In a word, BRUTAL. This year's Pikes Peak Ascent was BRUTAL. Usually, the weather for the Ascent has a nice sunny start and you can stand to be in a tank top. Not this year.
Let me start out this post by letting you know it may be a bit long. I felt really good going into race day this year. My goal was to beat 4 Hours. Actually, it was to crush it. I figured, if I can keep up a good pace, keep my heart rate between 150-160 and just keep up with my training pace, I could do it
At the start, we had what most would consider mild temps in the mid 50s. But, the rain dampened everything. Living in Colorado I am a little light on waterproof running gear. We don't have a big call for it here and if we do, I just run the treadmill at the Y. We started off the morning layered up with a T-Shirt, cycling arm bands, a long sleeve moisture wicking shirt and my running wind breaker. Before leaving the house I thought to grab a trash bag just in case. I had the trash bag on before we even started.
We started out the race in the first wave (We being my wife and I. Also another friend who took off to win her age division in 3:16!) at 7 AM. The gun went off and the mass push up Manitou Avenue began. Everyone says the secret to this race is in the start. You have a little less than half a mile of relatively flat road running before turning left up Ruxton to the Barr Trail. The key here is not to go out too fast and use up all your energy but also not to go too slow and get trapped up on the trail. I still have yet to figure out this secret. :)
GPS signals were a pretty weak all day due to the cloud cover and weather. Luckily, the landmarks are well marked and your splits are usually done from those. I took it easy up Ruxton and onto Hydro Street. You meet up with the trail just past the end of Hydro. Up to this point is probably the steepest part of the trail.
Once on the trail is where you learn if you started out right. I was in the slower part of the pack. It is hard to pass and takes a lot of energy to dodge the extra rocks in this part of the course. I usually settle in and wait until the trail opens up past the Experimental Forest. Just past the 2nd aid station is the "Top of the W's". This is the end of the initial set of switch backs. I was about 5 minutes ahead of my pace here!! Woo-hoo!!
The course starts to level out a bit here (all relative) and you have a few little flat parts and even some short downhills as you approach the No Name Creek/Experimental Forest aid station. Again, I was still about 5 minutes ahead of my pace here. Once you come out past this aid station, there are a few switch backs and a short climb to the flattest part of the course. It is fairly flat (again this is all relative with an overall 8% grade in 3.2 miles) with some slight rolls. You can see the section highlighted in the pictures below:
Barr Camp is a little over half way between. It is 7.8 miles from the start and there are about 5.6 miles to the finish from here. However, you should be there in about half your time. I was at Barr in less than 2 hours (1:56:28 to be exact). Coming out of Barr Camp for the next 2.6 miles is the worst part of the course in my opinion. I think the 1.6 miles from Barr is the longest section of the course. This is where the rock steps really start to make their appearance and are there to stay. Running on this section difficult as the elevation gain with the rocks makes it hard. Also, this is probably the hardest section of the course to train on. There is no way to easily get to Barr Camp so I tend to neglect the training in this section.
Coming up this section I decided to take a bit easy and refuel a bit before hitting above tree line. I knew it would be cold up there so I wanted to make sure I had the energy and calories to push through. At 4 miles to go to the summit (about 1 mile from tree line and A Frame aid station) I took a Gu. Unknowingly, this would be the last Gu I take. The last mile of this section went pretty well.
I got to the A Frame aid station. I knew this was good. I knew the trail from A Frame up. I had been up 3 times doing runs so I felt confident I could make up a bit of the time I would loose from Barr to A Frame. Coming up to the aid station one of the El Paso County Search and Rescue members was belting out a weather report. "26 Degrees and snowing on top! If you don't have warm weather gear you might want to think about heading back down!" I was not about to head back down. I could feel it was considerably colder than at Barr Camp and the wind was whipping through the trees but I was not going to endure 10 miles back down!
At the beginning of this story I mentioned what I was wearing but forgot to mention I was wearing shorts and had not packed long pants. I still had the 3 layers of clothing on but had stuff the trash bag in my backpack by now. I had donned my gloves between 4 to go and 3 to go (3 to go is the A Frame aid station). I powered on grabbing some water and grapes at the aid station planning another Gu at 2 miles to go.
As we went up, the weather got worse. Just out of the trees the winds whipped across the mountain with snow, sleet and grapple (basically VERY small hail pellets that hurt like hell when the wind is blowing). As we traversed southward on the mountain (the trek up is now a collection of switchbacks zigzagging across the top of Pikes Peak), the winds were fierce. The grapple and sleet pounded every bare inch of your body. It felt like thousands of little needles pelting your skin. I covered my face with my gloves to help. By the time I made it to the 2 miles to go sign I was wet and frozen solid. My hands could not work.
I stumbled off the trail and pulled my trash bag out. Donned the trash bag and started up again. Stopping made it colder. I wanted to get that last Gu but my fingers would not work to open the pack and then get it out. As we got further up the trail we hit out last aid station about half way between A Frame and the summit. I got some water and a handful of grapes. The trail was now about 2 or 3 inches of packed down slush and ice. Not the best footing for making it up the peak.
The whole time I only looked 3 feet in front of me hoping not to be the guy that they had to rescue on the trail after falling down The Cirque. The Cirque is just less than a mile to go from the top, and was a welcome site. From here, the trail gets pretty rocky and there are plenty of rock steps to slow you down and in this weather, slip on. The traffic jam from here on up was constant. A death march trudging up America's Mountain. I had not looked at my watch since A Frame; the face was pretty much frozen over. I had no idea where I was at on my goal.
The last .4 miles of the Peak is known as the 16 Golden Stairs. This is a collection of short switch backs with large rock steps at each turn. One "Stair" is 2 switch backs. So, if you are counting, 32 switchbacks. Just about each switchback in this section was stopped with people taking it slowly. The rocks at this point were covered in sheets of ice. The trail was just packed down snow going over the rocks.
Finally, I made it to the finish. I read the clock, it said 4:20. I missed my time. Not by a few minutes but by a lot! I was pretty disappointed. There was a large line of people trying to get through the finish. We were all stopped. My fingers did not work so one of the poor volunteers up there had to grab my bib number.
I picked up my check bag, got my finisher's jersey (pretty cool long sleeve technical shirt) and headed into the hut on top of the peak. I was so exhausted and cold I did nothing but shake as I tried to change my clothes. Finally I made it into some dry clothes and caught a van to the bottom.
All in all, a really shitty race. My official time ended up being 4:19:59. Still well above my goal. Approximately 1800 racers started the day out between the 2 waves. 760 of us made it to the top. They started turning people away at A Frame at about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Would I do it again? Yes...
