When ultrarunner Matt Carpenter set the course record in the Leadville 100 back in 2005, it wasn't by mere minutes. With a finish time of 15:42:59, he was the first runner since the race's inception in 1983 to complete the course in under 17 hours. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that he held onto his record for 19 years.
All that changed on Saturday when Boulder running coach David Roche, 36, donned his best trail running shoes and finally smashed the record, on his first 100-mile race no less, making it to the finish line of the legendary high altitude race in 15:26:34.
"Approaching my first 100 miler, though, I’m not sure I truly believed. I kept joking about where I’d drop out and what my order would be at the Leadville Taco Bell," writes Roche on Instagram of his attitude going into the race, which fell on his 10th wedding anniversary.
His wife Megan, also an ultra runner and his co-host on the Some Work, All Play podcast, was having none of it.
"She told me I was going to finish and I was going to make history. She believed so hard that the belief juice rubbed off on me."
Megan's belief was so strong that she reportedly refused to give him a running headlamp at the last aid station, telling him: “You’re finishing in sunlight.”
Though Roche describes breaking the record as a "big, scary goal" he set earlier this year, his plans came close to being derailed. Just four months ago, he was hit by a car while riding his bike. He was thrown 100 feet into a fence and suffered a concussion, a broken wrist and lacerations.
Coming back to competition, he tested the waters on July 7 with the Leadville Silver Rush 50 which he won with a comfortable 25-minute lead, despite having tested positive for COVID days before. At that time, the ultra runner says he was still undecided on whether or not to pursue the 100-mile course, an out-and-back race primarily on the Colorado Trail, starting at 10,200 feet that climbs up to Hope Pass at 12,620 feet twice.
In the women's race, winner Mary Denholm from Colorado may not have broken the record, but she set the second-fastest time in 18:23:51, coming closer than anyone ever has to Anne Trason's record of 18:06:24 set in 1994.
