Why I’m Never Riding Another Leadville 100 MTB

Written by:

Jim Rutberg

CTS Pro Endurance Coach

Updated On

August 12, 2025

I am never riding the Leadville 100 again.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Leadville. I’d recommend it to my friends, help them train for it, and I’m sure I’ll be back to crew for CTS Athletes and friends in the future. But 1,100 miles on that course, eleven times up Columbine and Powerline, is enough. The only reason I raced last weekend was because eleven years ago, when I earned my 1000-mile buckle, my then 7-year-old son asked to ride Leadville together when he turned 18, the first year he’d be eligible to compete. And well… Oliver got an entry through the 2025 U23 Lifetime Gran Prix and a father has to keep his word, right?

There are a lot of words being written about Leadville experiences this week. Most will focus on the big struggles and small triumphs that punctuate each rider’s journey. They’ll detail their race-day setups and pacing strategies, describe how great or disastrous their fueling plan was, and probably complain about the hazards of two-way traffic (seems to be a theme this year…). The benefit of experience and a mostly unchanged course was that I didn’t really need to think about any of that. Rather, revisiting the course led me to reflect on the journey I’ve been on since I first rode it in 2005, the different versions of myself that stood on the start line through the years, and who I’d become since the last time I finished.

Results Tell Your Story

If you do something long enough and consistently enough, your results can create or reflect your narrative. The graph below shows the progression of my finishing times. I’m proud to say I finished every Leadville 100 I started. The first two years were a steep learning curve, and the race was a lot different back then. There were only about 800 riders, no fanfare, primitive aid stations, and very little information for newcomers. It felt almost dangerously remote out there, but I gradually got a little faster.

My third year was my fastest finish, the only year I went under nine hours and earned a big belt buckle. The effort to go 30-ish minutes faster than the year before felt exponentially harder.

Smiling at the 2007 finish, my only sub-9 hour Leadville 100 finish.

The next three years were considerably slower. My oldest son, Oliver, was born a few months after the 2006 Leadville 100, but my life changed more substantially after the birth of my second son, Elliot, in May 2008. I was also writing and publishing (and living) “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” book in 2008-2009. My story in those years was similar to what many working parents experience, a necessary shift in priorities that favors career and family over training.

When I try to recall the period from 2011 through 2013, mostly I remember the stress. I was trying to live up to an ideal I’d created in my head that didn’t match the reality of my circumstances. Of course, I only understand that now with the benefit of hindsight, sobriety, and therapy. Nevertheless, I guess I managed to train enough, or ride with enough rage, to chip away at my Leadville times.

On the way to my 10th finish in 2014.

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In 2014, I just wanted to finish so I could earn my 1000-mile buckle and move on. I wasn’t focused on finishing time. By that point, Lifetime had purchased the event, participation numbers had exploded, and it felt like a circus. I secretly wondered if going for #10 would rekindle my desire to keep the streak alive, but at each milestone during the race my recurring thought was, “Thank God, this is the last time I have to ride this section.”

Which brings us to 2025. A lot happened in 11 years. I got divorced, quit drinking, and became a better father. There was a pandemic, I got kind of fat and then kind of skinny, rode too little and then probably rode too much. My training for the 2025 Leadville 100 went well, my fitness was good, but I couldn’t rekindle the competitive drive that used to push me to go faster. So, I rode Leadville rather than raced it, tried to help my fellow riders with a draft or a gel or word of encouragement, and made my way to a perfect ending… crossing the finish line with Oliver.

Perfect ending.

Athlete identity changes over time

I’ve written about athlete identity for a long time. It’s part of the reason we refer to everyone who works with CTS as an athlete. The whole premise behind “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” and “The Time-Crunched Triathlete” books was to keep people engaged in training and connected to their athlete identity despite having limited training time. One of the best aspects of endurance sports is how our goals, training activities, and level of engagement can evolve through different phases of life. I’m not the road racer I was in my 20s or the mountain bike racer I was in my 30s anymore. And that’s okay. I still love to train and push myself by riding in beautiful and challenging places.

My journey through eleven Leadvilles follows a pattern we see with a lot of athletes. Your goals and the amount of time and attention you can direct to training changes over time. The role of sport and training in your life evolves for a lot reasons, including relationships, career changes, changes in your risk tolerance or desire to stick to a structured interval plan. Some people shift disciplines or, more recently, expand their horizons to incorporate multiple disciplines (e.g., road, mtb, and gravel events in the same season). Others leave endurance sports for other pursuits and interests for a while. Don’t worry, endurance sports will always welcome you back.

My Takeaway from 11 Leadville 100s

My advice is not that you necessarily find one epic event and keep returning to it year after year. More power to the folks who do, including the two guys who have ridden all 32 editions of the Leadville 100. From my experience as a coach, athlete, and parent, my advice is to keep a close eye on your motivations and values so you can always align your training and event focus with something meaningful and fulfilling. Sometimes that might be competing to win championships, other times it could be competing against yourself or exploring new areas of this wide world. For me, the ability to ride and hike with my boys supplanted competition goals a long time ago and riding across the Leadville 100 finish line with Oliver meant more to me than any finishing time. I’m never riding the Leadville 100 again, not because I don’t like Leadville, but because there are so many other roads and trails and states and countries to explore!