NicoleThe Race
Perhaps it is a little bit of a misnomer for those of us “only” doing the 30k race, but the Pikes Peak Ultra 30k was still plenty challenging. The course starts at the popular Bear Creek Park in Colorado Springs and heads up into the foothills of Pikes Peak. For others wanting to get higher into the foothills, the race offered 50k and 50mi options as well. 30k (or thereabouts) with 3000+ feet of climbing was enough for me this year.
The weather was a typical summer day with highs hitting the mid/upper 80s and temperatures in the 60s at the start. Some clouds kept the start cool at the east-exposed park, but that would change later!
At 7am a hundred and thirty one of us took off to try to catch the 50k and 50 milers who started at 6:30 and 6:00am respectively. The start has quite a bit of elevation gain, as the first 5 miles of the course has close to 1700 feet of elevation gain. My plan was to power hike anything sort of steep. [I recently found myself in an anemic state so any sort of hard effort just put my heart rate through the roof.] I was planning on a 4-ish hour day, which is plenty long enough to be racing.
I run with power (Stryd), so my main power target was to be around 160W, which is the bottom end of my Z2. I’d give myself a little leeway into the 170s if it felt OK, but didn’t want to be in the 180s, even though that is my upper end of Z2. [Another reference point: At the end of May I ran the High Drive Challenge 10 miler, which is the first and last 5 miles of the Pikes Peak Ultra. My average power was 181W. Throw in another 7 miles on trails and anemic state and power hiking was the only way to go.]
The Bear Creek Park section went to plan. Average power was 157 and indeed my heart rate was a bit high. But my legs felt just fine, which gave me confidence I was pacing well. I didn’t want to get caught up in the start frenzy and just let people go. This part of the course has wide packed-dirt/gravel trails making it easy for people to get going at their own pace. Before making it to Bear Creek Rd, we drop into a shaded section of single track, which is a nice refreshing downhill before hitting the short paved section that takes us to High Drive. The grade is steady here, which was a nice prep before the climb coming.
The next section was High Drive, which is just a dirt road that goes up. 2.5 miles all up. I knew this road and knew that it would make most sense to hike it. It took me just under 45 minutes to get to the top – the average grade here is about 8.5%. Check another segment off! I tried to stay with some women here but on the steeper sections they were just a little bit faster.
At the top of High Drive there is a junction and we turned sharp left to get on Captain Jack’s trail. Now we had some runnable sections as this part of the trail had over 600 feet of loss over 2.3ish miles. Time to get my legs used to running again! About 7.5 miles into the race we had aid station #1. My friend Ruth was there cheering on some people, so Rudy and I were bonus racers for her. I was feeling pretty good so just grabbed a handful of pretzels, and went on my way.
The next section was the Spring Creek Trail and the Columbine Trail, a bit over 3 miles, 650 feet of gain and 380 of loss. The downhill sections were nice, the up portions had quite a few switchbacks and just felt steep. The east views as we climbed up were gorgeous. It’s easy to get caught up in the grind of the climb to get up, so I hope everyone took the time to see the views every now and then! This part of the trail seemed to go on forever, and there was a nice train of us moving our way up and up getting baked by the sun for a good chunk of it. I didn’t remember that many switchbacks compared to when Rudy and I scouted the course… Getting to aid station #2 at the top High Drive parking lot was my next goal. I had my plan in place – get my hat wet and adjust my shoes. They were a bit loose so my feet were slipping on the downhill sections, and because what goes up, must come down, I needed to be ready.
I sat in a chair, and let the concerned volunteer know I was just fine, adjusted my shoes, grabbed some pretzels and a couple thick pickle slices. I doused my hat with water, drank another cup and off I went to power hike the last mile up this section of High Drive. After this last bit of uphill, it was going to be a downhill run-fest. The big question was how fast my legs could carry me, as my calves were getting pretty tight. My ballpark estimate was a 10-minute per mile pace, so when I settled into a 9 minute per mile pace, I was happy. I caught a few runners on this stretch, which kept my motivation up.
When I got to the bottom gate of High Drive, I inhaled a gel, as there was about 2.75 miles to go to the finish and according to plan I should have consumed something coming down High Drive. I made my way down the pavement, which seemed to feel longer than the trip up it earlier! I was glad to see the bridge to the trail and now just a little over 2 miles to the finish. I walked these uphill portions and did my best to run the rest. The sun was beating strong on the exposed park and I just had one goal – stay reasonably strong to the finish. I passed a couple more people on the last stretch of rollers and then the finish was in sight.
To my surprise, Rudy was just up ahead, having finished less than a minute before me. On these courses someone could be so close and you have no idea! Post race festivities were on point as running friends of mine from out of state were here visiting over the weekend. They met us at the finish line and we enjoyed a recovery meal of burgers, boozy shakes, beer, and hours of catch-up conversation.
Overall thoughts:
I hit my goal time (4hrs +/- 15min) with a 3:55:17. My calves felt the worst, but although they got really tight, they fortunately didn’t cramp. My legs were tired and I asked “will they keep me supported” at the end with the downhill running! Considering this was my longest run (miles and time) of the year I was quite pleased. I probably didn’t drink enough, but did consume 1.5L of fluid. Calories consumed: 375 from clif bars, 100 from a gel, and a maybe 75 additional from the pickles and pretzels, so about 550 total calories. Thanks to Mad Moose Events for putting on a great race!
This was also the final race in the Grand Prix of Running – Long Series. I’ve been remiss on getting race reports up for the events in the Series after the 5k on St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s a quick summary of the series and my results:
March 17 – 5k on St Patrick’s Day: 23:53
April 13 – Rattler 25k: 3:16:05
May 4 – Take 5 (miles) in the Garden: 43:06 (1st place Master’s female!)
May 25 – High Drive Challenge: 1:49:11
July 20 – Classic 10k: 55:51
July 27 – Pikes Peak Ultra 30k: 3:55:17
It has been a nice change of pace to get out on the trails this spring and summer.
What’s next? Bike MS Wyoming August 10-11.
Nicole
