LEADVILLE — By almost every measure, Ryan Sutter lives the dream.
A former football star at the University of Colorado, his fame and ultimate fortune arrived from the unlikely source of reality television, where he and eventual wife Trista Rehn beat the odds to find love on “The Bachelorette” in 2003. Now they’re raising a family in the mountains near Vail, where Sutter works as a firefighter.
But between dreams, Sutter suffers the occasional nightmare just like the rest of us. This year, perhaps even more.
“Leadville is just painful,” said Sutter, 35, after completing his second Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race Saturday. “It really hurts. Everything — your back, your legs, your butt — it all kills. Sitting on a bike seat for 8 1/2 hours just isn’t comfortable. It’s tough to even sit in a car that long.”
The decision to tackle the LT100, Lake Placid Ironman triathlon, 24 Hours of Moab mountain bike race and the New York City Marathon all in one year — along with a half-dozen other notorious endurance challenges — isn’t some sort of masochistic penance for the spoils of success. Rather, it’s all part of a plan to put his celebrity and athleticism to work helping those on the short end of the good fortune stick.
After completing Leadville, Sutter is just over halfway through his “10.10.10 First Descents Challenge,” a self-designed, year-long endurance test with the mission of raising $100,000 for the Denver-based First Descents outdoor adventure camps for young adults with cancer. The goal is to use 10 races to convince 10,000 people to donate $10 each to the camp in recognition of its 10th year.
“Trista has had some opportunities with different promotional types of things since the TV series. But for me, my life has pretty much settled back into things like family and my career up here,” Sutter said. “This attempt for me to try to pull a little bit from that notoriety is a great opportunity to do something meaningful, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to take advantage of some of the recognition we’ve gotten from the series.”
Although fundraising for the camp founded by professional kayaking friend Brad Ludden has gone “better than expected” since Sutter began the undertaking at the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day, much work remains to be done.
The First Descents camps make use of outdoor adventure sports such as whitewater kayaking and rock climbing to provide therapy for what Ludden calls the most underserved demographic among cancer patients. About 250 patients will participate in 14 week-long camps this summer, all funded through donations.
“Ryan knows what $100,000 means to this organization,” Ludden said. “To see him pouring his heart into this 10.10.10 challenge is truly inspiring for not only me personally, but also to hundreds of First Descents participants.”
Through grueling races like the LT100, where he finished 65th in 8:31:05, Sutter has found a new connection to the cancer patients he has come to know as an occasional helper at the camps. The collective, albeit voluntary, anguish combined with the support of the surrounding community serves as a fitting analogy of what First Descents camp participants experience, he says.
“At Leadville, you know what’s coming: 100 miles of pain, and you figure out a way to push through it,” Sutter said. “You find this sort of indomitable will to keep going, kind of like the cancer patients. But there’s also a lot of support there for you, just like at First Descents. Everyone is in the same boat, and they help keep you going.”
Sutter’s endurance test will enter a slight remission period in the coming weeks as he foregoes this weekend’s brutal LT100 footrace in favor of the sprint-oriented Scott Firefighter Challenge on Aug. 27-28 in Vail. From there, he’ll compete in an Olympic-distance triathlon Sept. 11 in Malibu, Calif., followed by the 24 Hours of Moab on Oct. 9-10 and the finale Nov. 7 at the NYC Marathon.
Previously he finished second in his division at the Teva Mountain Games Ultimate Mountain Challenge, was among the fastest 2 percent in the Bolder Boulder 10K, rode the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race and completed the Beaver Creek XTERRA along with his first Ironman, all within two months.
“I went into it thinking it was just going to be a real physical challenge, but the amount of time it has taken to train and the toll that takes on things like family and work really puts it in perspective,” Sutter said. “I think it’s similar to what some of the campers are going through in that it makes me appreciate my time more and don’t take things for granted as much. That’s been a real positive side effect.
“I feel like I’ve gained more than I’ve given, and hopefully that will inspire other people to do something similar. It’s an indescribable feeling of pleasure and satisfaction, and I want others to feel that too.”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
