Carpenter's Pikes Peak Record May Fall

Carpenter - in the switchbacks near the summit

It's Pikes Peak weekend - not that I'll be in Manitou Springs to run. Pikes is a crazy race and it is the trail running test piece in the central rockies. Steve Gachupin and Senovio Torres made names for themselves on that climb and held the age-group records for years until Matt Carpenter showed up and cleared the board. His top mark, un-threatened now for more than 25yrs, is 3hr 16.5min.

This weekend spaniard Kilian Jornet plans to be on the line for Sunday's marathon to challenge this storied mark and hoist his name to the top. Running friends in Colorado have been discussing this topic for weeks, a serious record attempt by a champion runner, this could go. Jornet is the toughest trail runner the world has seen though he generally specializes in grueling all-day distances and technical courses at high degrees of difficulty. Pikes Peak is relatively short and manicured in comparison (26mi w/ 7.6K of climbing and descent).

The biggest hurdle in a race this short will be familiarity with the trail and whether he can piece together the footing sequences on the ascent to match Carpenter's turn-around time. The top runners will wire these tight sections to memory then surge through during the race to break their chasers. It will be equally necessary for a serious run at the record. Seems very silly to cast doubt on Jornet but I just don't think he can match peak-Carpenter on the climb, I do think he can get it done somehow with a screaming descent, perhaps strong enough to nick 10-20sec from the standard. All very exciting for a niche event that has seen some of the best come and go and gotten nowhere close to Carpenter's mastery of this climb. Toughest trail record their is.


Related Posts:
 - The Tough Guy List
 - Pikes Ascent - Race Report

La Luz Entries

Pikes Peak - looked cooler from the plane

Been traveling. The running could use more attention, but I did see this the other day >>>. A stellar viewing of a recently snow-capped Pikes Peak during my Santa Fe to Boulder fly by. Ascent Wave 1, still has open positions for the race this August.

Positions are locked over at La Luz, with the registration list now posted over at UltraSignUp.com. Yours truly landed a race bib, as did several other Santa Fe runners which is a fine thing. Almost felt like I was running alone out there last year, and I found my reppin' abilities to be severely limited by the sheer number of donuts and beer I was crushing back last summer. Among this year's SF crew I see Leigland, Corona, Dreier, Baker (now in Abq but a SFHS grad so I'm claiming him for SF), Conley, Gordon, and Temple. My man Steve got wait-listed as did Espo, which hurts, but maybe they slide in as the race approaches. Assuming we're all on the starting line in August this is quite the crew. There's also Halladay and Kneisler from the Hill who deserve mention.

Houghton casually crossing the finish for one of his recent titles (2011?)

The Big Guns up front include four-time champ Kris Houghton and two-time Big Tesuque champ Dustin Martin. Olympic Trials qualifier Jesse Armijo is currently wait-listed as is five-time champ Erica Baron on the women's side as is ultra-champ Katrin Silva.

Fired up about all of this. Lots to love about these recent events.
Reminder that Imogene registration is this Sunday, June 1st, 6am. Get some NM folks up there to battle the Flagstaff crew.

Related Posts: 
 - Simon Gutierrez
 - Tony Sandoval
 - Al Waquie

More on Boston - plus La Luz!

Shalane's 2:22 effort comes up short
courtesy of Google images

Two weeks later I'm still stoked from Meb's impossible Boston win. I unfairly left out any detail of the Women's race in my prior writeup due to the massive burning man-crush.

Quickly then - Shalane Flanagan was the runner all eyes were trained on, the one with the best chance of breaking the Boston curse and redeeming the City and the race from last year's tragedy. And she appeared to be channeling God because she ran lights-out. Unlike the men's race, the women's field wasn't about to let a runner of Shalane's caliber charge off without covering such a move. End result was a brilliant run by Shalane that dragged the field well under the course record but put five women between Shalane and the victor's olive wreath. She did nail down the American course record, took 3min off her career best (at Boston!) and is now the 3rd fastest American all-time (behind Joanie and Deena). Solid effort, but she was visibly crushed that she couldn't come through for her hometown. Better analysis of the race by Tony Reavis here.

Then there's this, tweeted out by the folks over at Pikes:

"... now holds the American course record at the Boston Marathon". Flanagan testing the ascent at Pikes Peak back in the day. Interestingly, her time isn't remotely close to the age-group record of 2hr 39min, which is pretty effin' fast. Faster than the guy typing this anyhow.

And this leads me to the broader topic of the summer trail racing season. It's here sons! Pikes is mostly full but there's still room in the Wave 1 Ascent field. Qualifying times are 1hr40min for a half marathon or 3hr45min for the marathon. Whadder' ya waitin' for? If you haven't yet laced up for a race with over 7800ft of elevation gain than you're really just piddlin' away your time and training, aren't you? Aren't you?

La Luz and the Rock Slide

Second note on running the summer Classics:  La Luz is still accepting entries into their registration lottery - extended through midnight of Saturday May 10th. Race day is August 4th. I'm getting one of those lottery spots and I'm sending that slot trail like Meb/Shalane on an April morning in Boston. Hide the women and children (Erica Baron excepted since she kicks my ass).

And the third marker on the summer Classics, Imogene:  Registration opens (and closes) the morning of June 1. Race day is September 6th. This race is so rad, I'm hoping the logistics fall together for me to return to this beaut this year. Plus Ouray now has their own brewpub (as does Ridgway), so there's that.

Related Posts:
 - La Luz Trail Run Recap 2013
 - Pikes Peak Ascent - trail report
 - Imogene Pass Trail Run 2013



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