Pikes Peak Ascent Written on September 3, 2010, by annaf.

Pikes Peak – World Long Course Mountain Running Championships:

With some Boulder heat acclimatisation and some Aspen 4000m+ altitude mountain runs, Rickey Gates and I jumped in ‘Orange’ (his VW van) and headed for Colorado Springs. I was not as prepared as usual – by running on the course, and was therefore fairly nervous. 21km uphill, starting at 2000m and climbing up to 4300m altitude. I didn’t know how I would respond to racing at such a high altitude and so decided that I needed to race conservatively and if I had any extra oxygen near the top then I could work hard once I could see the finish.

Over the whole of the weekend and 2 races (the Pikes Ascent and the Pikes Marathon (Up and Down!)) there were a total of 7000 participants from 37 different countries. The 1^st wave was off at 7am, we zigzagged our way up through the bush on the dusty but run able trail. It took me 20-minutes until I finally began to feel comfortable and got into a nice rhythm, sitting comfortably in 3^rd. Rickey had given me some altitude running tricks to practise which I used throughout the race. One was occasionally doing a deep out breath clearing the lungs of ‘stale’ air, the other was stretching the shoulders and head back to really open the lungs up to the thin and dry air. At the Half way point I was 5-minutes behind USA’s Brandy Erholtz but as we came out of the bush and onto a moon like terrain, weaving in and out of the big red boulders I spotted the leading girls. I knew it was a bit late in the race to try to catch up but still feeling good I tried with all my might to finish the last 3miles by chasing the girls down. I finished still in 3^rd but now just 55-seconds behind first place. I now know how I can perform at that altitude…it has added an experience to my racing of which I can learn from.