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: 204 ⚡AMP
by Marcus Hill

Allie Kieffer makes quick work for her 3M Half Marathon win, while Joseph Gray wins a close one

World-class runner Allie Kieffer keeps a low racing profile here in Austin, but when she does race, she wins.

A last-minute entry in this year's 3M Half Marathon, Kieffer took advantage of ideal running conditions Sunday morning — mid-40s and clear — to add another victory to her Austin racing résumé, while Joseph Gray, a World Mountain Running champion, topped the men’s field.

Even though Kieffer has a perfect record in Austin, Sunday's 3M win was somewhat of a redemption for her. Running in the highly competitive Barron Collier Companies Naples Half Marathon last week in Florida, she went off course, losing her lead and placing fourth.

“I took a wrong turn at the Naples Half, so I couldn’t cross the line first,” Kieffer said. “So today I was thinking, ‘I want to win.' I was feeling pretty competitive.

“I wasn’t intending to race today,” she added. “Initially I was just going to pace it with a friend, but I couldn’t find him at the start.”

Kieffer took off from the starting line on Stonelake Boulevard in North Austin at a brisk pace of 5 minutes, 52 seconds per mile, with Karen Bertasso-Hughes and Shannon Gaden about 50 yards back. Kieffer hit the 5-kilometer split in 18:14, with Bertasso-Hughes just nine seconds behind.

The 3M race is known for its “downhill to downtown” course, and Kieffer worked every downhill. By the 10K mark (36:31) on Great Northern Boulevard, she had a 23-second lead on Bertasso-Hughes.

“When I took the lead around 3 miles, I just didn’t look back,” Kieffer said.

She stepped on the gas after the 15K mark (9.3 miles) on Shoal Creek Boulevard, dropping the pace to 5:50 a mile, gaining more than a minute ahead of Bertasso-Hughes in the process. Kieffer crossed the finish line on San Jacinto Boulevard in 1:16:24, leaving Bertasso-Hughes and Gaden to battle for second. Gaden prevailed 1:17:00 to 1:17:49. Caroline Brooks came in fourth in 1:17:53, with Elizabeth Laseter rounding out the top five in 1:18:04.

“Allie was so far ahead that we were just racing for second place,” said Gaden, a newcomer to Austin by way of Denver. “I was able to catch her (Bertasso-Hughes) around 10 miles.”

“I’m really happy. … I felt surprisingly good. I needed to win this race,” said Kieffer, who plans to run the Ascension Seton Austin Half Marathon next month and is looking to run an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time next fall at the BMW Berlin Marathon.

The men’s race featured a stirring duel between Colorado Springs’ Gray and Austin’s Mitch Ammons, a 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier.

Gray, Ammons and University of Texas ace Kobe Yepez formed the lead pack in the early miles, passing through the 5K mark together in 15:17. But after that it was a two-man race as Gray and Ammons pulled away. Ammons took the lead at 10K, passing the mark in 30:33, just six seconds ahead of Gray. But by 15K (45:52) they were stride for stride, with 2019 3M champ Michael Morris moving into third place ahead of Yepez.

In a sprint to the finish line, Gray edged Ammons 1:04:23 to 1:04:27. Morris, the track and cross-country head coach at San Marcos High School, took third in 1:06:07, with Al Maeder fourth in 1:06:31 and Yepez fifth in 1:06:51.

“This was my first race of the year. Actually my first race in a while, so I wanted to be smart and run a progressive effort,” said Gray, a dominant figure in Colorado’s mountain running scene. “Mitch is a strong runner and made it an honest effort.”

Approximately 4,500 runners finished the race, the fifth in the Austin Distance Challenge. The sixth and final event is the Austin Marathon on Feb. 19.

“I found out two minutes before the race that there was a champion mountain runner entered, who’d gone 1:03 for the half-marathon," Ammons said. "We were yo-yoing back and forth the whole way. He’d pull ahead on the uphills, and I’d lead on the downhills. It was a lot of fun. My time was a personal best for me by more than a minute, and I wouldn’t have run this fast if it weren’t for Joe. He pushed me a lot. I really, really tried to catch him on the final straight. I gave it everything I had.”

(01/23/2023) Views: 966 ⚡AMP
by Brom Hoban

Joseph Gray, Lee Troop and many more will be inducted into the Colorado Running Half of Fame

Joseph Gray, Lee Troop, Deborah Conley, Lyndon Ellefson, Alan Lind, and Peter de la Cerda will be inducted into the Colorado Running Half of Fame. The Colorado Running Hall of Fame recognizes Coloradans for remarkable achievement and influence on the sport of distance running.  Each year nominees are accepted, and in January the inductee class is selected and notified.  In February the class is announced.  The year 2020 forced the delay of honoring the Class of 2020 in May 2020.  As a result,  this year we will celebrate the six 2020 honorees plus three additional members will be selected for 2021.

Joseph Gray is an American world champion runner who competes mostly in trail, mountain and snowshoe races.  He won the World Mountain Running Championships in 2016 and 2019.  He is the first Black American to not only make the Team USA World Mountain Running Team, but also the first Black American to win the USA National Mountain Running Championships and the World Mountain Running Championships.

Joseph has been a 31-time Team USA national team member.  He is the only Black American to be part of the U.S. Mountain Running Team at any level.  He is an 18-Time USA National Champion and is a 5-time Xterra World Trail Running Champion.

