Journey to Leadville - Byrne - August 7, 2012

11 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

More words to follow but I have to get these pictures up! Colorado - what a beautiful state!

I left Iowa on Friday morning, August 3rd. Met up with a friend in Lincoln, NE, Susan Meyerle, whom I met at the Jack Canfield Breakthrough to Success Program in 2009. Haven't seen her in 3 years but it seemed like yesterday. She is doing great and it was so much fun to visit with her. It's really cool how you can go without seeing some people for years and within 2 minutes it seems like you are reconnected.

King Kong's - fast food restaurant in Lincoln, NE. Didn't stop to eat there but loved the name!

My friend Nita Lechner invited me to stay in Grand Island at her home. Nita is also a friend from Jack Canfield's seminar. Unfortunately Nita was in California but her daughter Allie was a great host. What a wonderful young lady. I could see a lot of Nita in her face and in her voice. I am so glad I had the chance to get to know Allie. Had dinner with her and visited. Saturday morning I started on my trek towards Colorado!

Arrived at my brother-in-law's family on Saturday around 4 pm and had a great time with Mike, Kyra and their kids. They took me out to dinner at Beau Joe's - a great pizza parlor and we had some deep dish pizza. Went to their house and watched some Olympics - go USA!

On Sunday morning my friend John Lawler drove down from Cheyenne and we ran 13.6 miles around the Horsetooth Reservoir - it was AWESOME! I finally was able to get a taste of the trailrunning that mirrored Leadville - rocks all over the place, embedded in the path. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I felt. We were running at about 5000 feet elevation and other than the first 5 minutes as we started moving and going uphill, I didn't feel any pressure on my lungs. It was a great run and I really enjoyed the conversation with John.

Afterwards I went to church with Mike, Kyra, and their children and then headed to Denver. I stopped in Littleton to see my friend Melissa, her husband Mark and their boys. It was a short visit but wonderful. It was fun to see her again and get to know her family. After a couple hours I headed over to Centennial (near south suburb of Denver) to see Kathleen Marvin - our good friend and member of our wedding party. Kathleen's 7 year old son Johnathon was there so I showed him some basketball drills and then we went to one of his favorite places, Steak and Shake. After a short walk around their neighborhood and tasting one of Johnny's 'secret' ingredient smoothies, I headed to Monument to stay with our good friends, Reid and April Christopherson.

Reid, April and I visited some on Sunday night and when I went to bed, April had written this message below on the whiteboard in the room I was staying at - how cool!

April Christopherson had this waiting for me in my bedroom when I stayed with them on Sunday night - way cool!

The next morning Reid took me to do "The Incline" in Manitou Springs - steep but awesome. I think I did quite well. The top put me at 8,500 feet and I was still feeling no effects of acclimation. Several pictures are listed below. Afterwards Reid and I went to Starbucks for a healthy breakfast and then back to his house. We worked on a couple of home projects and I left about 3:30 to meet some friends in Buena Vista. It was wonderful seeing the Christophersons - what a neat family and I admire them so much - they are very driven, very family oriented, and very kind friends. I miss seeing them - it makes me want to get to Colorado more often.

My good friend Reid Christopherson and at the end of our descent down "The Incline"

Looking from the bottom to the top of "The Incline" in Manitou Springs (the brown diagonal line just to the right of the tower in the middle

Looking up "The Incline" a little ways after starting

Looking down "The Incline" from about 1/2 way up

Looking down "The Incline" from about 2/3 of the way up

Looking down "The Incline" from the top - WOW!

I met my good friends Dave and Jane Cox at the Eddy Line Restaurant, probably the best restaurant in small town Buena Vista - the 30 minute wait on a Monday night was a good indication of the popularity of this establishment. Dave and Jane are moving on Wednesday so I felt privileged that they would make the time to see me in the hecticness of them trying to close on and move out of their home. Dave and Jane are friends I made in 2005 when I first ran Leadville - they are wonderful people and we talked about family and Leadville for the entire dinner - no surprise! They are great ultramarathoners and running is a big part of their lives - I feel inadequate talking about running with them but very much valued their advice and enjoyed learning from them. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I departed for Leadville.

