Running the Lead Challenge Pain Free

I don’t need a reason to run in sandals tied up my ankle or a reason to keep dancing across the trails of Leadville. I simply feel like I was born to do it.

“This event isn’t for the faint of heart,” reads the Leadville Race Series website. “It isn’t even for the ‘average of heart’ or ‘semi-courageous of heart.’” As I read along it becomes clear to me that the Lead Challenge is for those who want the deluxe high-altitude race experience, the oxygenless ordeal if you will. By the time I hit “register” I am under the impression that I might want to invest in bandaids, electrolytes, and a puke bucket.

What is the Lead Challenge? Well, if you’ve ever heard of the Leadville 100-mile trail run, then just add a 100-mile mountain bike race and a 10k run the weekend prior. And a marathon…and a 50-mile run and 50-mile mountain bike race for your “train up” to the 100’s. All in all, it’s 323.4 miles of racing nearly all above 10,000ft in elevation in the rocky mountains of Colorado.

This year I will be seeking to finish my 7th Leadville 100-mile run and my 3rd Lead Challenge. Over the years I have been asked why I keep coming back to this same race, but the thread of this story is a long one that even I have not fully uncovered.

Perhaps it may help to know that I grew up in Texas in a place nicknamed “Pearl of the Prairie.” It was the kind of community a grandfather might recommend a .22 caliber revolver for his 9-year old granddaughter (me) as a “safe weapon” for someone my age to own. I learned to hunt, fish, trap animals, and garden as a child. I only started running in high school when a friend explained to me what cross country was. “You run through fields and woods, mud and creeks,” she said. Well of course I was sold.

You might also like to know, while I was told in school the earth was kind of like a sphere, I lived on the flattest land in the country. In my pre-internet days I had my step-father’s outdoor magazines and the occasional TV show to educate me on what mountains actually looked like. I was obsessed. When I moved to Nashville in the early 2000’s for college, I asked a friend if the hills there were considered “mountains.” After the laughter died down I was deflated to learn that Nashville, TN had hills not mountains. I’d have to go to Appalachia to see mountains and I didn’t have a car.

Stricken with chronic hip and foot pain that limited my ability to run without pain.

Fast forward to 2015. I am a Captain in the US Army, a physical therapist, and stricken with chronic hip and foot pain that limited my ability to run without pain. I had done everything I’d learned in school to do and everything my colleagues could recommend for me to do to run healthy, but I continued to struggle. Ironically it was a literal knock to the head (falling on ice) that allowed me to start thinking differently about my foot and hip problem.

Following my unfortunate concussion, I was given a fair bit of time to rest at home, and outside my military boots I began noticing that my hip and foot didn’t hurt so bad. I began experimenting with barefoot walking and running and over the course of 7-months ran the Pikes Peak Marathon in a pair of LUNA Sandals completely pain-free. This is the same style of LUNA Sandals that has become the “Sammy Sandals” special edition LUNA.

There is a lightheartedness, a playfulness, and a soul-validating experience of running in my barenaked feet.

In 2015 I paced my friend Tim at the Leadville 100 run wearing my trusty sandals. I would go on to successfully run my first 100-mile race, the 2016 Leadville 100, in sandals. Eventually I rehabilitated my feet enough to incorporate shoes into my life again, but year after year I have found sandals to be an integral part of allowing me to run healthfully. Not only that, but there is a lightheartedness, a playfulness, and a soul-validating experience of running in my barenaked feet. In a world that has become increasingly complex and monetized, sandals are simple and empowering.

This year my goal is to complete the entire Lead Challenge in LUNA sandals, not so much as a challenge although it certainly will be, but as a celebration and remembrance of who I really am. And who is that? Perhaps still a 9-year old, somewhat defiant, agreeing with my grandfather that a .22 caliber revolver makes sense for me to carry in case I encounter a poisonous snake. Perhaps a somewhat obstinate 30-year old physical therapist who had been told I should quit running so I took up barefoot running instead. Or maybe a 38-year old who prefers sandals to super shoes and refuses to pay for a strava subscription.

So how to answer the question, why Leadville, and why do it again and again? Because some things are woven in our hearts from the very beginning. Leadville lived in the details of my life before I ever knew of the famous mining town or the Race Across the Sky. I was just a blonde-haired, blue-eyed wild child on the prairie, dirty hands, bare feet, and a serious fascination with mountains. Whatever it is for you, that thread, that bit of yourself that you keep finding along your journey... hold onto it. Show up for the things you truly love. I don’t need a reason to run in sandals tied up my ankle or a reason to keep dancing across the trails of Leadville. I simply feel like I was born to do it.

I hope you find your unique elation & share with others too. Enjoy the sandals and RUN FREE :)

@WoodUltra