Lee Troop started out as a long-distance track runner and represented Australia in the 5000m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and attended his first World Athletics Championships the following year.  He was a 4X national 10,000m champion and broke the Australian record in the 5000m in 1999.  He competed for Australia two times in the World Cross Country Championships and moved up to the marathon distance in 1999 with a 2:11 performance.

Deborah Conley is a Colorado native, and former University of Colorado runner.  She was a member of the first women’s Cross Country team to win a conference title.  As a master runner, she has been on multiple Cross Country teams that have medaled at USATF Cross Country National Championships and USATF National Club Cross Country Championships.

Peter de la Cerda lives with his wife and five children in Alamosa, CO, where he teaches 7th grade social studies and has coached at Alamosa High School (15 years XC and 7 years track). He is a 2X NCAA Individual National Champion (5000m Indoor ’93, 10,000m Outdoor ’93) and 11X All American.

Alan Lind’s 47 year career in running began at Poudre HS where he achieved a 13th place finish at the ‘76 Colorado State Cross Country meet and 6th in the mile at the State Track meet in the spring of ‘77.  At Colorado State University he lettered all four years and ran his 1st marathon in 1978 and followed this with a 2:37 effort in 1980 and ran 2:26 in the next three years.

Lyndon Ellefson lived an adventurous life ending tragically in mid stride as he fell through a glacier crevasse near Cervinia, Italy, 1998.  He was there as a member of the original, international Fila Skyrunners Team and was on a high-altitude training run in preparation for the Skyrunning Marathon.

(01/19/2021) Views: 1,643 ⚡AMP
by Colorado Runner

Joseph Gray of Colorado Springs captured his 14th USATF National Championship at the Loon Mountain race

Joseph Gray of Colorado Springs captured his 14th USATF National Championship at the Loon Mountain race in Lincoln, New Hampshire on Sunday, July 8. The event hosted the US Mountain Running Championships and a deep prize purse. Gray, 34, completed the course in 50:28. The event was the selection competition for the four men and four women who will compete for the United States at the 34th World Mountain Running Championships in Canillo, Andorra on September 16. Second in the men’s field was Andy Wacker of Boulder in 51:49. David Fuentes placed third and Boulder’s Matt Daniels, running for Hudson Elite, earned fourth in 52:37. The 6.6-mile course climbed 3,200 feet and included grades of up to 48%. Despite the challenging course, the event had more than one thousand registrants. In the women’s race, Allie McLaughlin took top honors in 57:45, while Addie Bracie of Longmont placed third in 1:00:26. (07/09/2018) Views: 1,713 ⚡AMP

Ethiopian and record holder Shewarge Amare will be running Mount Washington Road Race after 8 years

Shewarge Amare of Ethiopia, who in 2010 smashed the women’s course record in her first, and until now only appearance in the race, plans to return to the historic Race this month to try to repeat her performance of eight years ago, Meanwhile, Joseph Gray, who has won the men’s race each of the past four years, will miss Mt. Washington this year, as he is preparing to compete instead as part of the U.S. team at the 15th WMRA Long Distance Mountain Running Championships on June 24, in Karpacz, Poland.   After an eight-year absence, Amare’s appearance turns what would have been a likely duel between defending champion Shannon Payne and four-time winner Kim Dobson into a three-way battle in this race to the summit of the highest peak in the northeastern U.S. Dobson of Eagle, Colo., holds the second-fastest time ever recorded in the women’s race — one hour, 9 minutes, 25 seconds — and is the only woman to break 1:10 twice on the extremely steep 7.6-mile course. Payne of Franktown, Colo., won Mt. Washington in 2014, in 1:10:12. Absent in 2015 and 2016, she returned last year and won in 1:11:21. (06/13/2018) Views: 1,929 ⚡AMP

U.S. Team set for Mountain Running Championships in Poland

The USATF Mountain, Ultra, Trail (MUT) Council is proud to announce members of Team USATF scheduled to compete at the 15th WMRA Long Distance Mountain Running Championships June 24, in Karpacz, Poland. 

The double loop course covers 36 kilometers (22.4 miles) with 6890 feet of ascending and descending. The route will challenge the five women and five men of Team USATF by climbing and descending the peak of Mt. ŚNIEŻKA twice.

Mt. ÅšNIEÅ»KA rises just under one mile above sea level at 5250 feet. The top three US finishers will score for the team in each gender division. 

The 10 members this year’s team range in age from 21 to 36. The women’s Team USATF is comprised of Addie Bracy, Ashley Brasovan, Renee Metivier, Sandi Nypaver and Kathryn Ann Ross. The men of Team USATF will be Anthony Costales, Joseph Gray, Tatye Pollmann, David Sinclair and Andy Wacker.

(05/03/2018) Views: 4,434 ⚡AMP
by Richard Bolt

USA’s 2016 World Mountain Champion is Pan American x-country Champion

USA’s Joseph Gray and Connor Jeffery, Canada’s Brogan MacDougall and Ecuador’s Carmen Toaquiza were the winners at the Pan American Cross Country Championships in San Juan Opico, El Salvador, on Saturday (17). Joseph Gray led the USA charge in the men’s elite 10km race over a two-kilometre loop course at an equestrian site. Donning the US uniform for the third time in a continental cross-country race, the 33-year-old Gray found an extra gear to finally rise to the top of the podium, following a seventh-place finish at the inaugural 2015 Pan American event in Colombia. Gray, the 2016 world mountain-running champion, completed the distance in 30:02, three seconds ahead of Maiyo. Team USA won the team title. (02/18/2018) Views: 2,118 ⚡AMP