Running News Daily

Racers prepare for annual Pikes Peak Ascent, Marathon event

Take a deep breath while there’s time. Come this weekend, runners will have to cherish every bit of oxygen they can.

The 69th annual Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon begin Saturday starting with the romp up Pikes Peak.

Both events have their highest number of participants since 2019 prior to the pandemic and a plethora of new runners will compete in this year’s festivities.

Here are a few items to keep tabs on during the annual event.

Weather

It’s doubtful inclement weather will impact this year’s Pikes Peak Ascent. Saturday’s race, which begins at 7 a.m., typically takes around 7 hours for the final finishers to arrive.

Jordan Linder, Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon race director, said, “Saturday we’re a-go as normal” since snow is expected later in the day on Pikes Peak, but not during the early portion of the race.

As for Sunday’s Marathon, stay tuned.

“We’re monitoring the weather for Saturday night into Sunday,” Linder said. “We’ll communicate that throughout the weekend for marathoners who may be affected. We’ll communicate that primarily through Facebook. We have Instagram as well and a text feature this year so we can text our registered runners up-to-date information.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Manitou Springs will have a low of 41 degrees and a high of 57 and a 50% chance of participation Sunday.

Participation

Nearly 2,000 runners will race in the Ascent and 916 will compete in the Marathon, which Linder said is the highest total of participants for both events since 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, more than 1,450 racers competed in the Ascent while 673 ran the Marathon. In 2019, nearly 1,700 runners ran up Pikes Peak and 723 signed up for the Marathon.

Linder said they’re grateful to see numbers continue to increase post-pandemic.

“We’re grateful that the sport of running has continued to be at an all-time high and is increasing,” Linder said. “We’re seeing all kinds of different runners out on the trails. What’s most exciting is whether this is their first trail race or first mountain run, all of the runners are exceptional for being courageous enough to start.”

New Pikes Peak Ascent record? (Again?)

Maybe, but Linder said not likely.

Rémi Bonnet broke Matt Carpenter’s 30-year-old record last year and finished the Ascent in 2 hours and 20 seconds.

Bonnet will not participate in this year’s climb up Pikes Peak and in 2023, second place finished more than four minutes behind the Swiss runner.

“We had the luxury of watching the 30-year-old record be broken last year, so that’s probably not happening this year,” Linder said. “Obviously, it’s possible, but Rémi isn’t here to run it or break his record this year.”

Among the slew of runners are Joseph Gray and Seth DeMoor who, throughout the years, have constantly finished in proximity to one another.

In 2019, Gray won the Pikes Peak Ascent at 2:08.59 while DeMoor placed second at 2:12:45.

DeMoor won the Pikes Peak Marathon in back-to-back years from 2020 to 2021 and, in 2024, finished second overall.

During July’s Barr Trail Mountain Race, Gray clocked in at 1:33:10 and had a photo finish to edge out Jonathan Aziz, who won last year's Pikes Peak Marathon.

“You always want to come out and defend your title,” Gray said after his win at the Barr Trail Mountain Race. “It’s more special now being a master’s runner (40 and older) and competing with the young bucks and still being able to get some (wins.)”

(09/20/2024) Views: 237 ⚡AMP
by Marcus Hill

Pikes Peak Marathon legend Arlene Pieper Stine, the first woman to run a sanctioned marathon, has died

Eight years before Kathrine Switzer shocked the world by running the Boston Marathon, Arlene Pieper Stine did her 26 miles in the Pikes Peak Marathon, with a 9-year-old daughter in tow

Arlene Pieper Stine got into the Pikes Peak Marathon in 1959 as a stunt to market her Colorado Springs health club. When she finished, the 29-year-old mother of three was in the record books as the first woman to finish a sanctioned marathon. Unlike the Boston Marathon, the Pikes Peak race never had a prohibition on women participating.

