 What's up my friends? I am here in downtown Leadville, Colorado, the highest town in America at just over 10,000 feet, not high in the way that you were thinking, but I am here for summer camp. Well, not exactly, but I'm here for run camp. You see, I did this silly thing and I signed up for the Leadville 100 this year and I figure maybe I should do some training. So I'm here for the run camp where I'm gonna meet all sorts of new friends from around the country and we're gonna run, run, run, we're gonna get to know the course and I think it's gonna be really fun because running is fun, right? If this is your first Leadville, welcome to our family. If you've been here before, welcome home. Welcome home. We are so excited to have everyone here, so excited to be back. Just could not be happier. I know you believe in the hereafter and that gold buckle is what you're here after. All right, all right. So you gotta learn, you gotta feel it tonight. I want you to feel Leadville. Go get them, got it. Okay, this truly feels like summer camp. We're getting on a school bus. So this feels just like summer camp because we're making new friends. This is Amanda, what's up? This is, what was your name again? John. Came in from Texas. Woo, it's a little chilly. Ah, it just rained, it's nice and fresh. This is exciting. My first group run of 2021. With all my people, I feel good. So now I found my buddy Bob Africa from Boulder. What's up, buddy? Good, I'm here just to take you home. Because I know you rode your bike here. Exactly, he needs to drive me home. I want you after 50 mile weekend, have to ride home. He's also here because he's a running guy and he's run the race many, many times. Lead man finisher, finished first. So what section of the race are we doing right now? We are running towards the finish inbound. We just left what's called the May Queen aid station. So Leadville is 50 miles out and back. So that's the first aid station outbound about mile 13 and inbound mile 87. Bob, just give me some good advice. What was that again? Well, I said as I get older, so I'll put an asterisk. It's not about who runs the fastest, but who slows down the least. It is really beautiful in this little forest. I'm excited to see this during the race. I'll be very tired, but I'm excited to see it. How you doing, how you doing? Look at that beautiful lake. So this is Turquoise Lake. Look how pretty that is. I wonder if it's gonna be pretty at mile 90 when I'm dying. Looking good, everybody. All lit up like little fireflies. I love running at nighttime. Something that I don't do very often, but I love it. Makes me feel good. So it got a little rainy the last few miles and it got freezing cold quick. But we're almost done. It's about 11 p.m. Time to go to bed. And the forecast tomorrow calls for a lot more rain. 100, give us a quick history. How'd that happen? Why'd you want to do that? And what's the effect been on the town? Yeah, I'm not sure. That's a good way to put it. We created the Leadville 100. Maybe the Leadville 100 created me. And Mary Lee. Yeah, it was foundational all this. 1982, I was an underground shift bus. Climax Mine went to work. One swing shift, got all ready to go underground. The steel-toed boots, self-rescure, the hard-add, all that. The foreman called and said, when all shift bosses come to the office, we're going to have a meeting. Like, we made our living walking through solid rock. We didn't have meetings. What's this about? It was a damn short meeting. He said, walked in that room and he said, boys, go back and tell your crews to go home. You go home. We're shutting the mine down. We'll be in touch with you tomorrow. That was, that devastated this community, Leadville. We lost 3,250 jobs that night in a community of 5,000. That was everybody. Everybody was out of work. There wasn't government programs back then to come save us. So we knew we had to save ourselves. Community got together with this, that, and the other. What can we do? Little fairs, little rodeos, little 10K race. Then the governor came down, Richard Glam, with an economic developer, gave us good advice. He said, you got to bring people to your community to spend money. Key to getting them to spend money is that they stay overnight. Just with depth and breadth of my intellectual capacity, not being much, I figured, well, you know, if they run 100 miles, they're going to stay overnight. Down to see Mary Lee, and I said, Mary Lee, I need help. I need a race director. And would you help me? You know, some way we felt like we could contribute to our community and pull our community up by bootstraps, because we knew the Calvary was not coming. But back in the early 80s, the idea of running 100 miles was kind of nuts, right? It wasn't like today, 100 miles are everywhere. Back then, they weren't. How did you convince people that this was a good idea? You know, I don't think we ever convinced anybody it was a good idea. We should make first, still not a good idea. Because it hurts. Well, it was easy to convince our community that it was going to be great for our community, because everybody was out of work. We had plenty of volunteers. We had lots of volunteers. So the community immediately jumped in behind it. We had early days. We had people pacing that had never run a step in their life. And they just were so involved and so invested in helping runners get to the finish line that, I mean, they were out there not running shoes or anything. And it's like, I'll help Pace you. Our goal had a great amount