In this episode of Grit, Guts, and Determination, Race Founder Ken Chlouber shares what Leadville was like during the dark days of the mine. In the 80’s Ken worked in the mine when one day his boss called him in for a meeting. This was abnormal, Ken says “miners don’t have meetings.” His boss told him they were shutting down the mine and they needed to go home, it was a short meeting. He and the community lost not just their jobs, but also their identity that day, they were no longer hard rock miners. Ken needed a job, but he also recognized they needed to save the town. They needed to bring people to Leadville to spend money, and one of the best ways to do that was to get people to stay overnight.

That’s where the 100 mile race was born. They had no money, but the miners were out of work and came together volunteering to put the work together and other members of the community stepped up to help as well. Leadville found him, and Ken says it taught him he was better than he thought he was, he could do more than he thought he could. You just have to dig deep. Leadville shows people what they can do without limits.

They hit their target because the race brought economic survival to the community, but Ken says more importantly it’s changed lives.

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Learn more about the Leadville Race Series

The format differs as this is less of an interview and more of Ken offering a story.