Pike's Peak Ascent Halted at Barr Camp

That’s annoying. I mean, if there was actually bad weather, I get it. Did you at least get some entry $$$ back?

No refund.

I think a better solution would have been to postpone the Ascent until Sunday. Move the marathon start from 7:00 AM to 7:30 AM and start the Ascent at 6:00 AM. The last wave of Ascent runners would have had an hour head start on the marathoners and the fastest waves would have an hour and a half lead. Sure, the fastest marathoners would have still caught some of the Ascent runners but the majority would reach the summit before the lead marathoners do. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow and the marathon is go to off without a hitch.

Of course a decision like this would have had to have been made a day in advance to allow everyone to adjust their schedules.

The race has never failed to go to the summit; even the 2008 race had at least 90% reach the summit before they had to shut it down. They have never shortened a race due to the "possibility" of bad weather. This is a 14'er in the Colorado Front Range in August; there is ALWAYS the possibility of thunder/lightning storms and/or hail. If they get in the habit of shortening the race every time there is a "possibility" of bad weather, they are going to shorten the race at least 25%-33% of the time. People will stop traveling great distances to come. People come from nearly all 50 states and numerous foreign countries to reach the summit, not to go to Barr Camp. Sure, local Colorado runners will still run every year but I think they risk the loss of the long distance travelers and the reputation of the race. Just my 0.02 cents.

I was pretty excited about the two and a half months I dedicated to preparing for the race going to waste. Even an aggressive 2 hour cutoff at Barr would have allowed quite a few runners to go through to the summit. It would have been one thing if the weather was dicey but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky until after 12. Unless there is some sort of significant discount for next year I will not be running any of their races again.

Ahem, no. You absolutely do not want to be on a 14k foot summit if lighting is possible. The closer you are to the clouds, the bigger target you are. And yes, it is possible to get hit by lighting in what appears to be clear weather--static electrical charge.

I get it. The race director has to think about the weather every year. The weather in 2008 was bad and was probably a significant reason why they decided to shorten the race this year. Think about it - would you rather shorten the race with the possibility of bad weather or let people go to the summit and encounter snow, hail, lightning, even a blizzard? It's better to be safe than sorry, I guess. Tough decision and unfortunate outcome this year. To anyone who thinks there will be a refund next year: no. Let's be clear - the Pikes Peak Marathon organization only cares about one thing: money. They keep raising their prices even though fewer and fewer runners are returning year after year. Why? Because it has become a one-and-done / bucket list type of race. They realize they have a cash cow with their two races and doublers and are going to ride this train for a long time. They have a long list of people willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money to run up a 14er. You signed up, you paid, and they're taking your $money$ to the bank.

wow that is sad. guess i will be a permanent one and doner type person as that is quite away for me to get there. i always hope the record would get broken. guess matt carpenter is immortalized as "GOAT"

MM3307 wrote:

I was pretty excited about the two and a half months I dedicated to preparing for the race going to waste. Even an aggressive 2 hour cutoff at Barr would have allowed quite a few runners to go through to the summit. It would have been one thing if the weather was dicey but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky until after 12. Unless there is some sort of significant discount for next year I will not be running any of their races again.

I was thinking about this morning. It's a destination race. It sounds like they got way too conservative in calling it. Why would anyone travel for this race after this?

Look at the weather Boston had this year. They do everything in their power not to cancel. NYC only cancels if there's a hurricane event or aftermath. These RDs need to consider out of town people.

Because: millenials.

I assume the RD was terrified of a possible lawsuit on the small chance that someone might be struck by lightning. Boston didn't cancel, but there the hazard was hypothermia, and I guess that the chance of death by hypothermia at temperatures above freezing is close to zero. People dropped out of the race as walking zombies but once they got warmed up they were OK. Heat and lightning are serious if small risks.

Anyone knows how the marathon race panned out? Who was first at the top? Couldn't find much...

Dakota Jones did a crazy downhill section though!

There is a link for live results but it seems broken at the moment.

Here it is... Sage had a poor Ascent and even worse Descent... not sure what Max King was doing... cool that Stian give it a shot and Laura... great for Dakota.. kid hasn't been relevant in over 5 years.. 73 is a solid downhill.

http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org/results/ppm/2018/

Dakota was still about 16 minutes behind Carpenter's record despite perfect running weather and a strong international field. It was an exciting finish with 2nd to 5th within 40 seconds for the men's race. Salomon had a bunch of staff filming and two drones so check out the footage tomorrow on their Facebook page. It's really a brutal event. I was walking most of the time above treeline and took a few tumbles on the descent. The top athletes were incredible and I can't believe Matt was able to do it so fast back in the day!

I had several friends running this. Some for the first time and some for the upteenth time. Many were pissed off.

I even thought "Man I hope there is really bad weather or else people are going to be furious with Ron Ilgen".

I am sympathetic to Ron's decision. You not only have to consider the racers but also the volunteers at the top. While the racers might be there for a short time, the volunteers are exposed for hours. There is not a lot of shelter at the top and parking is very limited due to construction of the new Summit House. Also there is not the Cog Railroad running any longer as another option for getting people down (albeit a limited one under any circumstances).

One of the best suggestions I have seen on the Pikes Peak Marathon Facebook page is to start the race earlier. Although I am guessing that might not have helped this year since Ron made the call based on weather forecast at 5:30am (posted on Facebook at 6:45am). One problem with starting earlier might be with running through the city that early and the neighborhoods.

So the ascent ended up being 7.6M, just like My Washington? Anyone on here do both and compare?

People always talk about Carpenter as if he was God but in fact his records only stand because of the erosion that has occurred at the peak so faster athletes that are coming up these days would have to be way fitter than him to break it. Also they did not have course marshals back when he set his record, also he was not drug tested after that record or really before so....

Keep in mind for courses that have been unaffected by weather, guys from this generation have crushed Carpenters best times. Gray and Canaday both have run faster than carpenter on numerous courses and also Gray has broken a few of his records locally and abroad. That pikes record is gonna be hard to tackle due to so many factors that aren't being brought up.

I've done both and my time at Mount Washington is faster, 1) due to being on road/asphalt, 2) less altitude, 3) Pikes is obviously a half marathon, so racing for a full 13 miles instead of 12 kilometers.

However, quite interesting, my Barr Trail to Barr Camp segment is almost exactly the same time. Here is my data from Strava -

PIKES PEAK

Barr Trail to Barr Camp, 6.14 miles / avg. grade 11% / 3,519 ft. - 1:06:02 (10:45/mi)

MOUNT WASHINGTON

7.57 miles / avg. grade 12% / 4,700ft. - 1:06:33 (8:47/mi)

Good Decision. Nobody's dead. 1000 people in a high altitude thunderstorm could result in many deaths--ignoring hypothermia, and other issues that could arise with large numbers of heavily stressed people from low elevation who are not used to the alpine environment. WIth that many people, you can't call it by the seat of your pants-looking at weather radar and calling it like a baseball game. This is a remote trail--getting help to 5 or 6 people is tough. Getting help to 100 is impossible.

I'm in south suburban Denver, 60 miles north. Lightning and thunder before noon-at 5600 feet. It's a roll of the dice--those storms could have rolled through the race easily.

Regarding the transportation--runners should note that the Cog Railway is closed indefinitely--possibly forever. This race is one reason to keep that train running. It provides a downhill route with only a mile walk from Barr Camp.