Happy hours at Barr

Pikes Peak welcomes back runners

By Meri-Jo Borzilleri/The Gazette

Jerilee Bennett The Gazette For the first time since the closure of the Pike National Forest in June, runners were allowed on Barr Trail on Sunday morning. The runners were participating in the Barr Trail Mountain Race that started at the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and went as high as Barr Camp, ending back in the parking lot of Barr Trail. Runners were warned not to run past Barr Camp because the trail remains closed.

On any other day, runners on Barr Trail would have been committing a criminal act, punishable by a maximum $5,000 fine.

Not Sunday. With two U.S. Forest Service officers prominently positioned at the trail's starting area in Manitou Springs, 316 runners who started the Barr Trail Mountain Race chose to have their punishment self-inflicted.

In the race to Barr Camp (elevation: 10,200 feet), they ran up Pikes Peak's flank, gaining 3,630 feet in elevation in a little over 6 miles, then turned around and raced back down.

Some returned with bloody elbows and knees after rubbery legs gave way. A couple runners - most notably winners Paul Low of Amherst, Mass., and Manitou Springs' Kelli Lusk - returned with the day's fastest times, 1 hour, 32 minutes, 54 seconds for Low, the men's overall champion; 1:54:08 for women's champion Lusk.

Most competitors returned appreciating, oddly enough, the chance to absorb the unique, exquisite torture only Barr Trail can dish out.

That's because Barr Trail, the area's most famous trail run and training ground for next month's Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, has been closed for a month due to wildfire danger.

On any other day, trespassers are subject to a fine up to $5,000.

But race organizers obtained a special permit to conduct the event, held in Pike National Forest, which has been closed to public access since June 10.

Runners jumped on the chance. In its third year, the Barr Trail race got its biggest turnout ever, a total 316 starters, about 50 more than usual.

No spectators were allowed on the course, and volunteers who manned aid stations were required to wear special badges on their shirts.

Running the race was a different experience than the past two years, when competitors treated the event as a routine tuneup to the bigger, badder Ascent and Marathon.

The views were as spectacular as ever, but the trail wasn't as packed down. Runners found themselves sliding on loose dirt and gravel. Not that anyone was complaining.

"It's just super to get on it," said two-time champion Matt Carpenter, who finished in 33rd place with a time of 2:03:10, well off his race record 1:31:22 that still stands. "I couldn't help myself a couple times today - I was checking out the view."

As far as most can remember, Barr Trail has never been closed.

Instead, local runners have been forced to drive to 14,000-foot peaks in Breckenridge or Leadville, for the chance to run at high altitude.

Elite runner Lusk, 32, won the women's title by more than 4 minutes ahead of Pueblo's Maddy Tormoen, who finished in 1:58:13; and Bev Zimmerman of Monument, third in 2:00:35. Lusk said not having the usual access changed the tenor of the race.

"It made it actually more fun," she said. "There's no home-course advantage."

Case in point: men's winner Paul Low, 28, a graduate student in geology at the University of Massachusetts. Low overtook Simon Gutierrez of Albuquerque about a quarter-mile after the downhill started. Gutierrez, 36, wound up third in 1:36:50, 1 second behind Teddy Mitchell, 30, of Longmont.

Low isn't exactly a flatlander. He has been in Steamboat Springs for the past four weeks working on a research project, and is a three-time member of the national mountain-racing team. Still, it was his first time up Barr Trail.

"It's something I wanted to do for a while," he said.

He was speaking for himself, but could have been speaking for all those who can see Pikes Peak from their living rooms but can't run it.

That's why race organizers hoped to not only to conduct a race but make a case.

"It's a fragile situation," said Larry Miller, race director. "If we can show that people can use the trail responsibly, maybe they'll open it up."

Meri-Jo Borzilleri may be reached at 636-0259 or merijo@gazette.com