For many, running the Leadville 100 is about survival, grinding out miles through day and night with the hopes of finishing under the cutoff time of 30 hours or finishing under 25 hours to earn a shiny gold belt buckle.
Saturday, Matt Carpenter made the 100-mile trail run his own personal track meet. The accomplished 41-year-old runner from Manitou Springs shattered the previous record and covered the course in 15 hours, 42 minutes, 59 seconds. In winning the race for the first time, Carpenter took more than 90 minutes off the record set by Monument’s Paul DeWitt in 2004.
Competitors in the race leave downtown Leadville at 4 a.m., run around Turquoise Lake, along the Colorado Trail to Twin Lakes and up and over 12,620-foot Hope Pass to the ghost town of Winfield. From there, they turn around and follow the route back to Leadville.
In Saturday’s 23rd annual event, Carpenter reached the 50-mile mark well under eight hours with a 90-minute lead on the field. The only question was if he could hold the pace.
“At one point on the way back in, I was thinking, ‘Man, everything is going perfectly,”‘ Carpenter said. “I was stepping in all the right places, my fuel was great and my legs felt great. But I didn’t take anything for granted and didn’t crack a smile until I reached (the final aid station) with 13 miles to go, because I knew it could all fall apart at any time.”
Dan Vega of Colorado Springs finished a distant second in 19 hours, 3 minutes. Montana resident Nikki Kimball was the top women’s finisher in 20:28.
Carpenter long has been one of the top trail runners in the United States, having won numerous races around the world between 5 and 26 miles. He has dominated the Pikes Peak Ascent and Pikes Peak Marathon since the early 1990s, winning a combined 11 races and setting records in each event. In June, amid a freak snowstorm, Carpenter won the USA 10K Trail Running Championship in Vail by nearly a minute.
But he is relatively new to ultrarunning, the growing niche of events that range from 27 to 100 miles. He was on record pace during his first attempt at the Leadville 100 last year, but leg cramps led to his demise at about 75 miles. He eventually hobbled to the finish line in just under 23 hours (14th place), long after DeWitt wrapped up his second consecutive victory in 17:16:19, then a record.
To put Carpenter’s effort in perspective, he ran the final 25 miles in under 3 hours, 45 minutes – which would be a respectable time for many road marathoners – and he did it while running over the 11,300-foot summit of Sugarloaf Mountain.
