After a two-year hiatus, the Teva Vail HalfMarathon was back on the Back Bowls of Vail Mountain for part of the route and the course change was a welcome addition for runners. “We were fortunate this year to get approval to use the Back Bowls from the USDA Forest Service and Vail Resorts. Combine these portions of the course with the popular trails on the front side of Vail Mountain and we had a spectacular course in terms of variety. Being at the height of the wildflower season guaranteed the runners fantastic scenery throughout the race,” said race director Joel Rabinowitz who also serves as sports director for Vail Recreation District.
“We had people stopping on the ridge to admire the view. The colors were just fantastic,” said VRD staffer Brian Doyon who spent much of the race cheering on runners and monitoring their progress from his mountain bike before making his way to the finish line to drive the race trailer back to Vail Village.
The Teva Vail HalfMarathon was the third and longest event in the five-race Teva Vail Mountain Trail Running Series. At 14.5 miles, the course was over one mile longer than the traditional 13.1 mile distance of a half marathon, making it affectionately known as “the longest half marathon in Colorado.” (Editor’s note: The Leadville Trail Half Marathon is 15.5M)
The race started behind Gold Peak Children’s Center and traveled up Benchmark to Mill Creek Road (the Village Trail) to the nine-mile point along the Back Bowls. There was a short scramble downhill with fixed ropes located just beyond the 10-mile mark. After this point, the course was rolling to the finish line at Eagle’s Nest.
The course was a mixture of fire roads, wide gravel and rock- strewn trails, single track trails complete with some shaded areas. There was approximately 4,000 feet of climbing with elevations ranging from 8,200 feet to the high point 11,653 feet. Five aid stations with Gatorade Endurance Formula, water, and snacks were located throughout the course as well as at the start/finish.
The difficulty of the course was explained to the competitors at the start line when VRD Director Mike Ortiz said the following before sending runners on their way, “Listen up; this is a really long and very hard course. We expect you all to adhere to the cutoff times. If you don’t make the first aid station (at three miles) within one hour, you’re out of the race. We have a second cutoff at the nine mile station of three hours. There is support on the course with Search and Rescue and Vail Mountain Ski Patrol if you get into trouble. Please take the event as seriously as we do.”
At 8:00 a.m., the runners set off with a VRD support vehicle getting on course at about the one mile mark to follow the progress of the final runners up the road to the three mile aid station.
The support crew and aid station workers watched the last few runners make their way up the road, all making the cutoff time with the last competitor having six minutes to spare. Some runners visibly cheered their success in making the one hour cutoff time – arms in the air with a victory salute – while one good-humored competitor said, “I made the cutoff, now I guess this means I have to continue.”
Last year’s winner Andy Ames (first photo), 44, Boulder, CO, was leading the field for much of the race to just beyond the nine-mile mark. Not as comfortable on the downhill, Ames was passed by fellow masters’ competitors Bernie Boettcher, 44, Silt, CO, and Peter Williams, 46, Fort Collins, CO (by way of Wales). Ames kept a good pace to finish in third place just 17 seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher Alex Willis who at 19 was the first junior finisher. Boettcher crossed the line for the win in 1:48:14 with Williams nearly two minutes back in 1:50:05. Ames finished in 1:51:10.
It was no surprise to see last year’s winner Anita Ortiz (above), 43, Eagle, CO, heading down the final stretch of single track toward the finish line in first place for the women. Ortiz is having a great year. She won the Teva Mountain Games 10km in early June and made her fifth Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team by winning the June 24 Mt. Cranmore Hill Climb. Ortiz was timed in 2:06:27, more than six minutes ahead of secondplace finisher Kari Distefano, 48, Telluride, CO, who finished in 2:12:48. Junior competitor Anna Pranger, 19, rounded out the top three in 2:15:05.
Even though the results for the top finishers are first to be recorded, the results of the final finishers do not go unnoticed. During the awards ceremony, several athletes were still on course, with the last of the 204 finishers crossing the line just under four and one half hours. Each time a runner came into view, an announcement was made at the awards ceremony which was immediately followed by cheers from the crowd. The cheers resulted in many sprint-to-the line finishers by runners already weary from their long effort. One such runner, 68-year-old Bill Moyle who finished in just under four hours, tried without success to out sprint 46- year-old Sandra Harting, a runner he met at a recent Leadville Trail 100 training weekend. Said a smiling Moyle, “I used to be a sprinter, but it seems that I’ve slowed down a bit. Perhaps I’ll have to work more at my sprinting now.”
Not at a sprint, but finishing the race together in just over 4:15, were the husband-wife team of John and Nancy Robb from Chicago. According to the Robbs, “We run marathons, mostly flat. This was such a beautiful run, but it was definitely tough to get air. We’re not used to the altitude – that’s for sure.”
Jeff Lorenzen was ready for the altitude because he lives and trains in the mountains around his home in Park City, UT. “I’m just here visiting and I saw the race listed in the newspaper and decided to sign up.” The 35-year-old finished in 2:55:36.
Seventeen-year-old Carla Roybal lives in Santa Fe, NM, and came to the race with her parents who awaited her finish at the top of Vail Mountain. Roybal, who posted a 3:35:59, was one of seven juniors to finish the race.
Two juniors who came from Colorado Springs to race were Coronado High School Cross Country teammates Alex Vaske, 17, and Steve Sanchez (above), 18. Their coach Mark Weeks, and a few team members cheered Vaske and Sanchez on to second and third place finishes in their age group timed in 2:16:58 and 2:19:00 respectively.
Many runners incorporate this race into their training for other events. Linda Weeks, 36, (no relation to Mark) is training for the Imogene Pass Run from Ouray to Telluride this September. “With two kids it’s hard to fit in the training,” said Weeks before the race. Weeks finished in 2:36:17, good enough for fifth in her age group.
Seven runners finished the race in under two hours, quite an accomplishment on such a tough course. In sixth place was Vail local Sylvan Ellefson, 20, home from college for the summer. Ellefson is carrying on the legacy of trail running left to him by his father Lyndon who died nine years ago in an accident on the Swiss/Italian border while training for a running event. According to Mike Ortiz who, when giving Sylvan his age group award related the following story, “Lyndon is the reason we started the trail running series. He said to me, ‘Mike, all your races are on roads. We live in the mountains with all of these great trails. Why not race on them.’ And so we started this series.”
The top three male and female finishers in each age group 19 and under, 20-29, 30- 39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60+ received prizes from Teva and other sponsors. All participants were eligible for random prize drawings which included gear from 180s and High Sierra. In addition to top finisher awards, each participant received a commemorative T-shirt and goody bag at the finish line. The T-shirts were designed by race winner Bernie Boettcher.