For my good friend, Johnny Spriggs

My good friend, Johnny Spriggs, who probably runs more races than I do, recently ran an insanely hard mountain marathon, and then an incredibly hard, hot, and humid 50K in Texas. He writes a good race report, too, and I wanted to post them here. Happy reading.


Leadville Trail Marathon
Saturday July 5th 2008

I just happened to mention to my wife last winter that I thought it would be nice to spend the 4th of July weekend in the mountains this year, maybe Colorado, possibly Leadville. I mentioned that I thought there just might be a trail marathon going on about that time. She said that she was fairly certain there would be. I also mentioned that I would like to spend my birthday, July 19th, in Ft Worth, Texas. She said there just might be a trail race going on that weekend, and you know what? She was right.

The Leadville Trail Marathon takes place every year on the Saturday after the 4th of July. This year it was July 5th. We went up a couple of days early to see the sights and try to acclimate so I wouldn't sound like a freight train going up the mountain (you know, from breathing so heavy.) Leadville is a very old silver town with a colorful history and plenty of stories about people like Wild Bill Hickock and Doc Holiday. Main Street is said to be at 10,004 ft and my lungs will not argue that one bit.

The race starts just one block off main street and heads uphill for almost four miles before you get your first long downhill. The problem is what goes down in Colorado must come back up. You do this several times on old wagon trails and single track trails until you get to Mosquito Pass 13,188 ft. It was 42 degrees when I was there, they had food and water and a medical person to see if you could remember who you were and why you were there. I told him all I wanted was to get back to where the oxygen was. He said I was fine and away I went back the way I had come up and over and over and over.

I finished without having to crawl any of it, it was my third time to run the Leadville Trail Marathon and I will be back next year. It is the most scenic trail run I have ever done, I may have to run it a dozen times to feel like I have seen it all.


We took off for Ft Worth on July 19th right after the Mohawk 5000. I wanted to run the El Scorcho 50k Midnight Run for my birthday party. El Scorcho was dreamed up by a couple of Marathon Maniacs I know, Ryan Valdez and Jason Constantino. It is ran in Trinity Park in downtown Ft. Worth. The race starts at midnight and you have until 7 am to finish, a 50k, over 31 miles in the heat of the night. They advertise it as "Dark, Steamy, Hot, and Sweaty. Takes a certain amount of fortitude, or stupidity."

You run ten 3.1 mile loops through the park for the 50k, or five loops for the 25k if you are not totally insane. Of course, I would never consider doing the shorter distance. I found myself in the porta-potty after the 5th loop with a very upset stomach. I will not go into detail except to say the contents of my stomach were getting out any way it could. After 18 minutes I exited the porta-potty hoping no one else would ever go in there. I kept telling myself, "I will not DNF, I will not DNF, I will not DNF". I ate a banana, drank some water, and took off down the dark, hot, steamy trail like the idiot that I am.

I did finish before the 7 hour cut off and I was not last. That is the only thing I can think of to brag about. I was very happy to have my wife there to drive me home while I slept like a baby. I will be back next year if for no other reason because it will be very easy for me to PR this race.

These were very different trail races in very different conditions. They both tested my grit and determination and for me that is what it is all about.

Johnny M Spriggs