One of Colorado mountain running’s most beloved heroes used to climb up the ladder next to the sign draped across the town of Manitou Springs’s main drag — “Welcome, Pikes Peak Runners” — so that she could send off the hundreds of runners who had packed the narrow street to head off for the summit of the 14,115-foot mountain more than 13 miles and 7,800 of vertical gain in the distance. Then they would turn around for the return trip.

“Runners, ready,” she said into the microphone in the absolute still morning of sun, rain, or even snow of late August. “Go!” said Arlene Pieper Stine.  

Pieper Stine became the race’s folk hero in 2009 when race officials went looking for the former Colorado Springs resident and health club owner so that they could bring her back to her hometown with some news: Not only had she been the first woman to complete the Pikes Peak Marathon — the punishing switchbacks, rocky single-track, and finally, the last few miles above timberline at over 12,000 feet — but she was the first woman to complete any sanctioned marathon, eight years before Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon in 1967. 

Fifty years after she finished the full “out and back,” as Peak marathon veterans refer to the course, with a time of 9 hours and 16 minutes, Pieper Stine was once again at the start line.  

Pieper Stine died Feb. 11, 2021, a month shy of her 91st birthday, as she was trying to build up her strength after battling COVID-19, her daughter Kathy Pieper said.

“She got cards and letters from runners and it meant so much to her,” Pieper said. “And I was able to go into her assisted living facility — all covered up — to see her. She ran such a good race.”

She became a role model and inspiration for women runners who looked to her for her boldness and independent spirit — a wife, mother, business owner, and runner who hiked and ran on Pikes Peak with her family in the 1950s, dressed for the race in white sleeveless blouse, white shorts, white headwrap, and tennis shoes from Woolworths.

“We didn’t carry water or have aid stations in those days,” she said in a 2014 interview. “I still remember it like it was yesterday. You can be a wonderful wife and mother, but it showed me that if there’s something you really want to do, you should go for it.”

Year after year, Pieper Stine was as much a part of the race as the unpredictable weather, the friendliness and camaraderie of the runners whether elite or there for a bucket list challenge, or because life wouldn’t be the same without that weekend in late August that turned Manitou Springs into an excited, nervous, and glad-to-be alive running party.

“If I can do it, so can you,” she told the runners who thronged around her in Memorial Park at the Race Expo, at the pre-race spaghetti dinners, or on the streets of town. 

From the first time that she and Pieper returned to Manitou Springs in 2009 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the race that they had run together — Arlene at age 29 and Kathy at age 9 — Pieper Stine became living reminders of the beauty and challenge of running the Peak. 

 “‘It’s a beautiful day for a race,’ I remember her saying as we passed runners that day,” Pieper said of the race she did with her mother in 1959. “And she kept that same attitude every year. She never could believe that runners would come up to her and say ‘Can you just touch my hand for luck?’ or ‘It’s so good to see you again.’ She remembered everyone and had wanted to say something to them all. She could barely walk 10 paces down the sidewalk and people would say, ‘Can I get your picture? Can I get your autograph?’ It was just the thrill of her life when [race organizers] found her.”

In 2019, to mark the 60th anniversary of Pieper Stine’s marathon step for woman runners everywhere, a group of women runners dressed in white sleeveless blouses, white shorts, and headscarves and hats gathered to run up Pikes Peak to mark the occasion. And like the rock star of the trail running world she was for women, Pieper Stine showed up for the celebration.

Four years earlier, in 2015, I had the opportunity to celebrate Pieper Stine myself. The night before the marathon, I joined the Peak Busters gathering at the Manitou Springs City Hall and was reassured by Arlene, as I had come to know her. I had come back from falls and injuries like everyone else on the peak, since my first marathon on the mountain, in 2004.

At that time, Arlene was using a wheelchair after hip surgery. It was my second out and back and I was eager but nervous. “Good luck,” she said. “You’ll have a great time!” I bent down and she took her hand in mine. “OK,” I said, feeling tears about to come, feeling a part of history of this mountain that had both tested me and rewarding my training — or had spit me out during a few memorable Ascents and my first marathon. But I could always count on feeling inspired by the women who had come before me, especially Arlene.

