We loved the Leadville Boom Days Burro Races!

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 6, 2023

When we were looking for festivals to attend this summer, Denisa was ready to plan the entire season around this one. We were lucky to see that Leadville Boom Days was right in the middle of our planned stay just thirty miles away from our campground. So it was on our calendar from the beginning, and we planned to take in a whole day of activities. We drove to Leadville early, because we wanted to be in place for the beginning of our favorite event--the burro race. Just like in all major sporting events, the television cameras were out early. They were filming top athletes and interviewing them about their race strategy.

The streets of Leadville were lined with people that had driven from afar to witness the beginning of the race.

One of the main fundraisers of the day involved spectators paying to make their guess of when the winning burro would cross the finish line. While we're not usually gamblers, we made our donation. Denisa guessed that the winner would arrive in 3 hours, 58 minutes, and 20 seconds. If she was right, she would win $800.

At precisely 10:00, the gun sounded and the race began. Several of the burros were skittish with that gunshot, and the entire street came to life with racers and burros. Remember the faces of the runners and their burros at the front of the pack, because we would see them again.

This year's race included almost 100 burros. While you might assume that the burros would be ridden, that's not the case at all. This is a historical race that recreates the miners that flocked to Leadville in the 1800s with the discovery of precious metals in these mountains. The burro was used to carry the pack with the mining supplies needed. So each burro must carry a shovel, a pick, and a gold pan in their regulation pack. The runner must stay attached to the burro's rope, but never rides the animal.

They have two race courses in Leadville, and we studied the routes they would run. The long race is in red in the map below, and is 22 miles in length. It goes all the way up to Mosquito Pass at 13,150 feet in elevation, and then back down. The group that left at 10:00 was running that course. The short course racers left at 10:15, and their 15-mile blue loop will not include Mosquito Pass.

As hikers, we look at the elevation gain on trails so we have a good understanding of what the elevation charts feel like. The long race has an elevation gain of 3,977 feet, while the short race will gain 2,458 feet. Those are both monumental hikes on any day. But to try to run it as fast as possible towing a burro is crazy!

A crowd favorite was a racer that sports a long white beard. We were told that he is more than 70 years old, and his burro is also a senior citizen at 29 years. They weren't the fastest duo, but both would finish the long course today.

Because we have experience at following our son on his half-marathon races, we knew that we could see the race from more than one perspective. So we ran a few blocks from the crowded main street to see the racers as they curved around in another section of town.

From our new viewpoint, we had a great view of Massive Mountain on the outskirts of Leadville.

We watched as the leaders in the short-race sprinted by us. You will see those runners again in this blog.

The longer we watched, the slower was the racers' pace that passed by us. We heard that the racers could be divided into three groups--the runners, the joggers, and the walkers.

They were less than a mile into the race, and this burro was already refusing to move. We watched as racer #48 tried everything to get this stubborn burro to go forward. It's going to be a long race for both of them.

After the burros were out of town, Boom Days hosted competitions to keep the crowds busy. One was the miners' drilling competition. A team of three miners must drill three straight dynamite holes inside a small square. The drilling has to be perfectly straight, to avoid running into the other holes. Considering that each hole is about twelve inches into solid granite, it's a tough task.

Back on Harrison Street, we watched "the mosey." Some people had worked on their period costumes for a year, waiting to mosey down the street and convince the judges that they were the best dressed.

Meanwhile, we saw that #48 had returned to the starting line. The cameras were recording her disheartening comments about her unsuccessful attempt at getting a stubborn burro to race 15 miles. The top contenders will bring their own burros that they train with regularly. But many of the visiting runners will rent a burro that they met the day of the race. We're guessing that she was not happy with her rental burro on this unusual blind date.

Another group was readying for a competition, and it looked they were starting it with a prayer. They were down on their knees with bowed heads.

But they were actually preparing for the pie eating contest. They each had a piece of peach pie covered in whipped cream on the table in front of them. The first one to lick the table cloth clean was the winner. Looking at all those hungry men poised and ready to eat, we were surprised that a skinny woman was the winner.

We watched the egg toss contest as the long line of couples threw raw eggs between them. It was a good thing that the water balloon contest was next to splash all those broken eggs (and burro poop) from Harrison Street.

We were at the finish line as the first of the short racers appeared. You should recognize these two young men as two of the leaders at the beginning of the race. They ran those 15 miles, and their burros were just a couple feet apart at the end of the race. 

It doesn't matter when the human crosses the finish line. The timer doesn't stop until the burro crosses the line. It turned out to be a photo finish as these two young guys and their burros were sprinting at the end. (We would later find out that these two burros were owned by the family of the boy in second place. He let his friend have the faster burro for the race in Leadville today. The two friends had a good race!)

Another fun finish was the father who picked up his baby girl for the final block of the race.

She was hanging on to the rope as their burro approached the line.

We have learned that burros like to run in packs. These two burros and their two runners train together and keep each other motivated.

While we usually saw runners leading their burros, occasionally the burros led the way.

We often saw that there were embraces after the finish line. The runners were either loving their racing burros, or hating them by the end of the race.

Some burros freak out when they see the mob of cheering fans. That might mean they run faster, or they stop completely. Some have a hard time crossing things--like the white finish line painted on the street.

After 15 miles, some burros have to be coaxed to go another step.

Do you remember seeing the guy at the front of the long racers this morning? He and his burro had gone 22 miles, and they were arriving with some of the 15-mile racers. The winner was Santiago Salvador, and his speedy little burro named Buttercup. They won the race in Fairplay last weekend, so this duo was the favorite for the trifecta title after next week's burro race in Buena Vista. The winning time of the long race was three hours and 48 minutes. That was ten minutes too fast for Denisa to win the $800 with her guess of 3:58.20.

After we tired of watching the burros and racers come in, we walked a couple blocks to the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum.  

Normally there was a charge of $15 to visit this large museum, but it was free during Leadville's Boom Days. Parts of the museum were dark and made to look and feel like visitors were down in the mines in the mountains of Leadville.

We enjoyed the minerals section of the museum, with some beautiful rocks like this large purple amethyst.

We returned to downtown to eat at one of the food trucks, and to cheer on the runners and burros that were still arriving at the finish line. Anyone that finished one of these arduous runs deserved some encouragement when they got to the last section through downtown.

We admired the spirit of this young lady. Her donkey had obviously cooperated better during the rest of the race, or she wouldn't have gotten to this final section. But just two blocks from the finish line, the burro absolutely refused to go any further. She pulled on the rope from the front . . .

she tried the over-the-shoulder technique . . .

she tried pushing from the back. He wouldn't budge! We watched for ten minutes, and we so wanted to help her. But the rules don't allow for any assistance from the spectators. So we could only applaud her efforts and hope that her burro would finally decide to go those last two blocks.

The burro was stopped right in front of the most famous restaurant in Leadville. We weren't hungry enough to eat at The Legendary Silver Dollar Saloon, but we had to snap a quick picture.

As we left town at 4:00, we saw a couple more racers still on the trail. They started six hours ago, and they were still running. We were tired from our six hours of just standing around Leadville, while these racers have ran up and down mountains on the 15- or 22-mile course. What a day! We had never seen a burro race before, but we enjoyed it so much! This won't be our last!