Is the Pikes Peak Marathon’s small, redesigned racing experience a model of what racing will look like in the near future?
On Feb. 17, 2020, the Tokyo Marathon announced its race would be limited to elite runners due to confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tokyo. Although few realized it at the time, that decision struck a warning bell to race directors around the world that 2020 would be a year of tough decisions.
AUGUST 18, 2020 by CARL LEIVERS, Podium Runner
In the ensuing months, the pandemic has taken down some of the most storied races in the marathon world, including Boston, Berlin, Chicago, and New York. And the spread of COVID-19 has forced race directors to either radically reimagine their events, or join the ranks of the countless canceled races.
Among the races determined to stick it out is the Pikes Peak Marathon — now poised to become the oldest continuously-held marathon in the US after Boston had to cancel.
In 1956, Dr. Arne Suominen wanted to organize a challenge between smokers and non-smokers to prove that smoking hurt physical endurance. The challenge? Run to the top of Pikes Peak and back down. And so, the Pikes Peak Marathon was born.
In the decades since, the Pikes Peak Marathon has grown to be a premier mountain running race and been part of the Salomon Golden Trail World Series since 2018. Despite its international fame, though, the race is still largely a local affair — over half of the runners registered for the 2020 race are from Colorado.
That combination of history, local pride, and the marathon’s status as the second-oldest continuously held marathon in the US (to Boston) made finding a way to make the race happen a priority according to Ron Ilgen, the race director for the Pikes Peak Marathon.
As the spring wore on and it became clear that COVID-19 would be a factor in any race plans for 2020, Ilgen made the decision to cancel the first two races of the Garden to Peak Series (a three race series run by Pikes Peak Marathon Inc. which culminates in the Pikes Peak Marathon and its sister race, the Pikes Peak Ascent). “We decided to cancel those because of the uncertainty at the time and the lack of guidance on health procedures,” says Ilgen. “But we didn’t pull the plug on the marathon.”
Read more at Podium Runner here: https://www.podiumrunner.com/events/how-the-pikes-peak-marathon-will-go-on-in-2020/