The next morning, she was at the start, shaking hands, giving hugs, and talking to racers through the speakers, to get ready and GO!

“Without pioneering efforts like Arlene’s, we would have no history nor legacy in our sport,” said Nancy Hobbs, executive director of the American Trail Running Association. “Many women — young and old — have been inspired by her.

That includes Pieper, who is planning to train for the Ascent along with one of Pieper Stine’s grandsons, Kyle, 29, who wants to train and qualify for the marathon. She also is survived by daughters Karen, 67, and Linda, 57, and her son, Karl, 66; three other grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“Mom wanted to sprinkle some of her ashes on Pikes Peak,” Pieper said. “And I thought, ‘I’d like to go back 60 years later and see if I can do the Ascent.’ Maybe I can finish it, maybe not even do it as a race. And then maybe I could keep her legacy going.”

(04/09/2021) Views: 1,639 ⚡AMP
by Jill Rothenberg

Seth DeMoor and Brittany Charboneau win Pikes Peak Marathon

Not even a global pandemic, extreme heat and dry air, wild fires and lingering smoke from said wild fires could stop the 65th annual Pikes Peak Marathon from happening. With the cancellation of the Boston Marathon this year, the Pikes Peak Marathon is now the longest continuously running marathon in the United States.

While the start and finish lines may have looked different, the course was exactly the same and runners had the chance to test themselves against the grueling 7,800′ climb and descent as well as mother nature torturing athletes with probably the worst air quality in the race’s history.

Seth DeMoor, a 35-year-old from Englewood grew up in Buena Vista watching his dad, Joe, race on Pikes Peak in the ‘90s and has a video blog dedicated to his trail running with nearly 100,000 subscribers. After finishing second in the 2019 Ascent — the 2020 race was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — DeMoor decided to enter his first Pikes Peak Marathon and won the race in 3 hours, 36 minutes and 31 seconds, a record for the 35-39 age group.

Brittany Charboneau, of Denver, took the women’s victory in 4:25:21 in her first attempt on the mountain.

DeMoor owned a six-minute lead when he turned around just shy of the under-construction summit house and held off David Sinclair (Truckee, Calif.) on the descent, winning by less than two minutes. Charboneau trailed Allie McLaughlin by roughly 40 seconds at the turnaround and made her pass in the final five miles of the descent.

As if the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t enough for a race director to navigate, Pikes Peak Marathon’s Ron Ilgen had the added task of monitoring wildfire conditions in the days leading up to Sunday’s Pikes Peak Marathon.

Ilgen said part of the planning that went into putting on such an event as safely as possible included conversations on search and rescue, monitoring storms for lightning strikes that could cause issues locally and increased sanitizing measures, especially in the aid tent just beyond the finish line.

There was more consensus on the health protocols in place. Runners started in waves and most used face coverings immediately before and after the race.

Ilgen said he was pretty pleased with how things went and credited the participants for their cooperation during a race week unlike so many previous ones. There was no big celebration to open or close the race weekend, but race directors and racers seemed to make the most of it.

(08/25/2020) Views: 1,701 ⚡AMP

Colorado runners rule Pikes Peak Marathon

Colorado runners ruled the Pikes Peak Marathon on Sunday in a year without elite international competition.

Seth DeMoor, of Englewood was the first to the summit of Pikes Peak and held off David Sinclair to win the men’s race in 3 hours, 36 minutes and 31 seconds, unofficially. Sinclair finishes in 3:38:20.

Denver’s Brittany Charboneau reached summit behind Allie McLaughlin but made up ground during the descent and won the women’s race in 4:25:21. Golden’s Ashley Brasovan was second with McLaughlin, of Colorado Springs, finishing third.

