Big Race Weekend

A big weekend of trail races here in Colorado with Pikes Peak (Ascent on Saturday, Marathon on Sunday) and the Leadville 100. I am not running in any of these this year but have a strong interest in how things turn out. Made my predictions for the top 10 at the Ascent over on runcolo.com in hopes of winning some La Sportiva shoes. This year's Ascent is also the World Mountain Running Association Challenge, so a strong field from all over the world will be there. I'm still picking last year's winner Tim Parr to repeat as I think experience on this course is a big advantage. Of course if Matt Carpenter decides to run the Ascent at the last minute, he would be the favorite (he is only registered to run the Marathon on Sunday). If I am lucky the top 10 go like this: Parr, Blake, Hafer, Gates, Chemweno, Manning, Randall, Delaney, Freudenberg, Nichols. At Leadville, look for Anton Krupicka to possibly take down Matt Carpenter's course record. There are going to be close to 1000 runners at this year's Leadville race (too many for my liking). Hopefully I can find a quiet trail somewhere this weekend since everyone else will either be in Leadville or Manitou Springs.