By Jeff Dick

After winning his fourth consecutive Leadville Trail 100 "Race Across the Sky" Saturday, Steve Peterson had a curious wish. He wanted to go camping.

"I wish we had a week together to tell each other our own stories about the race because mine is only one of hundreds out there," Peterson said after accepting the LT 100 champion's ore cart trophy.

Peterson, 38, was not lying or exaggerating. From Jason Fiscus of Bicknell, Utah, who ran in sandals and a skirt ("to cut down on chafing") to the mud-covered Ed Williams of Cape Girardeau, Mo., who became the first 70-year-old to complete the grueling course, there was a story for every runner who left Leadville at 4 a.m. August 21.

For the hundreds gathered at the finish line Sunday morning, the anonymous stories seemed more compelling the closer they were to 10 a.m., 30-hour cutoff Sunday morning. Athletes who could barely stand 10 miles before, suddenly found the energy to pick up their son or daughter and trot across the finish. Some joined hands with their crew and pacers to form a ten-person line which stretched across W. 6th St. Others simply crossed the line, took their medal and hug from race director Merillee O'Neal and collapsed on the curb in tears.

There was the woman screaming in the darkness, upset at herself, because she had put the wrong bladder in her husband's Camelbak. Another who had left a pair of shoes at a previous aid station.

"(This race) is about whatever each one of us was up against and how we dealt with it in the last 30 hours," said Peterson who was also sixth in the Western States 100-miler in June.

Peterson, however, did not have to deal with the 10,000+ feet of altitude, the 15,000 feet of elevation change, the intermittent thunderstorms, or the self doubt quite as long the rest of the field. He finished the out-and-back route in 18 hours, 47 minutes and 31 seconds to keep his four-year string alive.

It was not his fastest effort, but Peterson thought it might have been his greatest competitive challenge of the quartet because of Jay Pozner of Frisco, Colo. Pozner, running in his first 100-miler, stayed within 30 minutes of Peterson the last 50 miles of the race where others had faded in the past.

"Jay was like a fire on my ass the whole way," said Peterson. "There were definitely times I would have backed off, but he wouldn't let me."

Pozner, cheered home by a throng of his crazed Outward Bound co-workers, finished in 19:22:09. Women's champion Amanda McIntosh of San Antonio, Texas also had a flame burning in her rear view mirror in the faces of Stephanie Ehret of Boulder, Colo. and Valerie Caldwell of Sandia Park, NM. Caldwell was leading by approximately ten minutes at the 60-mile mark with McIntosh and Ehret in pursuit. As darkness descended over Sugarloaf Mountain, McIntosh took the lead and held off Ehret up the final muddy three miles back to Leadville.

McIntosh, 34, finished in 22:05:22, Ehret was second in 22:17:02, followed by Caldwell in 23:00:00.

By the numbers, 53 percent (209) of the 398 starters finished under 30-hours and earned a silver LT 100 finishers' belt buckle. Fifty runners were under the 25-hour mark and earned a gold buckle. There were eight iron horses who recovered in less than a week to complete both the Aug. 14 LT 100 Mtn. Bike Race and the run. The fastest of those was Leadville's Scott Hirst, 38, who backed up his sub-nine-hour bike ride with an eighth place finish in the run (21:35:40).

Hirst had only trained in Leadville for six weeks before the race, having worked in Belgium as a computer consultant for the previous year. Now the training and preparation and accomplishment of the Leadville Trail 100 is over for another year.

"Monday morning, I have to decide how to make some money," Hirst said.

Similarly, instead of going camping, Steve Peterson squeezed his lanky 6-4 frame into his car and drove back to Boulder and his house cleaning business.

"I'll be back next year," said Peterson.

So will 400 others, each with a story.

Click here to read the Race Preview.