Date: 26 Aug 2006 15:30:26
From: Roeret
Subject: racerapport Pikes Peakmarathon long
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Hi Group...
So did the photo come up on Marathonfoto so let me give a "short" rapport
from the race.....
As mentioned earlier on a trainingsupdate did I come to Colorado the 4. of
Aug..
I did run some '14.000 (4 all together) + an hour at no time below 13.500
ft..
Sunday was the day to see if all the last year hard training was enough to
"beat" the mountain (frankly I don't think that mountain can be beaten; you
can at the most be allowed to get up and down without serious problems IF
you prepere yourself well!! If not it will chew you up and spit you out!!).
sunday morning at 5 (gosh!) up and a light breakfast and all the prerace
preparation (you know all your stupid habits to fight back the nervous
stomach!). At 7 the start went and.....
OK Lets give a short course description first. First ½ mile on manitou ave.
is rather even just a 100 ft up or so. Left turn on Ruxton and after a few
100 m the elevation starts. From there to the start on the trailhead is ~ 1
mile and elevationgain is ~ 400 ft where over half is on the last 300 m!
Then come the trail (Barr trail) with a lot off switchbacks (called the
w's) at ~ 12%. On the first switchback is first aidstation. On the 12. sb.
is next aidstation. On top of the w's come a long traverse from mount
Manitou (or Rocky Mountain) where the trail goes over to Pikes Peak. The
traverse will alltogether gain some ft (~ 2000 on 3-4 miles) most on the
start and in the end. At the traverse is first aidstation "no Name Creak"
and after that "Bobs Road". At the end of the traverse you come to Barr
Camp (and aid) and is now at 10.200 ft and is ½ way (both in time and
dist.). From there it is all "downhill" (with your ability to function).
Now comes 3 miles hard trail bringing you to "A Frame" (and aid) at 12.000
ft. Now you hit the timberline and suddenly you will REALLY feel the lack
off oxygen (if you haven't felt it before). Now there is only 3 miles to
the summit; BUT what miles!! No oxygen and you start to run away from the
summit on a VERY long sw. The fastest runner can do the last 3 miles ~ just
under 15min/miles !! (hmmmmm I spend "way" over 1 hour up there!!) :-).
Just before the last mile you come to last aidstation the "circe". The last
mile is on 1 foot wide track on rocks; just what you need when you can't
remember who you are or what the h.... you do up there because the lack off
oxygen! Especially the last ~½ mile is 32 hard sw with a LOT of step ups!
Then you are at the summit at 14.100 ft and an aidstation. Then is it just
to do it all in reverse order and then you are finished!!
I went out slow and easy (I thought) and hit Ruxton ½ a min faster than if I
should do an 5 hour roundtrip... Hit the next splittime at 45 sec ahead..
Then came the steep part and there where a little crowding around me but
not as much as I was fearing and I actually could run my own race.. When we
came to the trail we hit the first aidstation and I drank 1 cup of Gatorade
(had only been running less than 15 min). then we all just "ran" up the sb.
at our comfortably pace with walking on the harder sections. It soon showed
that we where a "train" off ~ 5 persons in allmost the same pace (some
faster on steeper parts some faster on less steep parts) and we raced nice
a easily with the one taking over where he was fast and the next taking
over on other terrain. The 5 of us where scattered out over ~50-150 ft so
no crowding here. On 12. sb next aid. 2 cups off Gatorade and on in less
than 15 sec. Around here I saw what showed to be a Jensen (most common name
in DK!) and the hunting started. It took me 20 min to gain that 80 m!
Pic of Roger jensen: http://marathonfoto.com race: Pikespeakmarathon last
name Jensen BIb number 1019
When I finally caught him I mentioned it wasn't fair that he beat me when he
could be my father (later I found out that he was only 13 years older than
me). We had a nice chat on the way as we held the same pace for some miles.
On the traverse I drank 2 cups Gatorade on "No Name creak" and "Bob's Road"
and I hit Barr Camp aidstation at 1.34 3. min behind a 5 hours roundtrip.
Here I lost Jensen the right way (behind me). The next section to A frame
was actually not so bad except for the fact that my calfs started to cramp.
