bored troller wrote:
Just for the record, cutting the course at Pike's Peak would be impossible. It's up a mountain, no opportunities for cutting.
Agree that I can't think of any way to cheat on Pikes Peak. I've run it a few times and train on the trail regularly. Page 207 was the first time I'd heard he'd done the PPM, so obviously I had to check his records.
For someone from sea level, he does have some pretty stout times over the 5 times he has run the Ascent or Marathon there. (4 times his son ran too; once they finished 1 second apart despite a big gap at the top, which I'm hoping was a cool father-son finishing moment instead of a bib muling incident.)
His best time up the mountain (13.3 miles) is 3:03 in 1988, which I would estimate to be equivalent to a 2:58 marathon on the flats. Impressive for a 39 year old doctor, but not world class. His slower times over the years show somebody who is very healthy but aging normally. In 2013 his time up the mountain was 3:53, which is hard to mesh with somebody supposedly knocking out 3:00 flat marathons in 2014.
Bottom line: way too much evidence he cheated in various California and Phoenix races, which makes me wonder again why somebody can't be happy just running to the best of their abilities and enjoying the sport of it. Sad.