Derek Griffiths 1197 posts 0 comments

With fall right around the corner, it’s time to put your summer cross country training program to the test. Here to get your adrenaline pumping is our review of the latest and best racing shoes available for your upcoming cross country season.

Crossing the finish line in 42 hours, 30 minutes after running the 135 miles across blazing hot Death Valley was not a record setting time for veteran ultrarunner Marshall Ulrich. A Colorado native, Ulrich is the record four-time winner of the iconic Badwater ultramarathon that starts at the Badwater basin, the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level, and officially ends at the 8,360-foot Whitney Portal trailhead on the mountain.

Alayna "Lanie" Szuch, an 11 year old from Evergreen, was seventh at this year's U.S. Mountain Running Championships. She beat a bunch of former national team members and even some Olympic marathon trials qualifers, and she's only 11 (!).  Lanie tells us all about it, and is our July "The Runner Box" Colorado Runner of the Month.

The Hardrock Hundred boasts some of the most difficult terrain in the nation attracting elite national and international runners to cast their lot amongst the 1200 applicants for a chance to be one of the 152 participants each year.

There's a new face in the ultrarunning scene, and she certainly is a force to be reckoned with. Many are wondering who the slim speedster is flying by, with her blonde pigtails bouncing underneath a backwards trucker hat.  Ashley Erba has become a memorable name of late, but not just in Colorado.

Alex Nichols has been running on the Skyrunning World Circuit for a couple years now, and along with consistently placing well, he has been a dominant runner on the local trail racing scene around Colorado. In 2013 Nichols finished third overall in the European Skyrunning Sky Series and represented the U.S. at the World Mountain Running Championships in Poland, and in 2014 he won Moab’s Red Hot 55K, placed third at the competitive Speedgoat 50K, and placed third overall and led an American team to victory at Les Templiers in France.

It was a gorgeous morning in Evergreen for the Elk Meadow 5K and 10K on Saturday, the second event of the Evergreen Trail Racing Series hosted by the Evergreen Park & Recreation District (EPRD) and sponsored by the Wild Game.  The series comprises five races on challenging mountainous terrain in and around Evergreen. Distances range from a 5K to an epic half-marathon (13.1 miles) to the top of Bergen Peak (elevation 9,708), a climb of over 2,000 vertical feet.

It wasn't long ago that Coronado High School graduate (Colorado Springs) Hannah Green won the Sailin' Shoes 10K in downtown Colorado Springs. But she has made some backcountry discoveries about herself during the past few years, and last week she won the San Juan Solstice, arguably the toughest 50-mile ultra run in the country. An artist now living in Durango, we tracked her down for a quick interview. 

Joe Gray has been racing a lot!  I counted at least six races in a four week span last month.  Included in that stretch was a first-place, new American record run at New Hampshire's steep (!) Mount Washington Road Race.  Gray, a perennial member of the U.S. Mountain Running Team, ran 58:15 up the 7.6-mile auto road, which averages a 12% grade. For that performance, Joe Gray is our June "The Runner Box" Colorado Runner of the Month.