Colorado. Leadville. Check. (Make that a slow Check.)

I was going to add more to this e-mail that I sent to a couple of people Saturday evening, but I'm preparing a long vacation/running race report for the August edition of The Woodlands Running Club's newsletter, "Deer Tracks".

Therefore, I'll share what I passed on Saturday night:

As Mr. Cook would say, "Hey, it wasn't the time that you wanted, but you finished."

The Leadville Heavy Half Marathon is really 15.4 miles. 7.7 miles to Mosquito Pass and yes, there are mosquitos on the way up. Leadville is at 10,200 feet above sea level. It is the American city that sits at the highest elevation in the country.

I did very little running on this course at all. I power walked as hard and as fast as I could. The first 2.9 miles are all uphill. The next 1.5 has some downhill then after that the next 3.3 are all up - a change of almost 2,000 feet.

It is the HARDEST thing in life that I have ever done. Period.

My time was NOT pretty ... but I finished. 5:41:10.

First 2.9 miles - 50:54.72
Next 1.5 miles - 25:53.39
Next 3.3 miles - 1:53:07 (more on that)

At the top - 11:02.34 (wasn't completely sightseeing ... trying to assess whether I was able to make it down)

Next 3.3 miles - 1:09.36
In the aid station - 4:26.12
Next 1.5 miles - 27:02.92
In the aid station - 5:34.94 (actually had started to run sooner)
Last 2.9 miles - 33:32.73

Who did I see before the race? Fellow The Woodlands Running Club members Jim and Karen Braden. Unbelievable. (I know they have a summer residence up here - Frisco (about 30 miles from Leadville) - but I didn't know how to reach them.)

Jim was delighted to see me. We got a picture for Bill for "Deer Tracks".

He finished that thing in 3 hours, 15 minutes Waverly said. 72 years young in August.

I saw Jim as he was coming down and I was going up. Ever the technical individual (and always well-meaning), he politely reminded me that I was dealing with 40% less oxygen at that point. :)

I was struggling. I would go for a little while and then have to stop and bend over. Not so much from being out of wind (as I wasn't trying to run) .... it was the altitude. It was as if I'm finishing up a tough marathon. I'm completely coherent. I can process everything around me, but the way that the brain fires the message to the arms and the legs are basically delayed.

I almost didn't make it and called for medical. (Waverly said that she saw a medical helicopter at one point, but I never saw it.) There were people doing the marathon that were still going up as I was coming down and they looked like I had.

I wanted to quit more than ever, but while I know that she would have understood (and especially if it was medical) ... I couldn't let Waverly see me quit.

The scenery once at the top (and on the way up) was incredible. I don't buy the argument that two atoms colliding in space one day created this incredible Earth that we live on.

Jim earlier asked if I was OK, but he could tell that I was struggling. I told him to make sure that he let Waverly know though that I was OK.

I knew that Waverly was going to be waiting to run me in, but there was Jim too.

He later told me that Waverly was concerned (and he said he was as well.) Plus he was waiting there for his next door condo neighbor, Malcom Orton, to come in that was doing the marathon.

It is incredible to have friends like that. I'm still tearing up as I write this (and I did as we parted.)

I've always had special respect for individuals who 1.) ran anything longer than 50 miles and 2.) did an Ironman or Half Ironman. But I have a new-found respect for those who can cover those distances at that kind of altitude (or anyone who can post a quality performance).

State No. 17 for half marathons is in the book. (Marathons in 9. An event in 27.)

Here is a great race report from Brandon Fuller of Longmont, Colorado with the best pictures to give you a very true idea of what I experienced.

When I saw Bruce and Gloria Mansur at the HARRA Summer Celebration that I was going up there, he reminded me to get in touch with Camille Yarbrough and Chuck Cofer, who live up there six months out of the year. Camille wasn't going to be in town last weekend and I didn't get a chance to see Chuck once I got started, but here were some notes that she passed along before the race:

"The Leadville Half will be quite a challenge, but with spectacular scenery.

"Chuck and I had a hand in laying out the course for the half so are partly to blame for the extra length and steep up-hills most of the way to the turn-around point--but then Leadville has a rough, tough image to uphold in all things due to its mining past.

"The altitude can be quite noticeable going directly uphill for 7 1/2 miles, so my best tip is to start hydrating now and keep it up, as that is the best way to handle the altitude when you have no chance to acclimatize in advance.

"You will have all the time you need to complete the course so stop and admire the scenery when the going gets especially tough. I have done the marathon several times (so therefore anyone can do it), but every time I said never again as I struggled up toward Mosquito Pass."

She had mentioned that HARRA VP, Clubs Roger Boak, his wife, Nina Jannetti and Kim Pilcher had been in town the weekend before the Leadville Trail 100 training camp. (The actual race is in August and Roger has already completed it three (3) times.)

Camille said that Chuck has completed the Leadville Trail 100 eight (8) times already and will be shooting for No. 9 next month as he aims for the huge 1,000-mile belt buckle.

I came across the finish line with Jim, Waverly and Michelle Rayburn of Keller, Texas, who was there running the Heavy Half Marathon on her anniversary with her husband, Brady (who finished about 37 minutes ahead of her.) She would have been running close to him if she hadn't had gone left at the next-to-last aid station instead of going right.

When I was in between those two stations and made a turn, she waived. We had covered a lot of the first 4.4 miles together. I waived, but I didn't wait for her. It isn't that I wanted to beat her. I just wanted to get to the aid station and rest for a couple of minutes!

It turns out that she had gone another 2.1 miles to the next marathon aid station and they took her in the truck back to the right aid station. She covered 17.5 miles that day!