The newest version of the Leadville 100 Mile has wrapped for 2022, leaving a bunch of ultrarunners with bragging rights and glossy new belt buckles for his or her efforts.
This occasion is among the many most well-known 100-mile path races. Runners make their method via the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at elevations beginning at 9,200 toes all the best way as much as thin-aired excessive level of Hope Move at 12,600 toes.
The intense elevation and altitude make respiration troublesome and add exponentially to the fatigue athletes really feel as they make their method via the course.
The race has been a staple of the ultrarunning group since its inception in 1983. This yr, the customary shotgun blast sounded on Saturday, August 20, 2022, at 4:00 a.m. native time. A slew of contenders from earlier years left the beginning line, together with Clare Gallagher, who received the one earlier Leadville 100 Mile she had run, in 2016, in addition to Adrian Macdonald, final yr’s males’s champion.
The Leadville 100 Mile path race is named the “Race Throughout the Sky.” It options elevations of 12,600 toes and sweeping views of the Colorado Rockies. Picture: Life Time
2022 Leadville 100 Mile Males’s Race
Adrian Macdonald turned heads in 2021 when he received the race as a first-time 100-mile competitor. It was clear from the beginning that Macdonald was primed for a repeat win if he might maintain it collectively.
The entire prime 10 runners stayed shut collectively via the primary few miles of the race.
However as mile 30 approached, gaps started to develop within the pack, and leaders emerged who would hold tempo in entrance all through the remainder of the day.
On the midway mark, Macdonald had discovered the entrance of the pack and edged out an almost 15-minute lead over Tyler Andrews in second place. Different racers together with JP Giblin, Ryan Kaiser, and Christopher Harrington additionally stood out in entrance.
That group saved its distance from the sphere for the rest of the race. However Macdonald made constant beneficial properties within the ultimate quarter of the race that gave him a commanding lead coming into the end. Macdonald crossed the end line greater than two hours earlier than anybody else.
The race for the following three locations stayed significantly tighter. Giblin completed second with Kaiser nearly 14 minutes in tow. Andrews got here via about 20 minutes later, adopted by Harrington.
Adrian MacDonald takes the win on the 2022 Leadville 100 Mile. Picture: Life Time
2022 Leadville 100 Mile Ladies’s Race
Again in 2016, Boulder, Colorado’s Clare Gallagher threatened to reset the Leadville 100 Mile course document in her first-ever 100-mile race. This yr she got here again to Leadville for the primary time since then — and received once more.
Gallagher topped the ladies’s discipline after sparring intensely with Addie Bracy all through a lot of the run.
Gallagher and Bracy have been neck-and-neck on the first cut up, working at an 8:33 tempo along with solely 9 seconds between them. The pair traded the lead for a few checkpoints, however Bracy managed to tug forward to realize a few six-minute lead on Gallagher on the 50-mile mark.
Gallagher, nevertheless, used the following six miles to tug again time and cross Bracy early within the second half of the course. On the 56.5-mile mark, the coin had flipped, and Gallagher led Bracy by a roughly six-minute margin. After that, Bracy discovered herself unable to proceed and dropped out of the race, leaving Gallagher with a dominant lead over the pack, which she held till the top.
Gallagher completed at 19:37:57, greater than two hours forward of her nearest chaser Alisyn Hummelberg.
Third- via fifth-place finishers Lindsey Herman, Roxanne Vogel, and Madeline Hirschfeld introduced the ladies’s prime 5 all in underneath 24 hours.
Clare Gallagher breaking the tape on the 2022 Leadville 100 Mile. Picture: Life Time
