This year's Leadville Trail 100 race was epic to say the least. It started off with breaking my bike two weeks prior and needing to find a loaner for the race. I had posted a message on Facebook about my demise and a wonderful person named Laurel Darren Simmons had responded that I could borrow her bike. It was such a kind thing for her to do as it was her race bike for her upcoming Barnburner race. When I return to Phoenix after my Laramie trip, I had picked up the bike and got it dialed in with the help of my bike fitting guru husband Aaron, and the mechanic support of Shade Tree Bicycles.

A week before Leadville, we headed up to Colorado to get some altitude and visit Aaron's brother Evan. This story gets really good about now as while we were driving my friend Debra called me to check in. She had just come back from a super awesome vacation in Tahiti and did not know about my broken bike. When I told her about the story she could not believe it she was aghast. "You need a really fast race bike Melissa!" she said, "This is such a big race and you trained so hard." "I know Debra, but I am fine. I have a great bike that I am borrowing." After we hung up, her husband Jeff called and had the same reaction about my bike and was trying hard to figure out how I could borrow his bike that he used for Cape Epic, which is a huge upgrade from my own bike! I told him I was already headed to Colorado and didn't know anyone headed to Crested Butte to deliver it to me. I would to at least train on it during the week - so I didn't think there was a way to get his bike and I would be just fine.

Throughout the drive up to Crested Butte, we texted on and off and finally Debra sent me a text that said "Jeff said he will fly his bike to you." I was speechless. I did not know what to say and a tear did rolled down my cheek. It was above and beyond what I expected. "Okay," I said, "if he really wants to." Jeff was already on top of checking the weather and figuring out which airport he was flying to which happened to be Gunnison. And just like that, Jeff flew in the next day on his plane with his friend/co pilot Shawn, and they delivered this beautiful orange Specialized Epic with every bell and whistle you can imagine. He showed me how to take off the wheel, adjust the shocks, and other things about the bike and then he turned around and flew right back to Phoenix! Just like that. It was like Bike Superman had flown into help me with my race.

That week we got the bike dialed in with making sure everything was running smoothly and even had the local bike shop help us re-cable the bike to make sure the shifting would be as perfect as possible and I installed the race tires on Thursday before the race. This bike was going to give me wings!

Last year Leadville was a very emotional race for me as it was a way for me to grieve and connect with my friend Gianna, who had passed away from cancer. Leadville was her favorite race as it was her last race before her second cancer diagnosis. They say in this race that you will have to dig deep, deep into a well inside of yourself and when that well seems dry, you will have to dig further and deeper to make it through the race. This type of perseverance is not even close to what people have to deal with when they have hardships in life such as cancer. So, I stuck her sticker that was a "G" with wings on top of my bike stem so anytime I would complain to myself on how hard it was or lose focus of why I was there, I would be reminded of her and dig deeper.

I knew going into Leadville that my fitness was rock solid and really great since I had done Cape Epic this year. Plus the altitude did not seem to affect me as bad so I thought a good goal for me was to do the race in 8 hours and 30 minutes, win my age group, and finish in the top 10 women overall. I didn't quite make that but you have to set high goals for yourself. That is the motto I have as a coach and a human that if you strive for something high, you will at least reach something exceptional even if you don't hit your goal.

The race started off awesome. I was in the Gold Corral because of my professional status and it was really cool standing next to some of the top pros in the world. I did not put my bike at the very front of the start line like last year as I wanted to make sure I did not go out too hard and try to keep up with people like Todd Wells. Last year, I got to the first climb and felt like I was hyperventilating. This time I was so much more relaxed as I had worn my buff from Cape Epic to keep the dust out of my nose and lungs. I had put a tiny amount of peppermint oil on it too, as the smell of peppermint was calming to me. It also seemed to remind me of the smell of being in Africa.

I moved along for the first big climb and didn't seem to get passed by many people, whereas last year it seemed like everybody was passing me. This time I felt in control and my legs were strong, and of course... I was riding a really great climbing bike! I had decided not to carry a pack this year to save my back so I only had bottles and luckily the bike Jeff let me borrow could carry two bottles on the frame. This left all of my pockets open to food. After about 45 minutes, I started eating and immediately noticed that it was harder to swallow at such high altitude.

We reach the top of Powerline and were headed down when I knew I was really close to not hitting my time split for this 8:30 finish. I had to stay focused and I knew it was going to be hard. I made sure to drink my bottle and eat something before we headed through the feed zone. As I was inspired by 4 time winner, Rebecca Rush's book, "Rush to Glory" on how she used feed bags to speed up her time through the feed zones, I had my sister Marie (when she came to visit last month) sew up feed bags for us! These were bright orange and I screened our Potential Energy Training and Nutrition logo on it. I also made t-shirts for my feeders that were bright red so I could easily see them. The feed areas are so crowded with people it is easy to miss your feeder. My friend Michele Zoerb and Jennifer Hanson's brother Robert, were at the pipeline feed zone ready to hand me my bag. It went smoothly (as we had practiced!). I grab the bag, threw out my bottle, restocked water and food, threw the bag and kept moving. I was less than 10 minutes off of my split which still set me up for a sub 9 hour race however I still had to keep on top of it.

I felt pretty good through the next section as I headed to Twin Lakes and grabbed onto a few trains of people to draft and even set the pace at the front a few times. When I got to Twin Lakes I decided I just needed a bottle so I grabbed a bottle from Aaron and kept riding up as the next section would be the challenge as we were climbing Columbine, over 12,000 feet high!

