Labor Day Race
contributed by Larry

Sept. 6, 2004

Hi Gang,
I thought you would enjoy this race result. I've had one last shread of bragging, and that was that I always finished a race. Sunday morning looked innocent enough, a little snow falling, but heck it was Labor day so I left the house in shorts and mesh short sleeve shirt. When I got to Breck I saw the mountain socked in and they said 8" at the top and wind. I put on what I had which wasn't much. Our town doctor was still wearing sandels for the race. The first 5 miles were fun going up through the pine forest in the soft snow and hydrating by opening your mouth. Then we started the switchback ascent up Peak Ten and things turned ominous. As we crested the ridge at 12,000' we ran into a monster. The guy's tracks 10' in front of me were erased til I stepped in them. The wind actually blew me backwards and threw pebbles with the ice and snow in my face. After a couple hundred yards of this I started going in circles unable to decide which way to go. People were coming back crashing into me, other people taking their coats off to protect the ice encrusted legs of people in shorts. At one point I almost headed straight down the mountain off the trail, which would have really been stupid. My fingers, ears and some precious parts were going numb so I finally got enough sense to head to the next checkpoint. After a mile or so with my hands tucked in my armpits I got to the checkpoint which was chaos because this was the last chance to get off the mountain before committing to the whole course. My friend Jim was waiting to see if I would go on with him. I only saw 5 people go on. I tried to thaw my hands on a campstove but it didn't have much heat in the 50 mph wind. Water cups were flying off the table and hitting me in the face. Scott Jurek (5 time Western States 100 winner) came in and said he was getting off the mountain. I almost said I would go on but then I thought of my granddaughter waiting to play at the bottom of the mountain, so I told Jim to wait for some guys who knew the course and stick with them if he goes. I gave my number to the chunks of ice holding clipboards (officials) and headed down. It was funny watching guys holding their crotch as they ran. About a mile and a half and I hit tree line and another world. Later I learned that Paul DeWitt and Anthea Schmid (this years Leadville 100 champs) bailed at the same spot and about the only finishers were locals who knew the course with their eyes closed and dressed right. Larry