I quickly took 2 salt tablets and in a few min it stopped. I dropped some
time according to my (optimistic!) timetable but was ok! Then over the
timberline and no oxygen and long hard sw. lots of rocks/stepups but I was
actually ok most of the way both mentally and physically. With some 2½ mile
to go I heard a distante "runner" and there came Matt Carpenter down the
hill.. WOWWWWWWWWW what a lightfooted man! He was running the hard part of
the descent at a fabulous pace!! There went over 10 min before the next
came!! The downhill runners wasn't that much of a problem as I feared and I
mostly could run as I wished!! I Wasn't going as fast as hoped but felt ok
actually great until ~ 1 mile to go. There hit the lack of oxygen me hard
most mentally. I have never had it that way before. It was so hard mentally
that I just wanted to lean against a rock and cry... HMMMM grown ups don't
cry so I continued in a mace and frankly I can't tell a lot of that part of
the race (even though the pulse was 2-4 beat/min slower than avg!). I drank
at the "circe" 2 glasses I think. Suddenly I was at the 32 Golden stairs
and wupti I was on the summit (or it felt that way) later I found out that
I was on the summit at 3.18 (18 "behind" plan). On the summit they rip a
part of the bib number off and did a lot with the bib I didn't care to
consentrate on and they asked if I should have something to drink/eat. I
just turned round the pole on the track and started the descent. The only
think I was thinking of was to get down in the air and get my emotions
settled on a normal level....... The first part was hard footing and in
that condition I was in it wasn't fast. I'm no fast downhill runner
normally and this part of the mountain was even worse! And like a bat out
of hell came Jensen again and he was FAST downhill!! Actually I never saw
him again before at the finishline. Eventually I came down in the air and
my system started to function normally again. I drank at the "circe" and at
"A frame" 2 cups gatorade. From A frame to Barr Camp was the hardest
downhill for me...Lots of small rocks an roots and hard downsteps. At Bar
Camp (4.20) I decided to dump my bottle w. gel (had functioned well on the
Gatorade). At the time I saw the trashbin came Terese on the path greeting
me (one of the caretaker of the camp) and I yelled "hey" while I tried to
hit the trashbin. THAT was too much for my system to handle. The left foot
didn't come clear the earth (or hit a rock/root). Down I went... HARD flat
on my face. Hands, knees left underarm and right upper thigh was showing
clearly signs of the impact. Worst on left underarm and the thigh. As on
all the aidstations the helper where fast and allways positive and
helpsome. Within 1 minnut (maybe even less than 45 sec!) I was washed up
had my 2 cups of gatorade and on my way!! Offcause there where a
photographere less than ½ an hour later just sitting there taking my
picture. (35932976; that one is one I'll order; you can't see it clearly
but I was scattered RED). The downhill over the traverse wasn't so bad
except from the fact that I was getting tired!! Avg. min/mile dropped from
a finishtime of 5.15 to actually 5.19.41 within the last 3 miles. The sb.
down where actually harder than I had expected because large parts of the
trail was washed down by all the rain in the last 2 weeks leaving v shape
holes to run on the "banks" of. You know 2-3 steps on left bank loosing
your balance and jumping over on the right bank. Zik zak run when you are
tired after over 5 hours race... I hit the tarmac and 1 mile to go downhill
and there where no more left. Easy footing downhill and I couldn't gain any
speed, just running with the mantra "get to the finishline; get to the
finishline". Luckily the finishline was at the end of Ruxton (descent some
hundred meters shorter than the ascent) and I did reach it!! Even though I
many times didn't thought I could make it! Round the corner on Manitou ave.
and 40 m to the line!! A lot of shouting greeting (personally from one of
the workers on the finishline with who I had a long evening talking to
Friday and the microphone man greeting all off us).
Before I could do anything I was allmost attacked by people who asked if I
needed help on my wounds. I told them that I only needed a bath because it
wasn't deep wounds. I sat down and 1½ l. water later (a few min) I left the
arrival area. Strolled around and found Jensen again. He did actually win
his age group. Congratulation to him!! Back to the hotel; bath and down on
my back on the bed!! All to fast the time where my friend Jan was expected
to show up arrived and I had to raise and go back to the finish area to
shout him in the last 40 m. I even had the mind to remember my camera and
got some nice photos at the finish area and off Jan when he arrived.
All together a wonderful race and maybe the most well organiced race I have
ever raced. 5 stars to Manitou Springs!
martin, denmark
pics:
http://www.marathonfoto.com/order_my_photos.cfm?RaceOID=20952006M2&LastName=RORDAM&BibNumber=742&Language=en&Mailing=2292&BFI=13h09s62rb&Frames=true&Flash=true&FlashVersion=7&Height=768&Width=1024&Index2Home=true
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