Pikes Peak Marathon 2012: Race Report

Less than half an hour into the race, I knew it was going to be a long, painful slog to the finish. And I still had 23 miles, and 5000+ feet of climbing to go.

The ultimate goal for the day, illuminated by classic Alpenglow.

In retrospect, I probably could have seen it sooner. Two nights before the race, my friend, who is 4 years into a 6 year stint with the Navy, came into town. This meant, naturally, that we went out, and had more to drink than I usually do. The next day, the power went out right around the time we were going to eat dinner, and I ended up eating corn and chicken instead of my normal spaghetti. Add that to the general fatigue in my legs that had been present all week, and the Pikes Peak Marathon seemed a whole lot longer.

Three miles in, near the top of the famous "W's," I was still feeling ok, but I could tell that my legs were not all there. I could cruise faster than most on the following flats and mild uphills, catching many. I was still on and under my goal splits for this section of the race. I was still hopeful, but realization was dawning in me that this would not be a breakthrough race for me.

After Barr Camp, though, I blew up. I asked my legs for ore juice for the climb, and they had nothing to give. Far, far sooner than I would normally need to, at a shallow grade, I slowed to a hike. People started passing me, and though I intended to follow all of them, my legs refused to function.

At 12000', past the A-frame, Kilian Jornet flew down, smiling, laughing, and yelling "great job" at the people he passed. He had clearly not broken the record, but was just as clearly firmly in the lead and not in the least bit worried about the competition. Indeed, he broke his age group record for the descent while looking effortless.

Meanwhile, I continued my slow plod to the top. I had considered, every half mile or so for the past 8 miles, dropping out and saving myself for another day. But I quashed that thought, and continued. Even at 13 and 14 thousand feet, I was unable to push myself to the point where I was breathing hard. It says a ton about my acclimatization, but not much about my fitness on the day.

Nonetheless, I finished the ascent in a decently respectable 3:20, and turned to head down. Down past the A-Frame, I was feeling good again, and passing people while not being passed myself. But again, after three miles of the novel downhill section, my legs gave out.

I slogged through Barr Camp and back along the flats, struggling to hold even a 10 minute mile pace at times. Then, on an embarrassingly smooth stretch of trail, I found myself suddenly lying on my side with the taste of dust in my mouth. I had tripped over the only tree root within 50 yards. But lucky for me the next runner on the trail was nice enough to stop and give me a hand up before cruising by. At this point, another runner I had passed already on the way down trotted by as well.

Discouraging.

The remaining 6 miles to the finish is best left undescribed. I  made my way to the finish for a time of 5:22. My friends and training partners had come in at 4:22 and 4:39 for 10th and 18th place.

I have had many tell me since that, given the kind of day I had, coming in at 59th place overall and 9th in my age group is nothing to complain about. And I know they are right. But I am still frustrated and disappointed with the result.

Next time. I will learn from this and I will dial in my next marathon (or ultra?) that much better.

Edit 8-23: I have already decided on my next race: the Moab Trail Marathon on November 4. Between now and then I will be doing several shorter races, including a 2k and a 4 mile trail race, to up my tolerance for higher turnover.

Focus!

It's taper time once again.

Pikes Peak Marathon is on Sunday, the 19th, and my legs are, to put it mildly, not cooperating. My quads have been feeling out of sorts ever since a few days after my last Longs Peak run. I took it easy on the downhill, but I think I pounded my legs a little too much in trying to stay slow, trying not to a) injure myself or b) injure anybody else among the hordes on the trail that day.

Fortunately, I still have a good four days left, and my legs are starting to feel better after a few short, flat runs. Tomorrow will be a bit of a test, and then it will be short, flat runs until Pikes on Sunday. All I need to do now is focus on the race, and put my nonresponsive legs out of my mind.

Given the idea I have brewing, focusing on a marathon is proving difficult. But more on that post run.

I, for one, am looking forward to posting my own time with Matt Carpenter, Max King, and Kilian Jornet.  It should be an epic race.

Playing around in the Collegiate Peaks

Looking down Browns Pass towards Princeton

Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have my Mom's side of the family come out to Buena Vista, CO, for a week-long reunion. I had been excited about this for a long time, since the Collegiate Peaks are prime running territory, and the trip might afford me some great training for the Pikes Peak Marathon (now coming up in under two weeks!).

While I was excited, I also knew that, this being a reunion, family was first priority, and whatever good runs (beyond my normal daily routine) I could fit in would be an added bonus.

So, losing no time, the first morning I was there, while everybody was still settling in, I headed up to the Denny Creek Trailhead outside of BV, and up Browns Pass. This trailhead also leads to the trail up Mt Yale, one of Colorado's 14ers, but I decided to leave that for a later day. To my surprise and delight, the trail, after an initial, steep, half mile uphill, proved reasonably mellow and soft, save for a few technical sections. Five miles and 2200 feet or so later, I was halfway through a near-perfect run.

Marmot

I had, the weekend before, had probably the worst run of my life. A trip up James Peak, a lost, and eventually returned, camera, and poor nutritional choices had led to a 16 mile run taking 4:15, including some walked downhills. A quick, sub two-hour, beautiful run was exactly what I needed to come back from the disappointment that was the James Peak run.

The next day, my sister and her husband arrived, and we quickly headed back up to the same trail (at 3:30PM). My sister wanted to get some running and quiet reading in, and my brother-n-law and I decided to see what we could do on Yale in a reasonable amount of time. 3300 feet and a couple hours later, we realized there was no chance to make the summit, turned around, and headed back down the mountain to find my sister finishing Kara Goucher's book on running. This stands as one of my favorite hikes ever.

The sky near Yale was stunning

My brother-in-law would return to Yale a few days later to summit. That day, I headed over to the North Cottonwood Trailhead for a 2.5-hr run, to see what I could do on Harvard. Once again, I did not summit due to time constraints. I had a ziplining appointment at 2PM that I didn't want to miss. But once again, I had a fantastic run,  putting in a tempo effort up the trail, and then flying down it at, according to my watch, 5:40 mile pace.

All in all, an excellent week in the mountains. Part of me was inclined to be annoyed that I did not get to summit any peaks during the week, but I realized that, summits or not, I was getting great training in at altitude.

And the training paid off. Less than a week after I got back, I headed back to Longs Peak to get a final, big mountain training run in before Pikes. Despite again not feeling fresh, I took a full 18 minutes off my ascent time, bounding up the homestretch to reach the top in 2:18. And I did so in front of no other than Andy Anderson, Park Ranger and holder of the Longs Peak RT FKT.  I descended in a lazy 1:55 for a 23 minute PR on Longs.

Meeker from Longs 

Tons of people on the trail. Probably slowed my descent down from what it could have been. Andy is the ranger in yellow on the right.

Finally, this young bull elk posed for several pictures 3 miles from the trailhead.