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Lawrence Woman Excels at 100-Mile Runs

Leadville, an old Colorado mining town in the mountains southwest of Denver, is a tough place in the best of times to run 100 miles.

Leadville is the highest city in North America, at an elevation of 10,152 feet, and its annual 100-mile race along the Colorado Trail appeals to only the hardiest of runners.

Marge Hickman was there in August 1995, among 325 people waiting in the darkness with flashlights for the 4 a.m. start, and it was a far cry from the best of times.

"It was raining and cold, the trails were very muddy and the streams were full," is how she remembers it.

The race results describe the day more graphically: "Runners were greeted at sunrise with hard rain, driving winds and a falling temperature. Late snows that refused to go away and constant summer rains had already saturated the ground."

After running about 40 miles, she came to a river.

"They had to put a rope across the river so people could get across," Hickman, now of Lawrence, Kan., said. "The water was above my waist, and I just couldn't hold on to that rope, so a guy in a wetsuit grabbed me and pulled me over."

Then came another challenge, crossing Hope Pass at 12,600 feet, and then on to the turnaround point in a small ghost town called Winfield.

"That's 50 miles and there's a great aid station with lots of food and massage," she said. "A lot of people sit down there and decide they've had enough."

The race follows an out-and-back course, so then it was back up the pass again, across the river, and another 40 miles back to the finish on a red carpet in Leadville.

Hickman completed the race in 23 hours, 44 minutes, 10th overall, the second woman and one of just 130 experienced ultramarathon runners who made it within the 30-hour time limit.

"It was tough," she recalled during a recent 10-mile training run on the Kansas River trails in Lawrence. "It felt more like a major accomplishment. It was certainly one of the more memorable runs that everybody talks about."

She has entered the Leadville race every year since 1984 and in 1996 received a 1,000-mile gold buckle as the first -- and only -- woman to finish the race 10 times.

"That is literally the pinnacle," said Eric Steele, president of the Wichita-based Kansas Ultrarunning Society. "The bottom line is that's one of the toughest trail 100s in existence. After attempting Leadville twice and being defeated both times, I can speak from the heart."

Hickman, a native of Pittsburgh, took a vacation in Colorado in 1972, liked what she found, and promptly moved to Denver. She lived there from 1972 to 1995, working as a legal secretary and paralegal.

She wasn't an athlete as a youngster, but in Colorado she took up racquetball for several years, then turned to running. Her first race was the famous Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco, then she ran 3:26 in a marathon in Denver in 1983, finishing third in her first attempt at the distance.

"I was hooked on running," she said. "I was so excited, that I kept training," she said.

She tried to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon in 1984, the first year it was a women's Olympic event, but her best of 2:56 missed the qualifying time by several minutes.

She then ran a 50-mile race near Denver, won that, and became a committed ultramarathon runner.

Later that year she ran marathons on three straight weekends, then ran the Leadville 100-miler in only its second year of existence and finished second.

"My Dad passed away unexpectedly in 1984, and I said I'd win Leadville for him," she said. She returned to Leadville in 1985 and won and has run it every year since then, finishing second four times.

Since then she has run about 50 marathons and close to 50 100-mile races. And at age 48, she finds herself getting better every year.

Hickman was the masters (over 40) winner in the Rocky Raccoon 100-mile trail race in Huntsville, Texas, in February in a personal best time of 20:10, won the 42-mile Brew-to-Brew Race from Kansas City to Lawrence in March, and in April was the women's winner in the Umstead Endurance Run in North Carolina in a course-record 20:17 for 100 miles.

Nationally, she probably ranks among the top 10 masters women, said Fred Pilon, publisher of UltraRunning Magazine in Otis, Mass.

Ultrarunning -- involving races longer than the 26.2-mile marathon -- is growing in popularity. Pilon estimates there are about 8,000 to 9,000 ultrarunners in North America and about 350 races each year.

"It takes a while to get into the sport," Pilon said, but he estimates that the number of ultrarunners is growing about 10 percent a year.

Hickman has lived in Lawrence since 1995 and is married to Michael Hickman, also an ultrarunner, whom she met at a race several years ago.

She says nonrunners have a common reaction when they learn how she spends her time.

"First they say `You're crazy,' or they ask me if it's a bike race," she said. "And they'll say they don't even like to drive 100 miles."

But, she says, every race is a new experience, and every experience is different.

"I love meeting new people and seeing old friends," she said. "I love being in the mountains on the trails. The camaraderie is great, and the scenery is wonderful."