My plan on Tuesday was to hike up Powerline (see pictures below) - I loved it! I had breakfast "City on a Hill" - a coffeeshop with Wifi :o)  They serve awesome breakfast burritos just the way I like 'em. Eggs, potatoes, and sausage - nothing else. Mixed in some healthy "Naked Juice" smoothie drink and headed for Powerline. The Powerline climb was longer than "The Incline" but not as steep. I know I'll have 80 miles under me before I go up this during the race and it will be different than on fresh legs but I felt really good about how comfortable it felt. I went up reasonably hard but nothing too strenuous. I enjoyed some time at the top and ran down at the pace I wanted to during the race - reasonably quick pace but not hard. In 2005 I went down too fast and it hurt my knees. Not this time - I ran it smart and still made good time. I stopped a lot on the way down to take all the pictures that you see in this post.

The pictures listed below are all from Powerline - the 2nd toughest part of the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run. Enjoy - the scenery is breathtaking!

Are those sunbeams?  LOL

Some bad photography - finger partially blocking lens :o(

This is Katelin, a 22 year old who just graduated from Texas A&M - GO AGGIES! What a cool young lady! We visited for a few minutes. First interesting note - she spells her name like my niece -which is sort of an unusual spelling. She's also been to Kenya and somewhere else internationally doing humanitarian work. She raced competitively in biking in college after playing soccer in college. What an ambitious and talented young person. She is riding the LT100 Mountain Bike Race this weekend - I hope she races fantastically!

I was really happy with how I felt after completing Powerline. I don't feel the least bit tired and I can honestly say I am feeling no effects of the high altitude. Maybe I'm speaking too quickly, I"ll let you know if it changes but so far so good :o) What a beautiful state - I can't wait for this race!

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - August 2, 2012

16 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

What a great way to finish my training in Iowa - running 6 miles on a beautiful Thursday evening with my son Michael. Mike and I had a wonderful talk about him leaving for college and how much he has enriched our family in the 18 years we have had the privilege of raising him. I'm going to miss him a lot, fortunately I will get to see him quite a bit too since he is attending St. Ambrose where I work. Life is good! Off to Colorado in the morning!

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - August 1, 2012

17 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Rick had a great idea for today. We ran up and down a reasonably steep .75 mile hill 5 times this morning out near his house. For those of you who joined us for some longer runs this past winter, you may remember it being a tough hill to run. The last three times he had us run 'pretty fast' for the first 1/5, 1/4, and 1/3 part of the hill, respectively. Combined with the mile run to and from the hill from his house, we did about 8.25 miles in about 1 hr 20 minutes.  A nice preview into Colorado and Leadville! I think I will be leaving early Friday morning for Colorado.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 31, 2012

18 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run....

Wow! The end comes quickly! I believe I started this blog with 222 days until race day and now it is under 20 days! I am proud of how hard we have worked for the past 200 days and believe that it will keep us strong during the race. I plan to leave for Colorado in my Ford Explorer in the next few days and I know at that time it will feel like 'race time mode'. I have quite a bit to do before I go but am excited for the final phase of the pre-race journey.

John, Charly Erpelding, and Rick

Last night was special. Rick brought ice cream over to the Erpelding family and I had the privilege of meeting Charly - what a beautiful spirit and awesome little girl. I was so impressed with the closeness of Charly's family and extended family. They were so appreciative of us and so upbeat - it was wonderful to be a part of their family love and camaraderie. I would like to think that Rick and I have physically prepared ourselves to do well at Leadville, but I know I received an extra boost of motivation and inspiration last night and when I feel tired, I WILL be able to push harder. The kids also made signs to keep us going - which we will be able to see around mile 20, 40, 60, and 80 - supercool!

Rick Fountain, Todd Hornbuckle, Gordon Staley, Jay Gates, Kevin McCarthy, and Phil Pancrazio

Today was my last day at Bettendorf High School for stairs. 61 sets - good day. It was dark for awhile and quite humid. My friend Kevin McCarthy joined us today - he wanted to work primarily on the track. It was good to see him. Curt Johnston's ankle is still sore from the Bix so I didn't think we'd see him but he walked/jogged down to see us - that was pretty cool. Seeing all these guys working out at this early hour in the morning was inspiring to me and will give me extra motivation at Leadville.