of integrity to it, because we put three cornerstones right at the start. And that's, number one, the race would start and end in Leadville, have Leadville in its name. Number two, we would not ask any local businesses for contributions. We wanted, our goal was to bring money into the community, not to go to our businesses and take money out. Third thing, and probably most important, and still applies today, is that no one, me, Mary Lee, anybody involved, would be selfish nor self-serving. So in those early days when I ran the race every year, I paid my entry fee just like everybody else. And Mary Lee cashed my check. So yeah, so people believed in us then and they, I think they still do. It's a beautiful day in Leadville. You know what I love doing? Running and freezing cold rain. I love it. So this is like my preferred day. That's a lie. I like warm weather, but you get what you get, right? At least they have warm vegetarian burritos. And any day you start it with the burrito is a good day. You mentioned you've never run a marathon before? Oh yeah. So I've only run two half marathons in my entire life. And I'm a Marine. I just retired actually from Marine Corps in May. And this year will be the first year I run the Marine Corps marathon. And before I run the Marine Corps marathon, I just figured I'd run the Leadville 100, right? I mean, I just, that's where I'll start, but hopefully I finish. I love it, brother. I love it. You're gonna finish. Yeah, I'm gonna. Keep that smile on your face. You're all good. Nice to meet you, bro. All right, time to get on the bus to the pain cave. Hey, there's a dog on the bus. He's so cute. We got dogs on the bus. You're from Iowa, right? Iowa. We love Iowa. It's a little bit flatter than here. How you feeling? Great. Great, you all good? Yeah, all good, all good. People are stepping over the giant dogs. This is a good Colorado moment. All right, here we go. Time to run 26 miles. That's a marathon, but we're not racing, so it's not gonna hurt too bad. Inevitably, there's always inspirational stories at races. And tell me about your condition, what were you? So I was born with a club foot, and basically means like my leg was on kind of backwards. And what they did is at the time, it was like, well, we'll kind of break it. We don't really have bones to break at that age, but they twist your leg around and cast it, and they recast it over and over again to correct the leg and the foot. So when I run, my foot is like this, and I'm constantly almost kicking myself on my other side. So my leg is shorter, my foot is smaller, by about a size, and my mom really pushed me into running and doing other sports and activities, because when I was little, I had to wear a cast all the way up until I got into kindergarten. So this one's kind of small, and then we have my regular leg. Wow. Oh yeah, we feel good. Just want to stop here and show you the view. What are you doing out here? Going for round two, man. Yeah, you've done this before? Came up short in 2019, got to finish. Yeah! Look who we have at the aid station, none other than Ken! Yeah, the beautiful day in Paradise. We love it. Thanks for the cookies! Bye-bye! This is so much fun. It really is so much fun, I love it. Especially after 15 months of nothing during COVID, it's just good to see humans and make friends and goop around and ah! So I don't know a ton about the Leadville course, but I do know that we're on Powerline. I've heard of this section and obviously it's called Powerline because of these guys. All right, so I ran into Bob again, Bob. Where are we right now if we were doing the race? So we were doing the race. That's Mount Massive, by the way. Right on. We would be outbound, like mile 25, 26. We just passed what's called the Outward Bound Aid Station. It was run by the Outward Bound School. That's the Colorado Outward Bound School over there. So they run that aid station. So outbound about mile, like yeah, 25, 26, like marathon distance. Inbound, obviously mile 75 or so. Woo! Hello, how's it going? Cookie. You guys are everywhere, I love it, high five. Yeah! Why do I keep coming back? It's a, there's a good community sense at this race. Yeah. You're getting a feel for that this time, right? Yeah, for sure. So it's a good thing. I've already made so many friends this weekend. I love it. And so by the time race weekend hits, I'm gonna have all these friends to run with. Oh yeah, it's the Jorts. Are those your good luck charms? They are. Yeah, yeah, you gotta have the Jorts out here. Don't take yourself too seriously. It's real wet right now, but it's also real beautiful. I feel like I'm in some, you know, enchanted forest in England or something. Steeplechase, hey! Woo, little sloppy. It's raining, it's pouring. Oh, this feels good. You're a foot model right now. Ha ha ha, no whammies, baby. Yeah, the sun came out and we're finished for the day. How's it going? What's up? Yeah! What makes it different and magical? Why do people come here from everywhere? You know, I think the elevation has something to do with it in this community of Leadville, which from early on has been a dig deep community. We've gone through those booms and busts of mining and people have stayed here because of this community and there's something magic about Leadville. It's not Ken Clover, it's not Merrily, it's Leadville. Leadville and we tell everybody that comes here and falls in love with the races, want to come back every year that you didn't find Leadville, Leadville found you. What is