Leadville’s most famous foot race will traverse new terrain this year due to a wildfire in the area that has forced organizers to reroute the course.
Read more This Colorado couple is throwing an emo wedding. You’re invited.
The Life Time Leadville 100 Trail Run is expected to welcome hundreds of athletes from across the globe for the 43rd annual event on Aug. 22. However, exactly where the ultramarathon will take them has yet to be determined.
Kimo Seymour, president of media and events for race organizer Life Time, said his team is working to finalize the course after the Willow fire burned through an area previously designated for the route. This will be the first time in the event’s history that the course has undergone a significant change, he said.
The Leadville 100 Trail Run is an extremely challenging, high-alpine endurance race renowned for not only traversing 100 miles but also scaling a collective 14,000 vertical feet.
Seymour hopes to maintain those unique qualities, but acknowledged there may have to be sacrifices. “We’re doing our best to be able to maintain the mileage and at least the same amount of vertical gain,” he said. “One of the conversations has been, would we trade some mileage for a little bit more gain, or vice versa? If we had to have less gain, could we add a bit more mileage? So there may have to be a trade-off there.”
Additionally, the course for the Life Time Leadville 100 MTB, a mountain biking race on Aug. 15, is being rerouted. Cyclists typically climb about 12,000 vertical feet.
Organizers have also been watching the air quality index to ensure smoke doesn’t reach dangerous levels for the participants. (Recent rain has helped reduce the risks from smoke, Seymour said.)
Both course details are expected to be finalized and announced next week.
The Willow fire sparked on June 28 west of Leadville near Mount Massive and has since burned about 7,200 acres. At first, it was questionable whether the races would be able to go on with active forest closures, evacuations and the risk of the wildfire spreading, Seymour said.
But within a couple of weeks, conditions for hosting the events looked promising as long as there were some modifications to where the athletes ran and biked. The Willow fire was 66% contained as of Thursday afternoon.
The Leadville 100 run started in 1983 as a way to revive its namesake town following the closure of the nearby Climax Molybdenum Mine. Life Time hosts nine races throughout the summer, each of which brings 6,000 to 10,000 people to town, adding millions of dollars into the local economy, said Adam Ducharme, tourism and economic development director for Lake County, which includes Leadville and Twin Lakes.
Read more Today in History: July 31, Apollo 15 astronauts use a lunar rover for the first time
That’s particularly important this year as the wildfire has curbed tourism following a tough winter marred by drought, Ducharme said. Since the start of the fire in late June, visitation has dropped 35% in Leadville and 40.5% in Twin Lakes compared to historical norms, he said.
Life Time already had to cancel its July events, including the Silver Rush 50 Run, due to the Willow fire. “The 100s in particular, if we were to lose those events, it would be catastrophic,” Ducharme said.
Lake County Sheriff Heath Speckman said he is confident that the races can go on safely, and advised visitors to continue to watch for changes in fire conditions and traffic flow as the race course gets finalized.
Seymour and his team have to weigh many factors when they discuss a new route, such as athlete safety, accessibility for emergency responders and land ownership. Life Time worked closely with local, state and federal personnel to keep abreast of the evolving fire situation and for guidance on how best to adapt.
One of the most iconic features of the trail run is cresting Hope Pass at 12,500 feet in elevation and descending into the town of Winfield, south of Twin Lakes. Right now, it looks promising that it could still be included in the course, Seymour said. Likewise, the biking route usually travels by the Columbine Mine near 12,600 feet in elevation south of Twin Lakes and organizers hope to keep that feature on the route.
The area that is off limits is near the Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake, including part of the Colorado Trail and a segment known as the Powerline where the Willow fire burned, he added.
Though it’s been a last-minute scramble, Seymour is hopeful the challenge will help Life Time better prepare for adapting to natural disasters in the future years. It may also inspire race organizers to change course, literally, going forward and add more value to the experience.
“Maybe we’re going to end up with a course that people love, and it might be something we think about alternating in future years. This might actually create a little bit more flexibility for us,” Seymour said.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Adventurist, to get outdoors news sent straight to your inbox.
Read more Toast to Colorado’s oldest bars, serving locals since the 1800s