Todd Hornbuckle, John Byrne, Gordon Staley, Jay Gates, Kevin McCarthy, and Phil Pancrazio

I'll do my best to keep posting and hopefully provide some beautiful pics from Colorado over the next couple weeks but if I'm without internet access or get sidetracked with my training, thank you in advance for your forgiveness.

Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 28, 2012

21 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Thomas, Dan, Joe, Michael, Katie, Joan, and John - ready to run the Bix 7!

Dan and one of his roommates from Notre Dame - Tyler Thomas - Tyler rocked the Bix!

Today's training run was the Quad City Bix 7 Mile Run. My wife Joan signed our entire family up to run this race - I haven't officially run it in 15 years. A few times I've run the course the week before or the week after just for fun but this year I was one of 14,000 runners - I enjoyed it a lot - seeing many people during the race and on the roadside cheering us along. Joan, Katie, Dan, and Joe ran the Quick Bix - a 2 mile run. Dan's assignment was to stay with 11 year old Joe - they ran the 2 miles in 13:55 - sub 7 minute mile pace - pretty good!

Michael ran the full Bix on his own, as well as Dan's roommate from Notre Dame (Tyler Thomas), Thomas, and I. Everyone had good races. The weather was good - Bix race days are normally hot and humid - today was warm and a little humid but I would be foolish to complain.

My assignment was to stay with Thomas. I thought he would run a good race as he is on the high school cross country team and has been running several times each week. I thought most of their training runs were 4-5 miles so I thought he might tire a bit toward the end but I'm happy to say that he was a beast today! We ran a 51:30 and I felt like I was spent at the end. I am not sure that I could have run any faster today. In the beginning I think I could have started faster but it may have drained my energy for later. I also violated a cardinal rule of running - not double-tying my shoelaces - no excuses, just stupidity on my part. Around mile 1.5 I had to stop for 20 seconds to retie my shoes and then run extra hard for a few minutes to catch Thomas. I was impressed with Thomas' resolve. There were a couple of times where he was cramping up a bit and wanted to slow the pace but we were still going at a decent pace. I persuaded him to walk a bit on some of the hills, telling him that getting a refresher would help us start back up again stronger. We passed up many of the people who passed us during our brief walk breaks. We finished extremely strong and I felt pretty wiped out!  Great job Thomas!

A number of our friends ran today and people seemed to have a good day at the Bix!

Tomorrow I take Dan back to school at Notre Dame - he has a football manager meeting at 7 pm tomorrow night.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 27, 2012

22 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run...

Today I met Rick and his wife Jeanie at their house at 5:30 am and we had a nice 45 minute walk around the neighborhood and golf course - a great tune up for the Bix tomorrow. I am excited for Rick and Curt and think they will post an incredible time tomorrow. I will be running alongside my son Thomas and hope that we will have a good run as well. Thomas will be a sophomore cross country runner in a few weeks and has been running quite a bit with his teammates this year. He's used to running more 4-5 mile distances so we'll see how this goes.

Since I missed going up and down the Exterminator yesterday I thought I would catch it on my way back from Rick's. I had about 30-35 minutes so I thought I'd see what I could get in. This time I decided to run up and down the Exterminator - running is a lot harder than hiking. The runs up were pulling at my quads but it felt good. I did 30 sets in all - ran 10, walked 5, ran 5, walked 5, and ran 5 for a total of 20 runs and 15 walks up Exterminator and 30 runs down Exterminator. I felt challenged aerobically as well so it was a good work out for me. We'll see if I pay for it tomorrow at the Bix. Either way, I'm glad I did it.

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!

Journey to Leadville - Byrne - July 26, 2012

23 days until the 2012 Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run....



Rick and I had a good run from his house down to the river into LeClaire. We ran for 59 minutes and had a negative split on the back half of our run, which was uphill. Rick is running the Bix this Saturday so he's taking a couple days off so he can go sub 50 on the difficult, hilly 7 mile run. Run started off with nice cool weather and the humidity set in as we progressed into the run but it was never that bad. Rick asked a question about how long I was in aid stations in Leadville 2005 - that was his mistake. I answered his question and then started another 30 minute continuation of my first Leadville experience. It's kind of crazy but my energy level rises and my tiredness disappears whenever I start talking about this race!

Until my next post, have a great day!  DIG DEEP!