With Thanksgiving around the corner, our focus is on family, so who better to bring onto the WASP than the creator of the Leadville family herself, Merilee Maupin? While Ken Chlouber and his rugged miner face and dressed in classic Western attire appears on the Leadville Race Series Web site and posters, Merilee, as co-founder with Ken, was the force behind creating the Leadville Family that gets runners and bikers returning to Leadville summer after summer. It is deeply heartfelt when she says Welcome Home to Leadville. And it’s the goal of every runner who starts the race to receive the coveted hug from Merilee upon crossing the finish line, metaphorically returning home. The founding of the Leadville Trail 100 is well-chronicled. The mine was closed and once-booming Leadville crashed, suddenly having the highest unemployment in the nation. Residents fled in droves. Ken had this crazy idea to save the town by staging a 100-mile race at 10,200-foot elevation. Not only did it stick, but it thrived and then grew into a series of running and biking races from 10K on up that is now owned by Life Time Fitness. In the early days, Merilee and Ken did almost everything themselves, including handwriting all of the race documents, and marking and picking up the course, a task that took several days.

I got to meet with Merilee at their office that you’ve probably passed many times on Leadville’s main drag and didn’t even realize was there. The old house’s interior is decorated with dozens of Ken’s hunting trophies as well as momentos of past races. I got to visit with Ken in the adjacent garage where he is restoring his gorgeous old Corvette and where his Harley resides. Even though Merilee co-founded the LT100 way back in 1983, she is still as fired up as ever about what the race and the Leadville Legacy Foundation do for the community, and its impact on every runner who challenges themself to cross the finish line. I think you will enjoy this chat with truly one of the pioneers of the sport, someone who is gracious and passionate, and is as tough as anyone in the tough town of Leadville.

Merilee Maupin
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Bill Stahl
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