Leadville Trail 100 Race Report 2010 Part 1

All About the Family

This year I talked the family into spending the summer vacation in the little town of Leadville Colorado.  Early on there was a little grumbling and a reminder or two that we still have not made it to Disneyland so my main goal was to do my best to find things that the family would enjoy doing.  I didn't want this to be the vacation they talk about in 20 years, "Remember when dad drug us out to that podunk town in Colorado for a bike race instead of Disneyland".
As it turns out I have an the best family on planet Earth.  We spent the week in a 100 year old cabin with crooked floors, no TV, computer, swimming pool, or hot tub, and if you wanted to turn up the heat or cook you had better be prepared to start a fire. 

It forced us to unplug and spend time together it was perfect.  Prior to the race my work and training schedule were all consuming.  We needed some time to decompress and smell the flowers.

Shortly after arriving Calvin and Maizy started exploring, Calvin found some nails and pulled a hammer out of my tool bag, he quickly whipped up a sail boat.

One sail boat lead to another and pretty soon they were in business Maizy set up a desk with a phone and started taking orders.

No respectable business man would ever let his product out the door without rigorous testing so we drove over to Turquoise lake to shake out the design. 

The boats sailed fantastically the business took off like a rocket and the kids tried to keep up with orders but quickly had to start reporting to customers that it was going to take a couple of weeks to get to their order.  Life was good. 

We spent some time looking through the antique shops on main street and had a great time custom painting mugs so that we would have something to remember the trip by.

We went to the store and bought pre-made cookie dough, then went to the cabin and started a fire in the oven.  It took about an hour and a half for the oven to preheat to 350 degrees.  My cookies were either burnt or doughie but I still consider my first experience with a wood fired oven a success since we ate the cookies anyway.  Sure made me appreciate my oven at home.

We went to the Pasta dinner before the race, Calvin and Maizy had fun posing for the camera.

I am so grateful that they all had fun, even Allyson said that she was looking forward to going back out next year.  I don't know how my luck will be next year with the lottery, regardless of whether I get in or not we will be back to race or volunteer and to be honest I don't think I even care which.  I have had great experiences with both. 

Stay tuned for the actual race report.