some advice for somebody like me or somebody else who's doing it for the first time or taking on any other type of challenge? Maybe it's a 5K, their first race. Well, let me just go back and maybe twist something just a little bit, what I tell everybody is not a motivational talk, not at all. Motivation will get you to starting line, it will not get you to the finish line. Motivation will leave you when you need it the most. What I tell them is the truth. What we've learned, this year I'll be able to tell them the truth, we've learned over 39 years. That comes, I guess maybe from my mining background. In mining, we would walk through Solid Rock at the end of the day where we'd quit. The next day, that's the face of the mind. Face of the mind is called the truth. That's the truth in mining. And it's the truth, what I tell them is the truth in Leadville, you've got to do the same when you come here. At that starting line, not motivation, it's commitment. I ask everyone of them to say before we start, say I commit, I won't quit. And I tell them why. I can tell you, you can do this, here's why. Because inside each and every one of you is an inexhaustible well of grit, guts, and determination. And when you need it, in this 100 mile race, I'll guarantee you'll need it more than once. You reach down inside of you, you dig deep. Just as those miners had to do in 1860, you dig deep into that well, grit, guts, and determination. And you go on, you go to that next aid station because you're better than you think you are. You can do more than you think you can. We've proved that thousands of times, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. So the dream chaser is just an idea that we had a couple of years ago. I was talking to Veronica and it's for me to start, but two hours and a half behind every runner. And the goal is to pass as many runners as I can and people decides to donate as much money as they want. For example, they can say I'm gonna give a dollar per person that Rodrigo passes and then if I pass 500 people, that'll be $500. So it could be 10 cents, it could be a dollar, it could be $10. So that's kind of what the dream chaser goal is. Nice. And where does the money go? What's this scholarship all about? You know, the money goes to the Legacy Foundation and they do so many different things with the money. Like I know throughout this pandemic, they helped almost every kid and not every kid here in Lake County with food and a lot of other things. They also do the scholarship for every senior, every year. And I think two years ago, they raised it from $1,000 to $2,000 so they can keep going and chasing their dreams, going to college and getting a career or something. How many people do you think you can pass? Well, we'll find out on August, right? But the goal is, depending how many people enter the race, I think it's gonna be right around 600 or 650, I'm not sure. So I wanna at least get top 50, so that would mean 600 runners, hopefully. Cool, and what kind of time would that be, finishing time? You know, based on my last three years that I have done the 100, my actual time it's right around 20 hour. So you had those two and a half hours so hopefully we can break 22 and a half. Muchas suerte, mi amigo Rodrigo. I hope this guy, you hope you pass so many people and raise tons of money, man. Thank you, man. It's a great program. Thank you. I remember reading about Hope Pass in the book Born to Run for a dramatic part of the story. High altitude, steep. So Bob, at what point in the race is this? So we're like mile 43, 44, and this is out of Twin Lakes, H-Station, going up to Hopeless, up to Hope Pass, which is the high point. As I can tell, it's higher. This is a big climb. So this is kind of tractor mode. It's nice not to run after the last 40 plus miles and a good time to feed and drink and water and get ready. Get ready. Check it out, Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Two of my favorite trails. You know, one of my favorite things about running is just being outside in nature. Yeah, I like personal goals and going as fast as I can. But really, I just like being outside. In a race like this, 100 miles, you're outside all day. And it's really awesome. You get to see the sunrise and sunset and everything in between in nature and insects and animals. And it's really quite an opportunity just to connect with old mother nature. Woo. Look at that. Here we are going through a floor. This snow field here really close to the top. What's that? How you feeling? Pretty good, man. This right here is the definition of runners high. I am high altitude, but also I'm high because I've been running with all these wonderful people all weekend in these beautiful trails in this beautiful area of my state. I'm so grateful that I got to be part of this runner camp. I'm so excited for the race. I mean, this is a big deal. It's a very big deal. Leadville 100 has been a dream of mine for many, many years after I read the book, Born to Run. And I'm finally gonna make it happen. I've been training. I'm gonna be ready. I know it's gonna be hard as hell. It's gonna be a challenge, but I'm excited. And just hearing the stories from everybody around here who have done it before, they say once you do it, you know, it changes you. Changes you in a good way. And I believe that with all the adventures I do, I feel like every adventure makes me a better person, a more caring, loving, compassionate, connected to nature and my friends and family type person. So here we go.