Hair Raising Running

I had my hair done on Tuesday by Cheryl Stephenson, who likes to run mountains.....fast. She eschews any road racing or flat running for mountain trails. She placed fourth among female finishers in this years Pikes Peak Marathon.

The start line of the Pikes Peak Marathon is in Manitou Springs at an altitude of 6295'. It ascends for 13.32 miles to the summit at 14110' mostly on trail. Yes, that is right, one has to run 7815' (call it 1.5 miles!) up or run up the Empire State Building (a mere 1453' tall) more than 5 times or perhaps run up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the South Rim top (only 5000' elevation gain) more than 1.5 times. Then one turns around and heads back to Manitou, finishing off the 26.2. I won't be entering this one in my lifetime thank you very much.

Cheryl ran the ascent in 3:16:51 and the descent in 1:41:03 for a total marathon time of 4:57:54. This is faster than I covered Houston's flat, paved 26.2. I am humbled. I did run a flat 7.1 miles today with humility.