My Love-Hate Relationship with Pikes Peak
Some things never change… even when everything else does.
Just a couple weeks ago, Steve and I tackled an epic race on America’s Mountain: Pikes Peak. While I chose to just race to the top in the Ascent on Saturday, Steve wanted to tackle the Marathon on Sunday, where the route takes you to the top and then back down again.
The uphill race is 13.2 miles of winding trail to the top of Pikes Peak. Runners leave from Manitou Springs climbing up Barr Trail through “the W’s” (seemingly unending switch-backs), to “No Name Creek,” and then Barr Camp at the halfway point. From there its on to “A-Frame” at tree line, around the face of “The Cirque” and up the “16 Golden Stairs,” finally reaching the Summit at 14, 110 feet – for a total of 7,440 elevation gain.
The race wasn’t my first time on this mountain. Over the years I have come to know Barr trail like the back of my hand!
My first attempt at Pikes Peak was the same week I met my best friend. Two wide-eyed girls from the “Flatlands” of Ohio, fresh out of high school, we met at a camp near the trailhead only a few days before we first tackled the Peak together. Having just completed our competitive summer swim season, we were thrilled to reach the top in just over 5 hours! Now technically, we weren’t “racing” to the top, but as competitive swimmers, there is no such thing as a just “hiking” up a mountain! We were racing each other, other hikers, and primarily the clock. Even at our peak fitness, it wiped us out! If you would have asked me that day would I want to “race” up Pikes Peak, I would have told you, NO WAY!!
Since that first ascent, I’ve probably hiked to the top (and sometimes back down) no fewer than 10 times. I wouldn’t say its ever been easy… And every time I was sure this was the last time! One summer when I was living in Manitou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak, I even volunteered as part of the “summit crew” at the top to hand out food and drinks to runners at the Marathon turnaround point. I think that was when I was determined I would never participate – the looks on those faces (I thought) were of pure misery!
Now, it’s hard to believe that just a decade later I will have finished racing up Pikes Peak for the third time. See, that’s what happens when you meet a boy who casually road runs… make him fall in love with you and then move to the mountains… and then get swept up in his ultra-marathon running craze! And even though the thought of running up a mountain still overwhelms me, I’ve actually come to embrace this race.
Maybe it was different this year because this was my shortest race of the summer (and least elevation gain!) or because this year I shook off my usual M.O. of coasting on post-college fitness and my habit of “training” by running just once or twice a week! “If I don’t train, then I have an excuse for a bad time” – isn’t that how it works? Not really! For the first time since my competitive swimming days, I actually put in the effort over the last year to improve my fitness by working on strength, balance, and distance running. It definitely paid off!
I have never felt better on this mountain than I did this year. Even though it wasn’t my best time, it wasn’t my worst time either. I’m just going to point out that 2 years of living at sea level did nothing for my altitude tolerance! But despite the waves of nausea above tree line, this was by far my most enjoyable Pikes Peak Ascent! I was able to give it my best and run my heart out instead of merely trying to survive. The last two times I raced up Pikes Peak, I was a reluctant racer… this year, I was excited for it!
In some ways, the mountain is a little like life – it’s never as hard as you expect, but never as easy, either!
You definitely need to put in the work. And there’s just a little something about that mountain that’s like going home to hang out with an old friend – the familiar switchbacks, the first view of the Peak, the welcome vibes at Barr Camp, even the never ending sweep across the Cirque as you rise above tree line… and just when you think you can’t go any further there are 16 golden steps to the Summit!
There is comfort in familiarity. This year as I ran across the finish line, my favorite part was getting cheered on by my two best friends waiting for me: the one who was with me when I tackled that mountain for the first time – my long time best friend Sarah, and the one who has helped ignite my passion for trail running and taught me to embrace running uphill – my amazing husband Steve.
I doubt this was the last time I would make my way to the summit of Pikes Peak. Likely, I will be there again with Sarah and Steve! And hopefully each time I return I will have grown, yet again, into a better version of myself. This mountain is a symbol of overcoming obstacles and the thrill of a big challenge. Just like each time I return to Pikes Peak I find it is a constant in my life – an unchanged monument against which I can measure how far I have come.
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”
– Sir Edmund Hillary
Written by Ellen Stockhausen
Call for Comments: We would love to hear about your own epic adventures, long-time friends – or epic adventures WITH long-time friends!
I thought I’d better comment on this since I always try to comment on Steve’s posts….. We drove up Pikes Peak in the Dodge Caravan family truckster way back in 1996. I can’t even imagine hiking, let alone running up that mountain. Ellen and Steve, you are animals, a rare breed of crazy animal. I couldn’t breath when I was at the top, headache and all. It was a very weird physical experience. Not really all that fun to be honest. I don’t really enjoy suffering as much as some of my kin folk. After living on the Appalachian plateau at 750 ft. above sea level Pikes Peak seemed like Mt. Everest. I remember thinking wow, this view is just like being in an airplane. The view was awesome but the trip down was terrifying in the van. They make you stop so your brakes cool off and don’t warp. Believe me I rode the brakes white knuckled all the way down. At least Pikes Peak isn’t on my bucket list, if it was I’d ride the train up. That’s the only way to go, IMHO. None of this crazy running stuff…….at least not for me.
Sounds very similar to the trip to the top with your brother in 1996 in the good ol’ Magee Ford conversion van. My dad was so terrified he to this day refuses to drive over the million dollar highway through Ouray!
I have definitely been in your shoes as an Ohio kid – it’s unthinkable to run up a mountain – any mountain! I think that’s part of the perspective I’m trying to portray here, my ever-changing perspective of an unchanging mountain!