The Leadman Cometh

February 28, 2012

I like the smaller, scenic races these days. I thought I'd write a little about what seems to me to be a special race for certain of those of us in the Southwest, or for those for whom the American Southwest is an allure. This is Leadman 125, or half-Leadman, just over a month away. For those who haven't seen it, Rappstar shot a video of the bike course—Return to the Valley of Fire—below.

I competed last year, and it's joined the list of events that pique my imagination, which include the June Lake Triathlon; and then Jake's Offroad Tri in Jamaica—the one I haven't been to yet—and the Nice Triathlon, my favorite race that no longer exists (but there is Ironman France, same course, longer distance).

Soundtrack: Matisyahu & The Crystal Method – Drown in the Now

It occurred to me I've had a bad movie playing in my head about this Leadman race. I formed the impression it was Bahram Akradi's private passion, that complemented his public business as CEO of Life Time Fitness. But I had a vaguer impression, sitting on my periphery, that Bahram was shrewder than that. So, I did some nosing around.

Life Time has been on a tear during the last year and a half. This is stuff I didn't pay much attention to until now.

It's got, as far as I can tell, four tactical arms that comprise a mostly outside-the-club strategy. Bahram's got an M&A team quietly acquiring triathlons, triathlon series, half marathons, 5k races and, not so quietly, the Leadville 100 (both MTB and running).

I got to wondering how many registration "touches" this all adds up to, so, I did a little figuring. One arm of the outside-the-club strategy are Life Time owned footraces, which include Turkey Day and Torchlight 5k races, a couple of half-mary events, and whatnot, and they all add up to about 40,000 participants. Who knew?

The second arm are triathlons, and the outdoor triathlons include both Life Time events in Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas and others. These total 30,000 registrations.

There are another 10,000 or so registrations for indoor triathlons (maybe 80) that take place inside the clubs.

The above is exclusive of the 8-race SheROX women's series, of which Life Time owns 3 or 4. There are another 1000 touches per year in kid's triathlons: About 11 races that average about 125 kids apiece. The women's-only SheROX events, and kids-only triathlons, total probably 5,000 registrations or more.

Altogether, there are probably 45,000 triathlon registrations, in the aggregate, that are represented only by races Life Time owns or substantially owns (I'm not including non-owned races inside the Life Time or SheROX Series).

Then you have all the Leadville 100 run and MTB races, and qualifying races that get you to Leadville. This is the third arm. Add another 4,000 or 5,000 registrations here.

Life Time owns cycling events that are separate from anything listed above. These include The Hillfest Series, one Gran Fondo with more certainly coming, and the Ride of a Life Time. I'm sure I'm low-balling it when I write that this is at least 5,000 more registrations.

This places the total registrations paid, per year, for races, at something close to 100,000, if my reckoning is at all close to accurate. Most of this ballooned up in the past two years, when I—and probably you as well—weren't looking.

Furthermore, the Life Time Fitness centers themselves have running and cycling clubs that consist of people who come to the facilities to either work out inside, or gather for rides or runs outside. There are many tens of thousands—perhaps 65,000 or so—active members of the running clubs and maybe another 30,000 in its cycling clubs.

There is not that much crossover yet between those who are in Life Time's running and cycling clubs and those who take part in the events listed above. Of course this is to be expected, because they don't have a Life Time Fitness facility in Leadville, Colorado. But they do in Las Vegas, and the more Bahram Akradi acquires races, and the more clubs he incepts in more and more areas, he's going to reach a critical mass of both races and clubs.

As he is able to do this, he'll bring to fruition a narrative on which he's known to expound: People respond to goals. It's a lot easier to get them to buy memberships if they have goals that these memberships prepare them to execute.

I supposed the events side of Life Time Fitness was a thing a board of directors allows him to do. Perhaps this was my own projection, because when I started a series of triathlons it was just that: something a board of directors allowed me to do—but the board was not all that red hot on the idea.

Maybe this is just more projection, but, if I was on Life Time's board I'd start to take the events business pretty seriously (and maybe Life Time's board is way ahead of me on this). As opposed to—let us say—Ironman, where the registration is the business model, for Life Time a race registration might just be the beginning of a relationship that Life Time Fitness is in the unique position to leverage.

Bahram's personal proclivities trend toward the extreme end of the races he owns. He likes the long stuff. And, the harder the better. Which brings us back to Leadman.

Thankfully, the 250k event in Vegas has been cut in half. The race is a slice of the Southwest, and it ends in Boulder City, which was a federal company town for workers building the Hoover Dam before Las Vegas was even a twinkle in Bugsy Siegel's eye. I like Boulder City. It's a slice of American history. It's the better angel of metro Vegas.

This year, Leadman has a field. It's got that Abu Dhabi feel to it, ratio-wise, but it's short enough to be a race, and not a survive-a-thon. It's a mile-and-a-half swim, 70 miles of riding in red rock country (watch the video), and 7 miles of running.

Last year's winner Jordan Rapp is very good at surviving. Let's see how he does at racing, when ultra-endurance capacity is not required. Andy Starykowicz seems made for this distance and this ratio, and he'll give Rapp a good go. Also in the field are Ian Mikelson, Maik Twelsiiek, Matt Lieto, Thomas Gerlacher and Tim Deboom.

Angela Naeth is also made for this ratio and she handily won last year. But there will be some others in the race: Charissa Wernick, Christine Anderston, Hilary Biscay and Jackie Arendt.

I don't know if I'm racing, because, while my swim and bike are okay, I've got a persistent injury that's kept me away from running since last August. I hope I don't have to miss this race, because it appeals to me.

I'm guess what I like about Bahram Akradi's strategy is that his events division seems to include races that generate numbers, and money, and make business sense, with races that appeal to his own sensibilities. Which mirror my own.

It can't be all about the crazy stuff, or your CFO is going to put a stop to it. And it can't be all formulaic, or else you lose the poetry and serendipity that's a part of all the memorable race experiences. I think Bahram's getting it about right.