Leadville brought out a parade of friends, friends of mine and friends of water, starting with bumping into an ultrarunner friend and his dog at the top of Independence Pass. Then I went out to dinner with friends Joe and Hannah Lugiano here to run the Leadville 100, had friends show up along the run route to find me, had a friend from the Coastal Challenge (Elise Harrington) who biked all night with Team Silver, and on it went. The BPR runners were thrilled to have numerous guest runners connected with Water for People, many of whom were hydrogeologists from the Denver area. Three young men made a contribution to BPR to become guest runners with Team Green. One of them appeared with us on NBC Channel 9 News out of Denver. The station came out on today's run to film us.

At one exchange point in front of a private residence, a Native American woman named Casius appeared on the other side of her fence with a giant glass of frosty water. "Please," she said, "drink of this wonderful cold water from my well. It's safe." She had seen our van pull up with the BPR logo and came out to see if we were the Blue Planet Run she had read about in National Geographic. When we confirmed that we were, she went into her house and returned with a copy of the route map which we then autographed for her. We drank her water and it was fresh, safe and delicious.

Leadville is one of the highest towns in the country with an elevation of 10,200'. It grew up as a mining town and became a Superfund site. Old mines and tailings surround the town and define its immediate topography. The tailings are a major contributor to stream pollution. High above the town stand two of Colorado's highest 14,000 footers, Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert. The town is quaint and a mix of small updated Victorians contrasted with its share of impoverished neighborhoods. Its economy now relies on tourism and events like the 100 mile mountain bike ride and the endurance run. Nearby are scenic spots like Turquoise Lake and oodles of venues for fishing, hunting, climbing, hiking and a myriad of other outdoor activities. Leadville's winters are bitter and difficult. The Leadville 100 Endurance Run takes place this weekend with 650 runners entered so that the town is filling up with ultrarunners, their families and supporters.

Interestingly, as reported to me by a reader of this blog (Chris Ortloff), Leadville had the first dial phones installed in the United States, "...strange, that a tiny tiny town would have a cutting edge innovation." Apparently this was because larger places had already made a significant investment in the older phone technologies. The Town of Leadville still strikes one as a part of the past making facts like these incompatible.

Laura and I split up the middle two sections of our run shift alternating running 5 miles each for 20 miles from Leadville down to Camp Hale. This helped with the altitude to which none of us was accustomed and the wear and tear from the hills. We were essentially on our ninth day of 9 consecutive days without a real day off. Hills can beat you up whether you run up them or down. The uphills at altitude are tough because you become oxygen-starved which affects the workings of your muscles, ultimately your legs deaden and your stride becomes a plod. The downhills simply beat you up if you don't use a hold-back technique. I use the Dean Karnazes technique of running the downhills. He taught me to use short, quick steps and tip further forward when I ran with him in Stowe during his nationwide running of 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states last year. It's not fast but it saves the legs from the pounding.

I was thrilled to run the last five miles into Camp Hale where the 10th Mountain Division began. I crossed the exchange finish line to Pink Floyd exalting my Mad River Glen "Ski it If You Can" sticker on my BPR water bottle. Through Mad River and my stint as Executive Director of the Vermont Ski Museum I have known many men who were part of the Division, including founders of major ski areas in Vermont like Mad River Glen and Stowe. They have been honored in Vermont for their amazing feats during World War II. The Vermont Ski Museum has them honored in its Hall of Fame. It is humbling to be where they trained. The highway down from Leadville is named after and dedicated to the members of the 10th Mountain Division.

There was an exchange in Vail as the Blue Team started running towards Denver. The teams will negotiate Eisenhower Pass and arrive for a big event downtown in the morning. Green Team is staying in Golden where my niece lives. I had dinner with her. We will attend the event in Denver tomorrow and then move towards Kansas with a day off before we start running the 3pm to 9pm shift. The news has been all about the heat in the Plains where we are headed and the violent rain, thunder and lightning storms in the Rockies. This area has had much more rain than is normal for this time of year such that the fire danger is down and the waterways are up. We experienced one of those violent storms driving into Denver, with torrential, soaking rains. As a result, the water availability issue is not as crucial here in Colorado as usual.

I hope to see many more of my personal friends and water friends as we continue our journey, just 21 days left, as I sadly leave one very special friend behind.

Water is life. Pass it on!