 

(08/23/2020) Views: 1,666 ⚡AMP

The Pikes Peak Marathon is still on but with some changes

The Pikes Peak Marathon will take place on Aug. 23 as originally scheduled. The Pikes Peak Ascent, scheduled for Aug. 22, was canceled in late May.

In partnership with El Paso County Public Health, race organizers have developed a plan that will ensure the safety of runners and community members in accordance with Gov. Jared Polis’ COVID-19 guidance.

“We are pleased to be able to continue this 66-year Pikes Peak region tradition in 2020 and feel confident the event will be safe and enjoyable for all participants and volunteers,” said Ron Ilgen, president of Pikes Peak Marathon, Inc.

The usual fanfare that surrounds the race will be muted this year, and many of the leadup and post-race events will be canceled or reduced due to limitations on gathering. Social distancing requirements will be enforced at the start and finish, and some aid stations may be eliminated. Runners will start in small waves, down from the usual 100-person waves. Masks or cloth face coverings will be required before and after the race and at packet pickup. Registered runners will receive an email with full details about the specifics.

Marathon runners were given notice on May 28 that the race was in jeopardy, and all received the option to defer their entry to 2021, receive a full refund, stay in the event pending approval, or receive a partial refund and donate the rest to nonprofit partners. The vast majority of runners have taken no action to date, implying they intend to stay in the event.

Interested runners who are not already signed up can still put themselves on the waitlist in case entries become available, though that is not guaranteed.

“Even with the required limitations and changes this year, I am confident the runners will still have the memorable running experience that the Pikes Peak Marathon is famous for,” Ilgen Said. 

(08/05/2020) Views: 1,460 ⚡AMP

Kilian Jornet falls short of Pikes Peak Marathon record as Maude Mathys obliterates women’s mark set last year

Catlan runner ran 3:27:39, nearly 11 minutes shy of Matt Carpenter’s record, which has stood for 26 years

One of the most revered records in American mountain running has withstood a challenge from this generation’s greatest ultrarunner.

Despite an early fast pace, Catalan mountain running superstar Kilian Jornet fell short of breaking Matt Carpenter’s ascent and overall course record in the 64th edition of the Pikes Peak Marathon on Sunday, finishing in 3 hours, 27 minutes, 29 seconds — nearly 11 minutes slower than Carpenter’s 3:16:39, set in 1993.

But Swiss ultrarunner Maude Mathys still provided reason to celebrate. Mathys won the women’s division in 4:02:45, crushing the course record set by Megan Kimmel last year in 4:15:04.

Carpenter’s course record has stood for 26 years. Jornet came to the Pikes Peak Marathon as part of the Salomon Golden Trail World Series, a collection of some of the top mountain races in the world, racing in the hopes of breaking the record after also falling short in 2012.

But he said afterward that his legs felt heavy during his morning warmup. He set a course record at the Sierre-Zinal trail race in Switzerland just two weeks ago, but he said that the short turnaround wasn’t a factor in his race today.

At the halfway mark — the summit of Pikes Peak — the record quest appeared to be in jeopardy. Jornet summited in 2:09:15, more than eight minutes behind Carpenter’s 2:01:06 ascent record, which Carpenter set in the same race he recorded the overall record.

For Carpenter, now 55, Pikes Peak is and remains his domain. He has won the marathon 12 times and the ascent-only run — held the day before the marathon — six times. He has lived in Manitou Springs for years and trained frequently on the Pikes Peak course, learning how to handle the altitude while navigating the flats, switchbacks and steep sections.

In recent years, trail running has exploded in popularity throughout the U.S. and the world, ushering a sport from the fringes of distance running to the mainstream. That has brought a new era of young, accomplished runners who have broken and rebroken records and so-called fastest-known times — thought to be untouchable. Despite the onslaught, Carpenter’s records at both Pikes Peak and the Leadville 100 still stand years after they were set.

