Ponderous Posterior Pikes Peak 50K

To sum it up, it was an amazing way to spend a Saturday!  Woke up early and met Donny Leila, and Joe Z in Morrison to cruise down to the 8 am start of the last of the front range fat ass series in Colorado springs.  For those who don't know there are a series of unofficial races that occur throughout the front range around the holidays hence the fat ass part.  To insinuate that a bunch of super fit ultra running folks are fat is crazy, but it get the point across.

This was my second time down in the springs and both times had been blessed with amazing weather, this time around it topped out around 55-60.  That's shorts and tee shirt whether out here in Colorado!  Pretty much the same course this year except we ran it backwards and added in the dreaded  manitou incline (its supposedly illegal to climb but you wouldn't know it, there were at least 50 people on it)

Manitou Incline

We arrived at JT's house to be greeted by no less than 30 runners and promptly got on our way.  Just as we were leaving I saw a keg being brought in, so naturally i wanted to hurry up and get this run over with so i could get back to spend the afternoon drinking beer in the Colorado sun.  It was a good thing that my friend Ryan had stashed a few pbr's in his pack and was willing to share.  The beginning of the run was mostly uneventful, but it was nice to talk with folks and hear out how their race schedules were shaping up.


The first climb was up red mountain and at the top there was a pretty awesome view of the city in one direction and the incline and pikes peak in the other.  The sun had come up and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day.  We reveled in it's beauty as Ryan drank his first beer of the day.  We got to the base of the incline at about mile 10 I had heard stories, but it's definitely an impressive site.  It was slow going, nothing more than a fast hike, but I stayed steady at it.  It was funny to me how many children, dogs and overweight people were attempting to climb to the top.  I guess in CO springs it's something of a right of passage or something akin to a ride at an amusement park.  I just lowered my head and before I knew it I was at the top.  I had been warned about a false summit, but i guess i missed it because i was kinda surprised when I reach the summit right around a half an hour..  When i got to the top it was crowded with kids, dogs and there was a group smoking cigarettes.  Ryan was already drinking a beer.

We got a nice 3 mile down hill section which could only be described as a mix between skiing and hiking.  We reached the halfway point where there was a truck with drop bags, water and you guessed it pbr.  I had a beer at this point and i got to say I think Ryan is on to something.  Not only did i feel hydrated but any pain incurred from the incline seemed to disappear.  The last half was entirely run-able, I tried my best to follow/catch up to Leila as we made our way through Waldo & Williams canyon.  I'm not sure if it was pbr or the fact that these places were so much fun to run but it seemed like before i knew it we were at rampart range road.  I knew from last year that it was mostly downhill from this point back to the keg, so Ryan I cruised down the road ( I think there may have been a 7 minute mile in there).

The trail took us into the garden of the gods park where there were hoards of people out enjoying the beautiful whether.  It's really great that CO Springs has several amazing parks within city limits.  Ryan and I each drank a beer, it felt a little weird to be drinking beer in a park wearing spandex, 28 miles into a run while families walked by.... but nonetheless i thoroughly enjoyed it.  We made a slight wrong turn here but didn't add or detract from any miles, just added a little extra road miles.  We reached JT's house & the party about about 6hr 30 minutes from when we started obviously including beer breaks.  Great times and i'm already looking forward to next year!