The “Race Across the Sky” was first held in 1983 in Leadville, Colorado and was created by a local miner who wanted to bring attention to the town of Leadville after the closure of the Climax Mine. A group of 45 tough-minded runners braved 100 miles of high-altitude, extreme Rocky Mountain terrain — starting at 10,200 feet, climbing to 12,600 feet and running into global endurance history.
Forty years later, Brown County resident Reid Longabaugh took part in his second consecutive Leadville Trail 100, competing the 100-mile race on Aug. 19 in a time of 28 hours and 48 minutes.
Longabaugh, a former Brownwood High School and Howard Payne University soccer standout, is now 26 years old and works for the Texas Department of Transportation.
“People are surprised by this, but I only run about 40 miles a week,” Longabaugh said regarding the preparation required for a 100-mile race. “I don’t run a crazy amount of miles, but my Saturday long run is probably 20 to 30 miles. I don’t run that many miles during the week, but I do a lot of strength training in the gym to prepare all the little bitty muscles for the beating. It’s more about consistency. It’s your day-in, day-out training, your nutrition, your intake on food.”
Longabaugh was introduced to extreme distance running by former Lion and Yellow Jacket teammate, and current Brownwood High School boys soccer head coach, Michael Westerman.
“I started out with a 60K (just over 37 miles),” Longabaugh said. “Michael told me he wasn’t really into running marathons but asked if I wanted to run a 50K or 60K on trail. We thought it’d be an adventure to go do that, and we’ve done a few of those together and enjoyed it. He’s gotten busy at the high school but I continued to keep growing and trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and ended up on these 100 milers.”
Longabaugh entered the 2022 Leadville Trail 100 through a lottery, but qualified this year due to charity work.
“I got in last year through the lottery for people who put their name in the hat to get into the race,” Longabaugh said. “This year I didn’t get into the lottery so we picked a charity and got a slot that way, and chose the Leadville Trail 100 Legacy Foundation. They provide a $2,000 scholarship to every single high schooler in that county. I fund raised for a certain amount of money to be able to come and race and was able to help out a high schooler to further their education, which is pretty cool.”
Now that Longabaugh has acquired the extreme distance running itch, he sees even longer races potentially in his future.
“I’ve been doing it for about 2 1/2 years now, running consistently, and it may continue from there because I know they have 200 and 250 mile races,” Longabaugh said. “It’s become a lifestyle. These long races bring something out of you that changes you mentality. It shows you that though your body might be done physically a long, long time ago, mentally I’m still able to do this. And you can apply that to anything in your life from work to raising a child.”
Longabaugh and his wife, Brooklyn, have a 6-month-old son, Finnian.
Longabaugh detailed his Leadville Trail 100 journey in a recent Facebook post, which is as follows:
Wow what an incredible, painful and rewarding experience it was to race the Leadville Trail 100 again. The day started off good as I made my way to May Queen at 12.6 miles then it started to heat up by Outward Bound at 23.5 my stomach was starting to go and was struggling to eat as much as I needed but I rallied to make it to Twin Lakes at 37.9 and saw everyone which would surly give me a boost. After I made it to Twin Lakes I had to take on hopes pass twice which is a 22 miles out and back that has around 6,000-7,000 feet of elevation gain and tops out at 12,600 feet. Funny enough my stomach had started to come back the first time I was going up and I felt good but that didn’t last long as by the time I made it up and over and going down into Winfield at mile 50 I had become dehydrated and got held at the aid station for 30 minutes to catch up on water and food intake. This would prove valuable as I made my way back to twin lakes as it helped me get over the pass a second time and I made it back to twin lakes picked up my first pacer Jeff at 62.5. After spending 10 minutes in Twin Lakes to change and eat some food we climbed our way out of Twin Lakes and made our way to outward bound at 76.9. In between Twin Lakes and Outward me and Jeff would have may conversations and laugh at what the hell I was doing but then realizing that there were other people out here suffering just as much. We eventually made it to outward where would see everyone again I would need this boost of seeing everyone as the next section back to May Queen would see me and Jeff climb over 1,700 feet to the top of Sugarloaf and top out 11,100 feet elevation at around 80 miles in. This climb was tough but we persevered and kept moving our way to May Queen eventually arriving and with just 12.6 miles left to the finish. This capped off Jeff’s 25 mile pacing duty and I would pick up Brenden to get me to the finish. We started off good and we’re moving relatively quickly around turquoise lake. This slowed a little the further we went but I knew we were getting close to finishing this thing. We had some very emotional conversations and talk about family and crew and why we do these things. At this point in the race I was fighting all the pain and just to have some there to talk to and remind you to eat and drink is all you ever need. As we approach the final quarter mile I could see the finish line and everyone jointed me and I pick up my 6 month old son Finnian and we crossed the finish line all together in 28:48!