2006 BTMR Was Heated
The 2006 BTMR was hot—really hot! But it was not just the temperatures that were hot as the competition was heated as well. Silvio Guerra was added to the field the day before the race based on his bio (2:09 marathoner and 2X runner up at Boston and 3X Olympian) and word quickly spread that he was coming to win. 2005 Pikes Peak Ascent winner, Ryan Hafer, and BTMR course record holder, Matt Carpenter, had other ideas. However, that race had to wait because when the gun went off there was a mad dash for a $100 prime 200 meters into the course. Thom Santa Maria held off the field but the effort cost him and it took until No Name Creek (~3 miles) before he felt recovered. He ended up in 32nd overall. Twenty-one year old Ian Burrell took the 2nd prime about 1/2 mile into the race. Carpenter then took control and went on to a comfortable win although he can’t claim he never looked back. His 1:30:53 was the 2nd fastest time ever recorded on the course and earned him his 5th BTMR title. The race for second was decided on the trip down with Hafer making up the 2 minute gap on Guerra and then adding another 2 minutes before hitting the tape in 1:32:31. Guerra held on for 3rd in 1:35:06.

On the woman’s side, leading up to the race things looked to be a lock for Lisa Goldsmith. But again the BTMR’s policy of holding spots for competitive runners shuffled the field with two-time BTMR winner, and defending champion, Katie Ann Blackett getting a late entry. Blackett took it out hard and picked up $150 in primes before Goldsmith took over the race. By the top of the Ws Goldsmith had built a 1 minute lead. However, Blackett was always on Goldsmith’s mind as last year Goldsmith was ahead by 2 minutes at the halfway point before a hard charging Blackett passed her on the downhill with only a mile to go. This year Goldsmith built nearly a 4 minute cushion at the turnaround and then, running scared, managed to add another 2 minutes to that on the trip down. Goldsmith’s 6:31 margin of victory is the largest in race history—male of female. Like Carpenter, she also ran the 2nd fastest time ever on the course missing the course record by only 35 seconds.

In the age-groups, Hafer added a 2nd age-group record to his collection as did Goldsmith. Carpenter lowered his own Masters record while John Victoria set a record in the 50-54 age-group. Every age-group winner went home with a new pair of La Sportive running shoes.

Congratulations are in order to all who broke the cut-off and earned their medal, GoLite technical shirt and Chipotle meal certificate:-)

It should be noted that the running race was not the only competition that took place. In the High School Aid Station Challenge two schools came up with the same Christmas theme and after the runner’s votes were counted only 9 votes separated them. Woodland Park, at No Name Creek, came out on top and was the $2,250 Challenge winner. In all $6,000 went to local running programs. See the Aid Station Challenge page for the rest of the results.

In the fund raising department, for the 7th year in a row the BTMR donated 100% of the race entry fees (not some portion of proceeds nonsense) to local nonprofit organizations and community projects. In all, $8,645 was distributed to Barr Camp, El Paso County Search and Rescue, Friend of the Peak and Manitou Springs Mansions Park. This is only possible thanks to great sponsors with presenting sponsor Pikes Peak National Bank and race headquarters the Colorado Running Company leading the way.

2006 Race Results
Female with 5 splits - 83 runners
Male with 5 splits - 250 runners
Combined with 5 splits - 333 runners
Runners by age-groups
Award winners - overall, masters, prime and age-group

Course records - 4 set in 2006
Year to year improvements/losses - 135 runners
Runners who have finished all seven years - 21 runners

Gazette post-race story

Survey Results

Financial Results

Finish line timing done by the Colorado Running Company. Split timing done by BTMR volunteers. Finish line announcing done by Dan Cleveland, executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition. If you have any questions please let us know.

Statistics

Starters and finishers 348 who made it to the top of the Ws - 1 who turned around before the 7.8 mile sign - 14 who came down after the 3h30min cut-off time = 333 finishers
Times Average Barr Camp Times 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Male 1:30:38 1:30:26 1:33:11 1:33:41 1:35:42 1:37:31 1:35:26 Female 1:43:18 1:39:29 1:43:19 1:44:50 1:43:10 1:47:03 1:50:04 All 1:34:32 1:33:33 1:35:57 1:37:15 1:37:51 1:40:37 1:39:11 Average Downhill Time 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Male 53:59 53:00 55:52 55:49 55:38 56:42 55:26 Female 58:48 57:39 1:00:32 1:01:18 59:54 1:01:29 1:01:52 All 55:28 54:36 57:08 57:34 56:53 58:14 57:02 Average Finish Time 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Male 2:24:44 2:23:25 2:29:03 2:29:30 2:29:24 2:32:41 2:29:30 Female 2:42:06 2:37:08 2:43:51 2:46:09 2:42:20 2:47:25 2:48:53 All 2:30:04 2:28:08 2:33:05 2:34:49 2:33:10 2:37:24 2:34:20
Registrants Entry Info Store/mail 0 0% Online 433 100% Totals 433 19 states 2 countries Sex Info Male 311 71.8% Female 122 28.2% Age Info M F All Min 11 12 11 Avg 41 38 40 Max 73 61 73 10-14 2 4 6 15-19 12 1 13 20-24 11 4 15 25-29 27 18 45 30-34 42 17 59 35-39 53 18 71 40-44 51 25 76 45-49 41 21 62 50-54 36 6 42 55-59 17 6 23 60-64 8 2 10 65-69 7 0 7 70-74 4 0 4	Finishers Entry Info Store/mail 0 0% Online 333 100% Totals 333 15 states 1 country Sex Info Male 250 75.1% Female 83 24.9% Age Info M F All Min 12 12 12 Avg 41 38 40 Max 73 59 73 10-14 1 1 2 15-19 11 1 12 20-24 7 3 10 25-29 25 13 38 30-34 33 12 45 35-39 40 14 54 40-44 41 19 60 45-49 33 13 46 50-54 30 3 33 55-59 14 4 18 60-64 8 0 8 65-69 4 0 4 70-74 3 0 3
Race No Shows 85 or 19.6% of the 433 registrants did not show. Of those 85: 82 or 96% registered more than 1 month before the race 10 or 11.8% were out of state Awards No Shows 107 award winners (83 age-group, top 3 m/f masters, top 5 m/f overall, 8 prime) were called to the stage. Of those; 97 or 90.7% were present to get their award 10 or 9.3% did not show to get their award

High School Aid Station Challenge
Congratulations to Woodland Park at No Name Creek who was the $2,250 Challenge winner this year. They had a Christmas theme and just edged out 2nd place who also had a Christmas theme by just 9 votes. The difference may have been that Woodland Park made "Gatorade Slushies" that were a big hit on a very hot day!
2nd place and $1,500 went to Palmer at Bobs Road
3rd place and $1,000 went to Liberty at the Incline
4th place and $750 went to Classical Academy at Barr Camp
5th place and $500 went to Manitou Springs at the Start/Finish

Fundraising
Breakdown of the money the 2006 Barr Trail Mountain Race raised and donated:
The six high schools: $6,000.00
Barr Camp: $2,476
El Paso County Search and Rescue: $2,362
Friends of the Peak: $1,982
Manitou Springs Mansions Park: $1,825
Trails and Open Space Coalition: $500
Total donations: $15,145.00 or $34.97 per registrant, $44.45 per finisher!

Great sponsors made this possible because the average entry fee was only $15.16 bringing in $6,564, all of which was donated, and yet there were many expenses with T-shirts alone costing $3,323 along with $2,800 in prize money and primes and $851 for finisher medals.