It was a brutal battle between Blumberg and the high-altitude Leadville course, but it was mental warfare rather than physical.
Leadville is a small town in Colorado at about 3,100 metres elevation. At such an altitude, breathing can be difficult due to the lower concentration of oxygen in the air. Blumberg, an IT director, couldn’t afford the luxury of time to arrive at Leadville early to acclimate. So last year he bought an altitude tent to simulate the conditions and has been sleeping in it every night in his Mei Foo apartment.
Arriving two days before the race, just getting out of the car and unloading his luggage left him huffing and puffing. His race strategy was therefore to start really easy.
“Even when running on the flat sections, your heart rate is much higher than normal. You’re out of breath quicker. You basically have to pace yourself and go slower,” he says. “For many sections I walked or power-hiked so that I wouldn’t have a high heart rate and I would save energy. The first couple of hours were a bit rough, but after five to six hours it was a bit easier, so I could keep a pretty good effort up afterwards.