On Nate Orders' first - and likely last - attempt at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, he accomplished something a lot of participants don't: he finished the 100-mile mountain bike race in less than nine hours.
At 8 hours and 35 minutes, Orders, president of St. Albans-based Orders Construction, also finished first in a group with 18 fellow CEOs, earning him the second- fastest CEO time ever and a coveted belt buckle he described as "bigger than a bread plate."
The bike race is the largest in the country by the number of participants - about 2,000 cyclists come to the Colorado town of Leadville, which is the highest incorporated city in the United States. The lowest point on the course is 9,200 feet above sea level and it climbs to 12,424 feet.
The race, held in August, was Orders' first 100-mile bike race.
"To start, it was scary, frankly, because it's a mountain bike race and most mountain bikers are used to riding alone on a trail," Orders said. "[At the beginning of this race] it's just this giant mass of bikers that are weaving this way and that."
Some weaved into other bikes, causing crashes, he said.
Besides the number of participants, the altitude of the course also set it apart, he said. Riders climb five mountains on the way, the highest climb of which is about 3,300 vertical feet, he said. The higher elevation means there's less oxygen to breathe.
"If you're not used to it, you get winded climbing the stairs," he said.
In addition to being physically challenging, it was also quite the process getting out to Colorado. A Charleston resident, Orders flew with his mountain bike, which meant taking it apart, handing it over to an airline and then reassembling it upon arrival in Colorado. He also spent a couple extra nights in Colorado just to get used to the elevation. Orders said perhaps if he lived in Denver, he would consider doing the race again, but he's not likely to make a second trip out to repeat the ride.
"The people who do that kind of event are crazy enough that they kind of enjoy it," Orders said.
Most of Orders' training took place on his daily commute to work. Each day he rides his bike into work on the commute from Charleston to St. Albans.
"Obviously you can't train by riding a hundred miles every week, so I was training in 13-mile increments on that commute back and forth, with a few longer rides mixed in," he said. He also took rides in Kanawha State Forest from time to time, he said.
Orders recently completed his second 100-mile bike race, this time in Staunton, Virginia. That race didn't go as smoothly, mostly because of technical problems.
"I had a lot of problems with the bike," he said. "I had three flat tires and a broken hub. I'm glad I didn't have problems with my bike in Leadville."
Orders, a George Washington High School and Cornell University graduate, has been mountain biking since he was a kid, he said. In high school, he used to take part in 24 hours of Canaan, relay races in which one member of a team had to be on the course at all hours of the day-long event.
"I guess I never grew up, I'm still riding my bike like a kid," he said.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey @wvgazette.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LorikerseyWV on Twitter.