Pikes Peak marathon is touted as being one of the toughest in the world. It is 13.1 miles up and 13.1 miles down. Over the last 10 years, I've hung around a lot of marathoners. Much of the typeical fodder before before a race is about how long was your longest training run. At Pikes, I knew I was in for a challenge when I heard everyone talking about how high they trained. For a flatlander like myself, the race was a dealth march, lasting 6 hours, 55 minutes. I ended up finishing in the top third of the starters....and I paid for it.
The most interesting part of the race was above 12,000 feet. My fingers swelled, speech slurred and judgment became lax. Each mile above tree line took 30 minutes. When I reached the summit, I could hardly wait to get back down to air. However, going down was a like a steady sledge hammer beating on my quads all the way down. I was more sore after this race, than the NY Ironman. For marathon connoisseurs, this is a definite must do, but only once.
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