Dry air at the Barr Trail Mountain Race made Matt Carpenter‘s throat feel like sand paper Sunday morning, but the founder of the sixth annual race wasn’t about to let that stop him.
The Manitou Springs resident plowed through six miles and 3,630 feet in elevation before turning around at Barr Camp — 10,200 feet in elevation — with a 2-minute lead over Simon Gutierrez.
The deep breaths from Gutierrez had long grown silent when Carpenter completed the 12-mile run in 1:31:14 for his second straight win in the event and fourth overall.
Gutierrez placed second in 1:33:26.
“I don’t know if it’s maybe a little haze from the (fire) or what but, boy, my throat’s gone right now,” Carpenter said. “Going up I was breathing really hard. I took water at all the aid stations but it was still tough.”
Not only did Carpenter feel like he had something to prove at age 40, but also he finished runner-up to Gutierrez three weeks ago in a 7.6-mile, uphill race at Mount Washington, Vt.
After that, Carpenter altered his training, going from long- distance runs to intense intervals.
“Instead of doing 20-minute tempo runs I’d go back and do 1- minute hard and 1-minute walk,” he said. “Tempo runs are really good but you can’t get the intensity because of the altitude.”
Gutierrez, who managed to keep up with Carpenter on the downhill portion of the race, wasn’t despondent about losing.
“It’s his course,” Gutierrez said. “But I never mind getting beat by Matt. It’s like, ‘So what?’ “
Gutierrez said the last mile was the toughest.
“You could start feeling the heat,” he said. “You come out of the trees and you start feeling the sun baking on you. The first thing I thought was I’m glad I’m not the other people still up there.”
Boulder resident Katie Blackett, 28, still was charging down the mountain, battling plantar fasciitis in her right foot, to win the female division for the second straight year in 1:56:40.
“It basically feels like you’re walking on nails, like your heel just gets really inflamed,” Blackett said of her injury. “So because of that my training has been cut in half and today I hurt so bad; I really suffered out there today.”
Blackett was about 90 seconds behind runner-up Lisa Goldsmith (1:57:22) at Barr Camp before utilizing her speed from road racing to fly downhill and pass Goldsmith with three miles left.
“You wanna pass strong so that they think you feel great,” Blackett said. “Then as soon as you pass, you’re kind of like, OK . . . now you catch your breath. They’re hurting just as bad as you but if you pass them and look like you’re not hurting, mentally they’re just gonna shut down.”
Goldsmith bought the act.
“She looked real strong and smooth; I had no doubt that she couldn’t hold it,” she said. “If I saw any flailing or wobbling I probably would have gone after her, but she looked pretty darn good.”
The race, which mainly is sponsored by Pikes Peak National Bank, gives 100 percent of its entry fees back to the community and raised $15,100 — $9,100 went to non-profit organizations and $6,000 to local high school running programs.
On a very sad note, a hiker collapsed and died Sunday morning on Barr Trail as hundreds of runners raced along the path.
Mark Miller, 46, of Colorado Springs was hiking about 8:30 a.m. when he suffered a fatal heart attack, said El Paso Country sheriff’s Lt. Clif Northam.
Search and rescue workers in the area for the Barr Trail Mountain Race were unable to revive Miller, Northam said.
One race participant said he was running back down the trail in the second half of the 12-mile race when he encountered Miller about two miles from the start-finish line at the Pikes Peak Cog Railway in Manitou Springs.
“He was lying right by the trail — I almost stepped on his head,” said Bill Raitter of Estes Park. “He was face down — I didn’t know if he was playing a game or what — but he was breathing real hard.”
According to Raitter, it appeared that two other people were hiking with Miller. Our thoughts are with his family.
