Becoming the Mountain Woman; The First and Sole Female Finisher of the Mountain Man Invitational.
On July 16, 2023, Kathy Duryea piles Vaseline on her face, the only portion of skin left uncovered by a thick neoprene wetsuit in order to avoid direct contact with the frigid temperatures of Twin Lakes. She is preparing to start 2.4-mile swim, the first and coldest leg of the Mountain Man Invitational, located just outside of Leadville, Colorado.
Kathy Duryea, of Grapevine, Texas, is no stranger to long swims and your typical pre-race jitters. In fact she has 44-years of competitive endurance racing, boasting dozens of podium finishes in World Championship triathlons, Iron Man’s, and off-road Xterra triathlons. But even for Duryea the MMI finisher medal, or in this case a belt buckle, is an above the fireplace worthy achievement. A true test of grit.
“I can if others think I can’t.” Duryea’s self acclaimed mantra has guided her competitive racing career, setting her sights on new epic challenges that can hopefully inspire not only herself to keep training, but also those around her to tackle their own personal goals and challenges.
Journey to the Top
When MMI race founder and finisher, Sam Piccolotti was introduced to Duryea earlier that year, it was an obvious choice that she would be the perfect fit for the event. With only six months to race day, training becomes a very real and immediate challenge. Duryea is no stranger to the distances of the MMI but the location of the race in the nations highest city, Leadville, CO, puts forth an entire new playing field — a field located above 10,000 feet in elevation.
Unlike some other events, there is no multi-week training guide for the MMI. The altitude presents many new challenges that just aren’t present in majority of endurance racing. Weather can change in an instant, bringing storms and temperatures far below what one would expect for mid July, Twin-Lakes is filled with snow melt from surrounding peaks and rarely gets above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and health dangers like pulmonary edema from sustained exertion at high altitudes are common.
“The swim was the event I feared the most in this race, 2.4-miles in a high alpine lake was something I had never attempted. Not knowing how my body would react was frightening, for this reason, I had accepted the challenge in the first place.”
Six weeks prior to the race, fueled by apprehension, Duryea, her wife Johnann, and two dogs made the journey from Texas, to Salida, Colorado. There Duryea began increasing her exposure time to cold water, from quick dips in the Arkansas River, to 30-minute practice swims in Twin Lakes.
Time To Go
Early week weather had forecasted rain on race day, but as the sun began to rise on July, 16, Duryea and a crew of volunteers on the shore of Twin Lakes, were met by clear and sunny skies. A promising sight that was just enough to offset the weariness of entering the 55 degree water. After a 50-yard warmup swim, race founder Sam Piccolotti, shared a few final words of motivation with Duryea before setting off with an official start time of 8:00 A.M.
Joined by the company of two volunteers atop paddle boards carrying Duryea’s hydration and nutrition supplements, she made ease of the first out-and-back lap. The swim course was modified from the original that was made in 2020, Piccolotti’s battle with hypothermia encouraged a course that more closely follows the shoreline being that athletes can be easily removed from the water at any point during the swim.
Stopping every 20, minutes to consume 12oz of nutrition she was able to quickly advance through the swim. Exiting the water just over an hour after beginning, Duryea had beat her estimated time by nearly 20 minutes. Her apprehension of the swim, while well warranted, was quickly diminished as she eagerly transitioned to set out for the 100-mile bike.
With about twenty miles to go, the effects of Duryea’s sickness peaked, expelling everything she was able to consume. Continuing on, she stopped every few miles overwhelmed with the effects of nausea. Her rapid pace in the first half of the bike still allowed her to reach the finish of the bike at the Twin Lakes transition area before sunset. Depleted of any nutrition she was determined start the marathon, in the hopes she would be able to consume much needed calories and hydration some where along the way.
A Long Day, and a Longer Night
The MMI run presents athletes with a number of challenges, beyond the rigor of a trail marathon, the overall distance of the event means that the majority of the run is completed overnight. Duryea’s biggest concern lied not within the darkness or the distance of the run, but with the quickly compounding effects of depletion set forth by her sickness on the later half of the bike.
As the sun set, Duryea was joined by her pacer Monica Deemie to carry all items she may need and help her to stay on pace to finish by her projected time. The first seven-miles of the run follows the Interlocken trail, on the south beach of Twin Lakes, and is the courses most remote section, with no access to vehicle aid there is minimal crew and no options for a quick extraction.
Intermitted walking and jogging soon regressed to stumbling, and within just 5-miles of the run Duryea was no longer able to stand without the support of Deemie. Luckily a few miles prior, support crew were able to take notice of her depleting condition and call for support to meet Duryea on the trail. By the time race founder Sam Piccolotti arrived, Duryea was wrapped in emergency blankets illuminated by gathering volunteers headlamps. Her sickness on the bike had left her severely depleted and dehydrated unable to make any forward progress.
“I needed to stop and lay down. I’m foggy on what happened here, but Monica called the race director or other support crew members,
because soon, I had about 10 volunteers huddled around me covering me in blankets, supporting my back, placing a pad under me, spoon feeding me chicken broth, water and
dipping my finger in Liquid IV to place between my gums. I shivered, then I got warm, then I shivered some more, and then I got warm. Eventually I dosed off.”Kathy Duryea; Accounts the events leading to her challenges just a few miles into the Run of the Mountain Man Invitational.
After nearly two hours, in the middle of the night, Duryea’s silence was broken. “I have to pee.” An otherwise un-noteworthy statement was rejoiced by the crew, as it meant that she may be finally overcoming the dehydration that first began hours ago. For Duryea, her ability to finally stand up meant that she was going to be able to continue. Supported by volunteers she was able to make the two-mile trek out of the woods to the Willis Gulch Trailhead where she could warm up, rest and continue to hydrate.
At this point it was the consensus of most of the crew that Duryea would not be continuing on to finish her attempt. Piccolotti asked her where she had planned on spending the night, sharing the thought that she may have reached the end of her effort, Duryea replied, “Well when I finish, we plan to drive home” as she shared later on “That was always the plan.” After a few hours of on and off sleep she woke at 5 A.M. Determined to finish the remaining twenty miles, joined by pacers, Piccolotti and Deemie, the three continue around Twin Lakes headed to the finish.
The sun rising on surrounding peaks provided Duryea with the energy to continue towards the transition area, from there she could refuel and start on the second lap to finish the remaining eleven miles.
Those last eleven miles by Duryeas, account were not very eventful but she kept on a steady pace, running downhill and walking up them. “I have always heard you can do anything for one more step, one more minute, one more mile.”
Twenty-seven hours on the course, and nearly 140-miles of terrain, she would enter the campsites on the shore of Twin Lakes for the last time, becoming the first female and fastest finisher of the Mountain Man Invitational.
“This race was everything I had hoped it would be. Epic enough to lure me in, challenging
enough to require growth through pain, and exhausting enough to allow pause and
reflection.”Kathy Duryea speaking on the Mountain Man Invitational.
Duryea became the first to receive a Mountain Man finisher belt buckle, but left with much more. The completion of six months of dedicated training, resulted in a once in a lifetime experience. A group of just twenty five, including athletes, friends, family and volunteers, came together in pursuit of getting Duryea across the finish line. Just 30-hours earlier this group was comprised of complete strangers but leaving that weekend in Leadville as a part of a truly incredible event, a community that is solely unique to those involved with the Mountain Man Invitational. An experience hard to come by and not easily found in other endurance events.