Crest Trail Sans Bicycle

28 Weeks along and I'm starting to make peace with this pregnancy. Mostly because I'm not constantly nauseous anymore. I've come to accept that daily bouts of nausea and heartburn are tolerable after enduring five months of the more extreme variety.

Jon Kabat-Zinn writes:
There is an art to facing difficulties in ways that lead to effective solutions and to inner peace and harmony. When we are able to mobilize our inner resources to face our problems artfully, we find we are usually able to orient ourselves in such a way that we can use the pressure of the problem itself to propel us through it, just as the sailor can position a sail to make the best use of the pressure of the wind to propel the boat.

I learned early on that I couldn't head straight into the wind. As a result of hyperemesis gravidarum, I left my job, I handed over pet chores to my husband, and I sold my bike. Now, that I'm starting to feel human again, I feel way off course and am trying to make sense of that. Going back to where I was isn't an option and motherhood is less than three months away.

I never expected to be up on the Monarch Crest Trail without my bicycle. It seemed unnatural. We got up early and I dropped Anton and two of his friends off at the the top of Monarch Pass at 11,312 feet elevation, so that they could ride the trail and road back into town.


I went for a slow hike with Moby and I was exhausted but thoroughly glad to have gotten out of the house and into the mountains for the first time since March.

Anton van Leuken, Lance Armstrong Race Across The Sky

Anton van Leuken, Lance Armstrong and 818 other competitors rolled from the start at 6:30 am Saturday, August 9th for the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race. Although the paparazzi focused most of their attention on Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, and Dave Wiens, five time Leadville Trail 100 winner, several pictures of Anton hot on their heels just hours behind the lead pack made it into this blog...


It was cloudy and a brisk 48 degrees at the race start in Leadville, Colorado at 10,350 ft elevation. Dave Wiens, last year's race winner, is wearing lime green and black and has the race plate #1. Lance is wearing yellow and black with race plate #7. Anton is way back there somewhere.

Click Here to see video coverage of the race from VeloNews.tv.


Lance is all business pedaling through the Twin Lakes aid station at mile 60.


Anton is all smiles when he rolls into the Twin Lakes aid station--thinking yes, I've made is this far! They just finished climbing to and descending from the highest point, Columbine Mine, above treeline, at 12,600 ft.

Anton's pit crew; starring pregnant wife Amber, and friends Jackie and Tambi get to work refueling Anton. The cloud cover is ominous but welcomed, keeping temperatures in the 70's.

At the next aid station Anton and his boss Shawn roll through so fast we don't have time for pictures. This is Shawn's 13th year competing in the Leadville Trail 100! They are heading into rainy skies. The last 25 miles of the race ahead are grueling with a very long, steep climb up a powerline access road - where they met with a five minute hailstorm.

Andrew, Tambi and red Rollfast cruiser bike call it a day at the Pipeline aid station.

At Pipeline aid station, friend Andrew just misses the 75 mile cut-off time, and is unable to continue the race after making it 75 miles on his one speed cruiser bike, with a coaster brake - an amazing feat, and not a scratch on him! Andrew has raced the Leadville Trail 100 on his single speed mountain bike for several years and decided this year to up the challenge.

The official cut-off for the race finish in downtown Leadville is 6:30 pm, 12 hours after the start. The crowd waits with bated breath as the 12th hour approaches. Is Anton going to make it this year?

Anton arrives at 11 hours 36 minutes and the crowd goes wild!

(photo credit to Associated Press)

Anton finished a mere five hours behind race winner Dave Wiens and second place finisher Lance Armstrong. Dave and Lance both broke course records finishing 100 miles in 6 hours 45 minutes and 6 hours 47 minutes. Anton broke his personal record, taking an hour and 40 minutes off last year's race time, which was his first attempt, with an unofficial 13 hour, 15 minute finish time.

There's no yellow jersey to be won in this race. Instead, Anton wins a sporty red sweatshirt, medal and belt buckle for finishing under 12 hours--a feat accomplished by only 653 of the 818 racers. And he's still walking the next day and rode his cargo bike to the store for groceries.

Click Here to read the Associated Press article about this year's Leadville Trail 100 race.

Spot the rattlesnake in this picture

As i'm out taking care of our chickens, I nearly stepped on this little fellow. Barely a foot long. Note the chicken feather for scale. Maybe one or two little bumps on his rattle. I pushed him out of the way with a stick, and though his tail made a tiny little housefly-at-the-window sort of buzz, he didn't strike at the stick until I'd given him a few good shoves. Far enough away from the house that I wasn't too concerned.

Here he's heading away through the grass and pine needles:

The camera shutter noise gets his attention, and he turns around:

And he settles into the classic position, fixing me with a steady gaze and buzzing his tail. No, I didn't get in any closer. At this point I put down the camera, high centered him on the stick and carried him down to the edge of the property.