The Pikes Peak Marathon course starts in Manitou Springs at 6,300 feet, before climbing more than 7,700 feet to Pikes Peak’s summit at 14,115 feet. The race is the second-oldest marathon in the United States and was the first in the U.S. to record an official women’s finisher.

Just past the first mile, Jornet was already leading the pack by a few steps. Just before five miles, he had built up his lead to more than 90 seconds, on pace to hit the summit in under two hours. But his legs soon caught up with him, and he slowed, summiting in 2:09:15.

Jornet had run this race in 2012, winning in 3:40:26. But he also competed with a heaver race schedule then.

Pikes Peak is one of only three races Jornet will do all year. Already, Jornet holds the course record counterclockwise and clockwise for the Hardrock 100, one of Colorado’s other esteemed ultra runs that starts and finishes in Silverton and loops through Ouray, Telluride and Lake City in the San Juan Mountains, forcing runnings to ascend some 33,000 feet over 100.5 miles.

(08/25/2019) Views: 2,412 ⚡AMP

60 years ago, Arlene Pieper Stine was the first woman to run to the top of Pikes Peak and first US woman to finish a marathon

In white shorts, sleeveless blouse and dime-store tennis shoes, Arlene Pieper Stine, 29, stood on the start line of the 1959 Pikes Peak Marathon looking more like Marilyn Monroe than a mountaineer.

But Pieper Stine, then a Colorado Springs health club owner, not only finished the 26-mile race, with its grueling 8,000 feet of vertical gain to the 14,115 summit, she became the first woman to complete a sanctioned marathon in the United States.

Eight years later, Kathrine Switzer would be the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon in a dramatic act of gender defiance.

This weekend, 60 years after Arlene Pieper Stine conquered Pikes Peak in 9 hours and 16 minutes, hundreds of women will line up at the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathonstart, following her path on one of the country’s toughest and highest altitude race courses.

In 2009, after a long search, a Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon historian trackeddown Pieper Stine, who had long ago moved away and was living near Fresno, California. 

She had no idea of her place in running history. 

“I still remember it like it was yesterday,” she said in a 2014 interview. “You can be a wonderful wife and mother, but doing the race showed me that if there’s something you really want to do, you should go for it.”

A black-and-white photo of that race start shows Pieper Stine along with her 9-year-old daughter, Kathy, and her husband, who ran with her to offer moral support.

Pieper Stine said she got the idea to do the race as a way to promote Arlene’s Health Studio. The Pikes Peak Marathon never prohibited women from participating.

“In those days, we had no aid stations like there are now, and my running shoes were actually just those sneakers you get from the five and dime,” she said. “And about a week after the race, all 10 of my toenails fell off!”

Pieper Stine, now 89, sometimes returns to Manitou Springs to mark the official start of the race. “What a thrill to look out and see all these people getting ready to run.”

She was inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and has became a cult figure in the local racing community, inspiring a group of women runners to dress as Pieper Stine did in 1959 in the inaugural “She Moves Mountains” run up the peak last weekend, race organizer Alicia Pino said.

(08/23/2019) Views: 2,487 ⚡AMP
by Jill Rothenberg

US Marine Pedro Rodríguez is set to run at Pikes Peak Ascent

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Pedro Rodriguez has logged a lot of miles on the Santa Fe Trail.

He runs about 10 miles a day, totaling 3,600 to 3,800 miles a year, and each step he takes has an important purpose.

“Being a Marine is phenomenal, but being a runner in the Marine team is even better,” he said.

Rodriguez has run several marathons for the All-Marine running team since joining in 2015.

The Marine Corps has an award for the top active-duty Marine in the Marine Corps marathon. Rodriguez has earned that award in 2015, 2017, and 2018, but personal accolades are a small reason as to why he runs.

“When we line up on the start line with our teammates, there aren’t words that can describe that feeling,” he said. “When you have like-minded people that can share the similar story of going through boot camp or officer candidate school, and you’re wearing the same uniform. It’s very difficult to describe, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Along with his team in the Marine Corps, Rodriguez has a team at home for whom he runs.

