Jenny Smith came from New Zealand to Western State College in Gunnison to run in 1999. They have a good program for cross country middle distance. She met her husband Brian in the winter of 1999 when she was struggling with running. She was 25 years old so she wasn’t a teenage college student.
She was training fast track winter collegiate indoor track and says it was awful. She injured her achilles tendon. She was trying to run fast in the snow. She met Ryan who suggested she try cycling. They went to Moab and she liked it.
Jenny works part time for United Airlines which is a small quiet airport. That leaves her time for training. She also coaches triathlon and cycling clients.
She’s competed in the Xterra Triathlon the last 5 years but is skipping it this year. Instead she’ll be racing her first Leadville 100 next weekend on the Alpine Orthopaedics team.
Jenny has ridden numerous parts of the course and has been training. She’s happy with the new race owners because there’s more press. There’s also a good women’s field this year. It’s cool to be a part of it. Previously the men were getting all the attention. When she was there training, she saw more people walking and riding mid-week than previous years. On a ride up Powerline she met people from all over the US and even from Europe.
Leadville isn’t a typical mountain bike cross country race. It’s more like marathon racing. It’s not the usual “crew” of people racing or the typical style of racing. One ride on Powerline was in the rain and she thinks it’s more difficult going down than going up! Jenny will be riding a 29er bike, the Breezer Cloud Nine for the course. She thinks the jeep road racing style of the Leadville 100 is more suited to the 29er wheels.
