Keep in mind Gray was 3 mins faster than Allen for cirque series race in Utah. Demoor was also slightly ahead of Allen if I recall?
I literally went through all 2023 Cirque Series results 10 minutes ago and didn't see Gray in any of the races. Are you looking at results for a different year? Or am I?
Yea gray beat him 2021 then i see he switches to different series this year in northeast mostly it looked like and allen stay mostly in Utah for cirque races. Did some looking and Gray and Allen must be winningest guys at cirque events with gray undefeated and allen only 2 losses! USA guys gonna blow euro boys away at pikes once again my prediction.
SJD entered in both the PP ascent and marathon, really hoping he opts for the ascent since that will be the more competitive race and the one that suits his overall skillset best. If I were a betting man, I'd bet he's going with the marathon though.
Let's use this thread to discuss the marathon as well as the ascent.
What are your predictions???
Wow, already page 2 and still no roadies chiming in to remind us how the entire field is just second rate hobby joggers anyway - that's gotta be a new LR record!
How about this: breaking 2 hours on this ascent might be the rough equivalent of breaking 2 in that other event.
Let's use this thread to discuss the marathon as well as the ascent.
What are your predictions???
Wow, already page 2 and still no roadies chiming in to remind us how the entire field is just second rate hobby joggers anyway - that's gotta be a new LR record!
How about this: breaking 2 hours on this ascent might be the rough equivalent of breaking 2 in that other event.
Somebody could break it and there would still be 14 year old hardos on here talking nonsense about how it doesn't matter because of the guy's 5k time. Meanwhile they live somewhere where you have to do your "hill repeats" on a highway overpass and have no clue what mountain running is about.
SJD will do the full. He won’t risk an all but certain loss to his brother, other elite mountain runners, or those Kenyans. It would destroy the legend of Seth for his followers.
Wow, already page 2 and still no roadies chiming in to remind us how the entire field is just second rate hobby joggers anyway - that's gotta be a new LR record!
How about this: breaking 2 hours on this ascent might be the rough equivalent of breaking 2 in that other event.
Somebody could break it and there would still be 14 year old hardos on here talking nonsense about how it doesn't matter because of the guy's 5k time. Meanwhile they live somewhere where you have to do your "hill repeats" on a highway overpass and have no clue what mountain running is about.
^^^this. And I used to do those "hill repeats" back in HS and college, before moving to CO.
How about this: breaking 2 hours on this ascent might be the rough equivalent of breaking 2 in that other event.
I wouldn't go that far, but I do want to say this: I knew and raced against Matt Carpenter in the late '80s and early '90s, when he and I were at our respective peaks. Matt was a far better runner than many (especially some of the better mountain and ultra runners of recent years) give him credit for. Although I didn't focus on mountain running, Matt and I did almost all of our running and racing at relatively high altitudes. (Aside from a few marathons, I haven't run a race below 5,000 feet altitude in over 35 years, and Matt's history in that regard is quite similar.) The year that Matt ran 2:01:++, he was generally in superb shape. On the roads, he finished a close second to Pat Porter a couple of times (at distances of five miles to 10k), but that's considerably better than almost any recent American mountain runner could do. He had some very slow (high 2:20s to low 2:30s) marathons in those years, but that's because he tended to go out very hard and absolutely refused to drop out after the wheels came off. (In 1990, he led the national marathon championship for most of the race, running the first half in, as I recall, about 1:05:20, and continued to lead all alone through about seventeen miles, ahead of eventual winner Steve Spence, eventual second-place finisher and then-world-half-marathon record holder Mark Curp, and most of the rest of the country's best marathoners. The wheels started to come off shortly thereafter, and when I passed him at about 20 miles, he looked utterly drained and out on his feet, but he continued to shuffle like a zombie all the way to the finish.) I don't believe that Matt had the talent to come particularly close to world-class competitors in conventional distances at sea-level, and I believe that a world-class marathoner with a specific focus on the Pikes Peak Ascent can and should be able to crack two hours, but I don't follow this stuff much these days, and I'm not aware of what runners may be in a position to do it. And yes, Matt had the very important advantage of knowing every inch of that course; he was obsessive about it, and it wouldn't surprise me if he could tell you the exact number of steps that he took between various check points.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
I wouldn't go that far, but I do want to say this: I knew and raced against Matt Carpenter in the late '80s and early '90s, when he and I were at our respective peaks. Matt was a far better runner than many (especially some of the better mountain and ultra runners of recent years) give him credit for. Although I didn't focus on mountain running, Matt and I did almost all of our running and racing at relatively high altitudes. (Aside from a few marathons, I haven't run a race below 5,000 feet altitude in over 35 years, and Matt's history in that regard is quite similar.) The year that Matt ran 2:01:++, he was generally in superb shape. On the roads, he finished a close second to Pat Porter a couple of times (at distances of five miles to 10k), but that's considerably better than almost any recent American mountain runner could do. He had some very slow (high 2:20s to low 2:30s) marathons in those years, but that's because he tended to go out very hard and absolutely refused to drop out after the wheels came off. (In 1990, he led the national marathon championship for most of the race, running the first half in, as I recall, about 1:05:20, and continued to lead all alone through about seventeen miles, ahead of eventual winner Steve Spence, eventual second-place finisher and then-world-half-marathon record holder Mark Curp, and most of the rest of the country's best marathoners. The wheels started to come off shortly thereafter, and when I passed him at about 20 miles, he looked utterly drained and out on his feet, but he continued to shuffle like a zombie all the way to the finish.) I don't believe that Matt had the talent to come particularly close to world-class competitors in conventional distances at sea-level, and I believe that a world-class marathoner with a specific focus on the Pikes Peak Ascent can and should be able to crack two hours, but I don't follow this stuff much these days, and I'm not aware of what runners may be in a position to do it. And yes, Matt had the very important advantage of knowing every inch of that course; he was obsessive about it, and it wouldn't surprise me if he could tell you the exact number of steps that he took between various check points.
Wow, already page 2 and still no roadies chiming in to remind us how the entire field is just second rate hobby joggers anyway - that's gotta be a new LR record!
Well... you did. I guess because it makes you feel special?