“I want to be an example to my daughters, Mila and Sophia,” Rodriguez said. “I want to show them that if you have a plan to execute, you can accomplish any goal, whether that’s sports-related, academic-related or even just a personal goal.”

This weekend, Rodriguez is stepping off the road and heading to the mountains to run in his third Pikes Peak Ascent. The half marathon has an almost 8,000-feet elevation gain.“I love the city of Colorado Springs,” Rodriguez said. “Anywhere I go in the city I can see the top of Pikes Peak and it reminds me, ‘Wow, one, I have to get ready to run this race and, two, I’ve run it before, I’m going to do it again.'”

(08/22/2019) Views: 1,815 ⚡AMP
by Julia Maguire

Kilian Jornet crushed Sierre-Zinal, and has now set his sights on Pikes Peak

Ten years ago, a 21-year old Catalan trail runner showed up in the end-of-the-valley village of Zinal, in Switzerland’s Valais Canton, not far from the Italian border. He had a list with him.

“It was just a sheet of paper with names of races,” says Chamonix, France-based trail-running author Alain Bustin. “It wasn’t races he wanted to win, or course records he wanted to break. All he wanted to do was take part. Sierre-Zinal was on the list.”

Even then, Sierre-Zinal was iconic. The 31-kilometer race that started in the valley village of Sierre and finished in Zinal was already established as one of the most competitive trail races in the world. And that year, the young runner won.

A few weeks later, he won the 171-kilometer Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.

That runner, of course, is Kilian Jornet. And last weekend in Zinal, he won “S-Z” for a seventh time, further surpassing Mexican runner Richardo Meija’s five wins between 1998 and 2005. And this time Jornet did something that no one had done in 16 years. He broke one of trail-running’s most-coveted course records with a time of 2:25:35—not by seconds, but by 3 minutes 37 seconds.

The 2:29:12 record had been held all those years by the New Zealander Jonathan Wyatt, now 46, indisputably one of his generation’s greatest mountain runners. Starting more than two decades ago, Wyatt began racking up records from the Alps to the United States, at races as diverse as Switzerland’s Jungfrau Marathon (2:49:01 in 2003) and New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Road Race (56:41 in 2004.) Both are still course records.United States runner Jim Walmsley had a notable success, finishing third in his first running of the famed course, in a time of 2:31:52—a result that in any other year would likely have had him breaking the finish-line tape.

While Sierre-Zinal is arguably one of the most competitive trail races in the world, and much of the attention focusses on the elite runners, it has a wide and diverse following. This year, more than 5,000 runners took part. Recreational runners started five-and-a-quarter hours earlier, a special aspect of the race-day schedule that allows recreational runners to watch elites arrive, several hours after most of them have crossed the finish line.

Nicknamed “The New York Marathon of the Alps,” the race’s rich history makes for a special day for runners from around the world. It’s a vibe that was felt by runners like Mike Ambrose, formerly the North American Marketing Manager for Salomon, and now based out of the company’s world headquarters in Annecy, France.

“Running across that ridgeline with the flowy singletrack, I felt the legends before me,” says Ambrose. “That’s the first time ever in a race that I was putting myself out there with the greatest and the pioneers of the sport. Maybe I wasn’t running at the same speed, but I was part of the history. I actually felt that energy. “

For Jornet, there are few records left to shatter. At age 31, he has Fastest Known Times from the Matterhorn to Mount Everest. He has won trail running’s most prestigious races, some of them multiple times, with course records around the world. It’s hard not to imagine that Jornet might begin to turn his attention to other projects. With Skyrunning Champion Emelie Forsberg, he now has a five-month-old baby—and an energetic labradoodle, Maui, to boot.

As he watched Jornet from a jumbo screen not far from the Sierre-Zinal finish line, Bustin, a longtime acquaintance of Jornet’s, was in a contemplative mood. “Kilian, he’s not just special because of his records at Sierre-Zinal or the UTMB,” he said. “He’s broken mountaineering records and ski alpinism (ski mountaineering) records, too.”

