Not even a global pandemic, extreme heat and dry air, wild fires and lingering smoke from said wild fires could stop the 65th annual Pikes Peak Marathon from happening. With the cancellation of the Boston Marathon this year, the Pikes Peak Marathon is now the longest continuously running marathon in the United States.
While the start and finish lines may have looked different, the course was exactly the same and runners had the chance to test themselves against the grueling 7,800′ climb and descent as well as mother nature torturing athletes with probably the worst air quality in the race’s history.
Seth DeMoor, a 35-year-old from Englewood grew up in Buena Vista watching his dad, Joe, race on Pikes Peak in the ‘90s and has a video blog dedicated to his trail running with nearly 100,000 subscribers. After finishing second in the 2019 Ascent — the 2020 race was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — DeMoor decided to enter his first Pikes Peak Marathon and won the race in 3 hours, 36 minutes and 31 seconds, a record for the 35-39 age group.
I’ve always wanted to do the marathon. This is my first one for Pikes Peak. I’ve done the Ascent, I think, three or four times, and it turned out to work out well because of the Ascent being canceled, and the marathon was on. So that was good.
Men’s winner Seth DeMoor
Brittany Charboneau, of Denver, took the women’s victory in 4:25:21 in her first attempt on the mountain.
So, I’m a native Coloradan, and I came here … I’ve never been to Pikes Peak. Never. I have been the world’s worst Coloradan up until the last year and a half because I was never on trails, like I wanted no part of trails because I just was like afraid of nature and I didn’t like the mountains. I just started getting into trail running last year. When I started doing some trails, we were on the local trails in Denver and there’s rattlesnakes like crazy, so that was a big one. Then, I’m terrified of mountain lions; I’m terrified of bears and I’m also like afraid of marmots.
Women’s winner Brittany Charboneau
DeMoor owned a six-minute lead when he turned around just shy of the under-construction summit house and held off David Sinclair (Truckee, Calif.) on the descent, winning by less than two minutes. Charboneau trailed Allie McLaughlin by roughly 40 seconds at the turnaround and made her pass in the final five miles of the descent.
As if the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t enough for a race director to navigate, Pikes Peak Marathon’s Ron Ilgen had the added task of monitoring wildfire conditions in the days leading up to Sunday’s Pikes Peak Marathon.
Ilgen said part of the planning that went into putting on such an event as safely as possible included conversations on search and rescue, monitoring storms for lightning strikes that could cause issues locally and increased sanitizing measures, especially in the aid tent just beyond the finish line.
There was more consensus on the health protocols in place. Runners started in waves and most used face coverings immediately before and after the race.
Ilgen said he was pretty pleased with how things went and credited the participants for their cooperation during a race week unlike so many previous ones. There was no big celebration to open or close the race weekend, but race directors and racers seemed to make the most of it.
I commend them for giving it a shot and letting us run well, chase down dreams despite the strange circumstances.
Ron Ilgen, Pikes Peak Marathon race director
Below are some photos from the event.
Seth DeMoor 
David Sinclair – 2nd place male 
Andy Wacker – 3rd place male 
Brittany Charboneau 
Ashley Brasovan – 2nd place female 
Allie McLaughlin – 3rd place female 
