Not last weekend but the weekend before...(how can it be Thursday of this week already?)...I went to Colorado with the Smelser family who are all my friends. We went to Leadville, CO which is the highest incorporated town in the USA at 10,200 at City Hall Main Street downtown. There the Leadville 100 Mile Trail Marathon was held. Yes - runners who set out to run 100 miles! good grief! Well Saturday morning at 4am we sent off Allen Smelser - I am guess around age 52 or so - to run the race. He was one of 594 starting participants. He made it 40 miles before he gave out with non-running related internal problems. But the inspiration went on. The first guy crossed the finish line at about 8pm. That means he ran 9 minutes miles the whole way - including twice over a 12,500 foot pass - and finished in 16 hours - an hour and a half in front of the next guy. The next inspiration came Sunday morning when we watched the last hour of people coming in. They only get 30 hours to finish. A good chunk of the only 210 finishers came in right there at the end within the last hour. That was the most inspiring thing because they kept going all night long!
Anyway, I was thoroughly inspired to keep running and train for my marathon this fall at DC and...well...hopefully...maybe...absolutely accept the challenge of completing the Leadville Trail 100 myself someday! Why not?
