Leadville – A lot of marathoners are happy just to reach the finish line, especially in a race as grueling as the Leadville Trail Marathon. Dane Rauschenberg was thrilled – and extremely relieved – to see the starting line last Saturday.
Rauschenberg, an attorney from Arlington, Va., is attempting to run a marathon every weekend this year for charity, a quest he calls “Fiddy2.” The Leadville race was to mark the midway point – 26 down, 26 to go – with the toughest terrain he will trample. The race starts at an elevation of 10,200 feet and climbs to 13,188 feet on Mosquito Pass at the midway point.
But Rauschenberg’s dream was nearly derailed last Thursday when he missed his flight to Denver, thanks to a shuttle service that got him to the airport late.
“They could have called me and told me to take a taxi,” Rauschenberg said. “Heck, it’s 4 miles away, I would have run there.”
Rauschenberg panicked. Leadville was the only marathon in North America last weekend. Would the 655 miles he’d already logged for Fiddy2 – benefitting an Alabama community for the mentally handicapped – be for naught?
“The entire idea of Fiddy2 was the fact that I’m doing one every weekend,” said Rauschenberg, 30. “I don’t know that it’s ever been done.”
Rauschenberg searched the Internet for hours in search of another flight, but everything was booked because of holiday travel. Through Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning, he got up every 30 minutes, searching the web for a flight.
He considered Amtrak. He considered driving nonstop for 24 hours, trading shifts behind the wheel with a friend. Then at 7 a.m. Friday he found a one-way ticket from Baltimore to Denver for $900.
“I don’t get stressed too often (but) that was beyond belief,” Rauschenberg said.
Rauschenberg didn’t relax when he boarded his 6 p.m. flight because something still could go wrong. He didn’t relax when he landed at Denver International Airport because the rental car could break down on the way to Leadville. But he made it and was in bed by 11 p.m., nine hours before the race.
“Until my alarm went off (Saturday) morning, I didn’t feel OK,” Rauschenberg said.
Rauschenberg wasn’t the only multiple marathoner on a mission in Saturday’s race. Sam Thompson of Bay St. Louis, Miss., was running the first of what he hopes to be 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states. Thompson is a site coordinator for volunteers assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina through his church.
“As media coverage is declining around the country, the needs aren’t,” Thompson said of Katrina relief. “My mission is to reawaken the nation and tell them everything’s not fixed down there.”
Thompson, 25, will run organized marathons whenever possible. Otherwise he will run by himself on established marathon courses, using a GPS to plot his progress. He finished Saturday in 5 hours, 49 minutes, 30 seconds.
Rauschenberg runs most of his marathons in the 3:15-3:30 range. In the Estes Park Marathon (No. 24) he ran 3:36:19, allowing himself to get outkicked the last half-mile by a guy he knew was in his age group.
“I could have outkicked him, I had it in me, but I’m like, ‘I could pull a hamstring.’ I got fourth (in his age group), I didn’t get an award because I didn’t outkick the guy, but I’m like, ‘Bigger picture, bigger picture.”‘
Rauschenberg finished Saturday in 5:17:41.
“It was a little harder than I thought,” said Rauschenberg, whose next event will be in Bellevue, Wash., on Sunday. “I expected it to be really difficult, but the undulating hills really took their toll.”
Rauschenberg left Leadville with a healthy respect for the difficulty of running 2 miles above sea level.
“I met four people today, this was their first marathon,” Rauschenberg said. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? God bless you.”‘
Learn more Dane Rauschenberg’s website is www.fiddy2.org.Sam Thompson’s website is www.50in50in50.com.
