A little bit of patience and a dare to try something new paid off over the weekend for a couple of Colorado runners who competed at the 60th edition of the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon. At long last, Alex Nichols took the win in the marathon and Kim Dobson topped the women who finished the double—the ascent and the marathon races.
Saturday’s 13.3-mile ascent climbed 7,815 feet before finishing at the 14,115-foot summit. Sunday’s full-distance marathon did the same, but raced back downhill for a round trip of “America’s Mountain,” in Manitou Springs, Colorado.
A first-place finish in the marathon was a long time coming for Nichols, a 30-year-old local runner and part-time filmmaker. Fittingly, his most recent movie, “Where Dreams Don’t Fade,” is about Kenyan runners who refuse to give up on aging dreams. After a pair of second-place finishes in the marathon, including by a heartbreaking 23 seconds in 2013, Nichols’ history with the town’s famous peak reflects the same theme.
“It’s never fun getting second, especially two years in a row,” said Nichols, also a successful Skyrunner in European mountain races. “You look up every day in training and see it. It’s a big race, a very unique race – there’s only a few races that go up to 14,000 feet.”
Nichols reached the summit third, over a minute behind Rickey Gates and Abu Diriba, a New York-based Ethiopian. “My uphill motion was a little painful, I’ve had a slight hip flexor problem,” Nichols said. “My plan was to just get to the summit healthy, or as healthy as possible.”
After making the turn and starting back downhill, Nichols quickly overtook the two leaders. Three miles into the descent he turned a one-minute deficit into a one-minute lead. “That’s the rockiest stretch, and with all of the recent rain it’s even more technical than in previous years,” Nichols said.
He continued to build his lead while racing down the Barr Trail, ultimately finishing first in 3:46 and ahead by more than seven minutes.
Japan’s Touru Miyahara, the man who topped Nichols in the 2013 marathon, won this year’s ascent race, reaching the top in 2:15. Miyahara powered past then leader Andy Wacker, a former University of Colorado standout and current U.S. mountain running team member, in the race’s final three miles. Wacker suffered a similar fate last year, moving from first to third in 2014 during the final high altitude miles.
Already a Pikes Peak legend, ascent course record holder Kim Dobson looked to further cement her legacy in the women’s races. Dobson won the ascent for the fourth time, adding to victories in 2011, 2012, and 2013. She finished in 2:40, well off her 2:25 course record from 2012, but comfortably in front of second-place Brandy Erholtz.
Dobson, known for her uphill running prowess, decided to double in this year’s races, competing in both the uphill-only ascent and the round trip marathon.
“I knew my fitness was nowhere near what it was in 2012,” she said. After competing in the ascent so many times, “it’s hard to be free of expectations [at Pikes], so the double was a way to shake up the weekend and try something new.”
She made the race decision just two weeks earlier, to “face my fear of the downhill.”
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“I just love that challenge of how fast you can up something. Heart beating, breathing hard, at altitude, your legs burning, it’s just such an intense full body exercise,” she said. “The pain and satisfaction draw you up, and the downhill has always just been a way back to the car.”
The fatigue from the consecutive races did prove challenging however, and Dobson, of Eagle Colorado, was third in the marathon.
Marathon race winner Hirut Guangul led throughout and finished ninth overall in 4:29. Guangul , like men’s runner-up Diriba, is also a New York-based Ethiopian and online race result searches show she holds a 2:34 marathon best. Guangul, as with each of the race winners, earned a $2,000 first-place cash prize.
While Dobson conquered her own fear of the downhill, others may be left with nightmares of the long, rocky, and sandy trail. Just after passing Dobson for second in the marathon, Littleton, Colorado’s Hayley Benson tumbled to the ground in a fall that required two hours of finish line medical care, cleaning a deep cut in her arm that reached clear to the bone.
