This weekend is the 56th Annual Pikes Peak Ascent & Marathon, the ultimate test of endurance for elite runners. If you’ve ever dreamed of physically pushing your body up Pikes Peak, and enjoy the run back down hill, this could be the run for you. Most races have you start on a nice flat road for a bit before gradually adding in some hills. Not this run. When you take the first turn to the left you are running up, and up, and up for the next 10 miles, bringing you up 6,000 feet of elevation gain. Most races don’t see more than 200-300 elevation differences. But that’s not all, the last three miles still have another 2,000 feet of elevation gain, bringing you to the top of America’s Mountain, and earning the moniker “America’s Ultimate Challenge”.
The Ascent part of the race ends at the top, while the marathoners turn around and run back down. It’s said it can take runners an entire 30 minutes to cover 1 mile as they near the top for lack of oxygen.
If you aren’t ready to enter a race quite like this, but still want to watch elite runners (and they really need all of the support they can get), come on out and cheer them on! Running is one of the few sports where the every day Joe can run alongside or in the same race as Olympians, Gold Medalists, and other famous superstars running for charity. There are a few more running events this year, so it’s not to late to lace up those shoes and start walking or jogging one block at a time.
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