Ian Sharman wins trail race for fourth time

LEADVILLE» Throwing up during the middle of a 100mile race is, as you might imagine, not entirely uncommon.

But for 36-year-old Ian Sharman of Bend, Ore., it had happened only one other time in a running career that has lasted more than a decade and included dozens of ultramarathons. On Saturday during the 35th Leadville 100 trail run, with about 20 miles to go in the race (and aided by a can of ginger ale), it happened again.

But by then, at mile 80 during the climb up the Powerline portion of the course, Sharman was so far ahead of second place that throwing up wasn’t going to stop him. In fact, he felt better afterward.

“I knew I had a big lead by then, because my pacer was checking on his phone — every time he got reception, he could check to see where people were. So it’s kind of useful,” Sharman said. “But you never know if they miss someone, so I had to assume the worst: that someone was right behind me.”

Sharman won his fourth — and third straight — Leadville 100 in 17 hours, 34 minutes, 51 seconds with a relentless focus on hitting consistent splits. He called this the hardest of his four victories.

“I was a little tired from the rest of the season,” said Sharman, who finished seventh in the Western States 100 two months ago in California and a downhill run that dropped 5,000 feet — the kind of effort that typically trashes an athlete’s legs.

Sharman has been a mainstay at this event for five years. To date, his only loss has come to Rob Krar in 2014, when he finished third.

“I kept telling myself when I was struggling today — and I had so many more low points than normal — that if I don’t start thinking better, I’m going to just walk it in for the next 10 hours. Overcoming those at the time isn’t as fulfilling, but you have to tell yourself the next day, the next month and the next year it’s going to mean a lot.

“This is going to mean more than the other ones because I had to overcome more.”

Sharman never seems to show any worry when he’s behind, sticking with a metronome-like pace. It may not be flashy, but it’s consistent — and it’s earned him four wins.

“The whole point over 100 miles is how you can avoid slowing down,” Sharman said. “It doesn’t matter what your top speed is. It doesn’t matter what you do in the first half. I just try to get into a good pace and not be too tired at halfway.”

American Devon Yanko of San Anselmo, Calif., running her first Leadville, won on the women’s side, finishing in 20:46:29.

“I’ve been running ultras for 11 years, and it’s basically been on my bucket list for a very long time,” said Yanko, who owns a bakery.

Sharman said he would not be returning next year, hoping instead to run the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc ultramarathon in the Alps to gain a qualifier for the Hardrock 100, the brutal 100-mile run that takes place annually in the San Juan Mountains (Leadville is not a qualifier for Hardrock). But Sharman said he absolutely planned to return to Leadville to go for a fifth title.

“It’s a big-ticket race,” Sharman said of the Leadville 100, “and this year we didn’t have quite the depth of competition we’ve had in some years, but there’s no easy 100-milers. This totally proved it to me.”