I got into the groove, kept my pace steady but I did notice my energy level had dropped probably because I was going up in altitude and needing more calories. I took some gels for some quick energy and just stayed steady.

On the way up Columbine, a woman caught up with me and asked if I had some water to give her as she had no bottles on her bike. I assumed she probably lost her bottle. I gave her one of my bottles because I had two full bottles.

Part of the fun of climbing Columbine is watching the pros come down. They fly!! This time there was a big gap between groups of guys and within the first 10 people was a chic named Annika Langvad who happened was the women's winner of the Cape Epic this year. She was incredible and just glorious! Annika ended up setting a course record of 6:58!!.

Once we got past the treeline, Leadville founder, Ken Clover was cheering as we climbed through the rocky loose gravel. This is where people usually start walking as it's loose and steep and you can barely breathe being above 11,000 feet. This time I was able to ride almost everything to the top, having to stop just once for a short steep section and being caught behind a few walkers. Ken yelled at me, "You're embarrassing the boys!"

When I finally got to the top of Columbine, 12,400ft, I for some reason was an emotional wreck. I felt kind of nauseous, felt like crying, and just needed something so I stopped at the feed zone to fill my bottle. None other than Laurel Darren Simmons was there! She gave me a hug, filled my bottle, got me some watermelon and cheered me on my way. I really just needed the hug at that moment.

Coming down was great as you know you are over halfway there so it kind of feels like the home stretch in a weird way. I saw a lot of people I knew who were climbing up and tried to cheer for them however I didn't have much energy for talking at the time. As I was flying down the road, a few riders walked into the road, waving us to slow down as a rider had crashed and was lying on the side of the road. I looked over and it happened to be the lady I had given my water bottle to. She had help already so I did not stop but I felt a lot of empathy for her knowing that it was her first time doing Leadville and it did appear she probably broke something. At that moment I recalled an email someone had sent to me that said, "Good luck but be safe."

I still felt pretty horrible when I got to Twin Lakes and really needed a coke. I had left a note for Aaron to put coke into my bottles so he was ready. I stopped and Aaron and Carl changed out my bottles on my bike, got me more food and shoved some Gu chomps into my mouth.

It took a few minutes but the coke did kick in and I started to get more energy. I rode with a few groups on the flat section back to Pipeline however I would sometimes be geared out or get gapped off. I think that was partially my mental state. I would often look at my wrist that had special horsehair bracelets Shelby had made for Debra and I when we did Cape Epic. The bracelets (one which was Deb's) reminded me of Debra and how she was always there for me when I was hitting a wall in the race. I knew she was not there right then, but she was definitely at home following me on her computer and I imagined her voice cheering me.

For awhile I rode with Richard la China who is also a coach from San Diego. Richard helped keep me motivated by telling me to "focus on the prize". We knew we were so close to the sub 9 split so we had to stay as consistent as possible. We came through Pipeline and I chugged more coke, got more water food and kept going. By the time I reached Powerline climb I suddenly had a second wind and began climbing like no one's business. This climb is known for people walking a lot as it is so steep and there's lots of ruts and your legs are really tired because you are at 75 miles.

I passed a lot of people on this section and made up a lot of ground. I caught everybody who had passed me from Twin Lakes to Pipeline. However, when I crested Powerline and had a long descent, I was passed again by some of these people.

The last 10 miles of the race were very hard as it always is because you are so close yet it seems like time slows down. I kept feeding myself gels just to keep some energy in and still kept climbing really well. On the last section, before the road into town, my old teammate from Kenda, Denise Ramsden passed me and pointed to her wheel. I didn't know if she recognized me because I hadn't seen her in years but I grabbed her wheel and started working with her thinking that maybe just maybe there might be a shot at a sub 9. I had a lot of doubt. There was a section where she pulled away from me as I was kind of geared out and I just didn't have the power.

We still had a long gravel section into town which again feels like forever and it wasn't until part way into the gravel section that I suddenly felt like I had a lot of power! I had decided I really did want to finish strong no matter that I was not going to get a sub 9. I had to at least try my best and try to do well in my category which I was realizing that she was in my category, and I had to beat her. So I motored along and because it was my second year doing the race I knew what to expect so the road did not psych me out. In fact it made me stronger and as I came into town, I finished as hard as I could because I wanted to beat my time from last year (as I saw the clock ticking and it was very close to that time).

I barely beat my time from last year by only 1 second (9:11:58) but I was happy to just be done with the race and get off my bike. I took third in my category however I was okay with it because this year there was a lot of fast women who showed up and I was pretty happy the more women were representing. If you would have asked me immediately after the race if I wanted to do it again, I would rolled my eyes and said no! But if you ask me now, I would say yes - because I know I can get that sub 9! I know I can get a sub 8:30! AND I realize that sometimes it takes longer than we expect to reach these goals but with time it can happen.

Again, thanks to many people for the help! Couldn't have done it without the support from Jeff Doss and Debra Doss, loaning me (flying me) a super fast bike to use since mine broke a couple of weeks ago. You guys are amazing and have such a big heart! Also thank you to Laurel Darren-Simmons for her help with the bike and support on top of Columbine when I was needing some emotional encouragement. Thank you to Shadetree Bikes for pre race mechanic support. Your shop is awesome! Also I had amazing feeders Aaron, Michele Zoerb and Robert and Carl! The Hanson Family (Jason, Jennifer & Shelby) who are always inspiring me to try these crazy endurance events! And last but not least - my husband Aaron - you are always supporting me beyond recognition and just simply rocking my world! :)