide is beautiful. One of the lesser populated areas of Colorado. The course is relentless climbing. Not the climbing we traditionally get in the mountains. These were short, and steep. What I imagine the east coast being like. I would have benefitted from carrying my poles from the beginning because the repetition of steep downhills played a significant role in the fact my quads were screaming, and I was having massage my right quad while I kept moving. I managed a 50k in 9:47:07 with 5200 feet in elevation gain, all above 9200 feet above sea level. Strava moving time is 9:12:21, I did have some issues finding my support bag as someone had put it in the trailer, and no one knew where it was. This entire race was considered training. And 10 hours is going to sit quite well going into the next set of races.
This summer I put an experiment inside of an experiment.
And yet more time has passed. Now being August of 2024. We lived in Leadville, Colorado for 6 weeks, from Silver Queen through the 100 Mile Mountain bike. During that time, I did Silver Queen, missed the cut off by 2 minutes so got only 25 miles in, did the 50 MTB the next day, and then 5 weeks later did the 100 MTB. I thought I would have the best race I have ever had there. Was I wrong! Altitude impacts everyone differently, and clearly it would have taken more than 6 weeks for that to happen. I pulled a 12:30. So close, yet so FAR AWAY. 6 weeks later I ran Javelina Jundred. I made it 100k before aspirin couldn’t help the heart pain go away. It was a hard call but avoiding scar tissue on the old ticker ALWAYS takes priority. The goal for this particular summer was to do a variation, with more recovery between the 100 mile bike and the 100 mile run. This year was HARD. And when I reflect back, is exactly why I am having the year I am having now. I came on to write about 2024. I have a lot of interesting things to say about it. And realized I had barely touched on 2023. Thanks for circling back. Thanks for checking in. Honestly, I’m not sure how I am. 🙂