I'm a badass mofo. Yes, I am.

[Rain Man]

I did the Pike's Peak Ascent yesterday. I was very uncertain about it because I hurt my knee three months ago and have only done one ten-mile run since April. But based on what I was reading, you end up walking a lot and I thought, "Hey, even if I'm not in running shape I can walk forever", so with great trepidation I went for it, figuring I could walk it if I had to. I figured I could walk it in 4.5 to 5 hours even with no running. Not quite, and I finished in the bottom ten percent of runners, but hey, I'm proud as heck to have made it.

This is not your normal half-marathon. It's a 13.32 mile race that has only one hill, but the hill is Pike's Peak. You start at 6,300 feet in altitude and the finish line is the summit of Pike's Peak at 14,115 feet. Other than maybe a quarter-mile it's all uphill.

Holy crap, that was hard. It was crowded and had narrow trails, so it was hard to pass, and actually was almost impossible to pass from Miles 2 through 5. I only ran a couple of miles at most in that phase because I was stuck behind walkers, and that turned out to be a huge hidden blessing. If I had been running in those early miles I'd've never made it to the finish line.

After 8 miles I was still on track to beat 4.5 hours and was feeling good. I was even thinking, "Geez, this is kind of overblown." The funny thing too is that you could hear the finish line announcements at about 7 miles since the sound carried down the mountain, so it didn't seem like you were that far off.

And then all of a sudden it got tough.

By the time I hit Mile 10 I was hurting, and it was all I could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I really wasn't in the shape I needed to be in, and once I hit 10,000 feet that became apparent. You're going uphill constantly and getting less oxygen with every breath and it just keeps getting harder. Other people in my pace group were struggling too, and starting around 9 miles I started seeing people stopping to rest and obviously struggling.

Typically, by the time I'm at the 10 mile mark of a run, I'm about a half-hour from finishing. IT TOOK ME OVER TWO HOURS TO GET THOSE LAST THREE MILES. My lord, that was hard. I wish I had a picture of the view up to the finish line, because it was absolutely indescribable looking up at it. You could kind of see the finish line at the top, but it was about 2,000 feet up, and you could see switchback after switchback after switchback above you with people walking.

The last mile was unbelievable. There were a few other guys pacing with me, and in all seriousness we would go about 200 yards, collapse on the rocks and rest, get up, go about 200 yards, drop down again, and so on. I think my last rest stop was about 200 feet feet from the finish line, but I couldn't do it. I had to stop again to rest up for that last 200 feet. Unbelievable. It took me over 45 minutes to make that last mile. I got to the finish line, walked away, and practically started crying with relief.

This was by far the hardest physical thing I've ever done. Coming down, a couple of guys that finished right behind me said that they run sub-4 hours marathons, and it took them more than 6 hours to get up. (They were both lowlanders from the East, and none of us had trained at altitude, which was a mistake. The uphill was hard, but the altitude was the killer - you're getting about 61 percent of the oxygen you'd get at sea level.) I made it in 5:58:37, about a half-hour ahead of the cutoff. The poor folks who took more than 6.5 hours (and there were a fair amount of them) were out of luck because you have to finish before 6.5 hours to get counted as finishing the race.


First few miles - forgot to keep track
1:22 - 4.3 miles done (19 minute pace) 2,500 feet climbed at this point
1:58 - 6.3 miles done (18 minute pace on these 2 miles)
2:16 - 7.3 miles done (18 minute pace on this mile) Another 1,400 feet or so for 3,900 feet
2:46 - 8.3 miles done (30 minute pace on this mile - what the?)
3:17 - 9.3 miles done (31 minute pace on this mile)
3:55 - 10.3 miles done (38 minute pace on this mile) Another 1,800 feet or so for 5,700 feet
4:34 - 11.3 miles done (39 minute pace on this mile)
5:13 - 12.3 miles done (39 minute pace on this mile)
5:58 - 13.3 miles done (45 minute pace on this mile) - Another 2,100 feet up for a total of 7,800 feet




Here are a few links. None come close to describing this thing.

http://fwix.com/coloradosprings/shar...tart_to_finish (The better photos start around Photo 50 unless you like boring pictures of people crossing the finish line.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyUeANHHdac Oddly, this person finished only six places behind me. If he'd started the finish line film 90 seconds earlier I could've heard my name getting called. The first guy whose name you hear was one of the four guys I was walking with at the very end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ3ePjERzWE

http://www.krdo.com/video/24712049/index.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...884547420.html

http://pokingandpeaking.blogspot.com...ak-ascent.html

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Rain Man -- it must have crossed your mind a time or two that they may not have any water at the 11.6 aid station either?

That would've been a major problem. However, they swore at 9.6 that 11.6 would have water. The funny thing is that even though it was still 1.7 miles from the finish line, that area is so steep that they were able to run a water hose down from the summit to the 11.6 mark. The 1.7 remaining miles is switchback after switchback after switchback.