Bustin paused with thousands of other onlookers, as race officials announced to the crowd that Jornet was now 20 seconds ahead of Wyatt’s historic course record. On the screen, Jornet looked fluid and in control, calmly, steadily, smoothly “running the tangents” along a rocky section of the course.

“He’s a fantastic guy, with a great mentality about mountain sports. Maybe he’s about to say to the young runners, ‘Hey guys, I’ve done my time. Now it’s up to you,’” added Bustin. Taking in the weight of what he had just considered out loud—that the world’s greatest trail runner could soon be winding down his long stretch of highly competitive racing days—he looked back up to the screen, saying to no-one in particular, “He has nothing to prove to anyone.”

Well, maybe not quite. There is, arguably, at least one notoriously difficult-to-beat record remaining: Colorado’s Pikes Peak Marathon. In 1993, Matt Carpenter set a confoundingly fast course record there, with a time of 3:16:39. On August 25, Jornet will be there. It’s hard not to imagine he wouldn’t like to cross the tape with a time quicker than Carpenter’s. The trail-running world will be watching.

(08/19/2019) Views: 2,303 ⚡AMP

Megan Kimmel crosses the finish line at the Pikes Peak Marathon to set a new women´s record

Megan Kimmel had not run the Pikes Peak Marathon in nearly 10 years, but the 38-year-old runner out of Ridgway spent much of Sunday’s descent contemplating whether or not to go for a record-breaking time. “I took note of what my time was up top, and I was like ‘I think it’s still doable,’” Kimmel recalled thinking. “At Barr Camp, I was kinda like ‘Ah, I don’t have it.’” While she didn’t think she’d be breaking Lynn Bjorklund’s record set in 1981, Kimmel kept a solid pace to keep distance between her and the competition. Her mindset changed once more, however. “It wasn’t until I hit the pavement on Ruxton (Avenue) that someone was like, ‘You can do it. There’s time,’ ” Kimmel said. “That’s when I kicked it.” Her only remaining issue was figuring out the exact time she needed. Kimmel said she knew the record was just a little over 4 hours, 15 minutes but didn’t know how many seconds she had to work with. “Once you get closer to the finish line here, people really keep you going for sure,” Kimmel said. “But I have to say, I didn’t notice it that much because I was so focused on the time and the finish that I kinda had tunnel vision going on.” The focus paid off as Kimmel stormed through the tape in 4:15:04, good for a new record and the 14th-best overall time. Kimmel chalked up her performance to living at altitude and near-ideal conditions a day after the Ascent was shortened due to expected weather. She was able to complete the marathon in a sleeveless racing top without slowing to add or remove layers. (08/20/2018) Views: 1,646 ⚡AMP

Defending Champion Tina Mascarenas, will face a Tough Field at Pikes Peak Marathon

Dunking both feet in a 5-gallon ice bucket and eating a pint of Snickerdoodle ice cream has become the nightly habit for Tina Mascarenas. She does the former because her ankles were hurt in a fall during a race on Mount Olympus in Greece in late June, and the latter because she craves ice cream about as much as she loves science and running. Mascarenes has a lot going on these days. She just started a new job with DNA Connections, putting to use the biochemistry degree she earned at UCCS. And she’s getting married Sept. 9. In between those life-changing events she’ll defend her championship at the Pikes Peak Marathon on Aug. 19. She didn’t expect to win last year, although she’d finished third in 2016. “I thought I was competing for top five,” she said. “I think I had the best day of my life.” It will take an even better day to win this year. The 29-year-old Doherty High graduate says a repeat victory isn’t realistic with the world-class Salomon runners who are part of the Golden Trail Series competing this year and insists that her goal is to finish in the top 10. (08/15/2018) Views: 1,665 ⚡AMP