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Sunday, August 17, 2003

Carpenter has more motivation for marathon

PHOTO BY TRACY BOULIAN, THE GAZETTE

ROCK-ING CHAIRS: Barry Roth, of Colorado Springs, left and Mike Robbert, of Denver, right, watch for signs of the first runner in the Pikes Peak Ascent on Saturday at the summit of Pikes Peak. The two had numerous friends in the race.
By ODEEN DOMINGO
THE GAZETTE

Simon Gutierrez, 37, shouldn’t have broken the 35-39 age-group record for the Pikes Peak Ascent on Saturday. As if Matt Carpenter, 39, needed more motivation to race.

Carpenter of Manitou Springs has a combined 11 Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent titles. He wants to break Gutierrez’s Ascent age-group record of 2 hours, 13 minutes, 29 seconds and the 35-39 age-group record in the Marathon (3:46:33 by Senovio Torres in 1993) in today’s 48 th running of the Pikes Peak Marathon, which starts at 7 a.m. in Manitou Springs.

The time Carpenter records when he reaches the summit of Pikes Peak will count as his Ascent time and when he finishes at Manitou Springs, that will be his Marathon time. For that age-group record, it’s his last year.

“Simon laid down a great time today,” Carpenter said. “I think us marathoners fight for bragging rights for the faster time in the Ascent. It could be tough (to break the record).”

Gutierrez’s time won’t change Carpenter’s mind-set.

“I have to think about (Gutierrez’s record),” Carpenter said. “The original goal was to break the Ascent record in my age group.”

Carpenter said he will only run the Marathon because he would have no chance to break both records if he ran both races. He also said he would have liked to run against Gutierrez.

“I knew Simon was going to be the man to beat,” Carpenter said. “We talked on and off over a year about the Ascent. And he was pretty jazzed. It paid off for him.”

Carpenter owns the Ascent record of 2:01:06, set in 1993.

“There’s no way I’m going for my course record,” he said. “That was 10 years ago. Your plan changes as you get older. You’re not going for course records, you’re going to agegroup records.”

Carpenter said he’s looking forward to the competition in the next few years.

“You have to push your pace, get in gear,” he said. “Simon and I will be butting heads in years to come.”


Copyright 2003, The Gazette, a division of Freedom Colorado Information. All rights reserved. Used with permission.


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