Summer heat can’t slow down Carpenter

Manitou runner wins third straight Barr Trail Race

Bryan Oller The Gazette Matt Carpenter, above, beat Olympian Silvio Guerra and 20-year-old Ryan Hafer en route to his third straight win in the Barr Trail Mountain Race.

By KRISTA BAPTIST
THE GAZETTE

Near record temperatures Sunday couldn’t stifle Matt Carpenter, and international competition only seemed to motivate the Manitou Springs resident.

Carpenter, 41, charged up and down Barr Trail in 1 hour, 30 minutes, 53 seconds, to win his third straight Barr Trail Mountain Race, a 12-mile run to Barr Camp and back.

Carpenter’s victory was 46 seconds off his course record set in 2001.

“I guess I should have pushed a little harder,” said Carpenter, who did break his Masters age-group record. “It was just getting so hot up there.”

The heat provided another grueling element to the rugged race, which starts near the Cog Railway Depot at the foot of Pikes Peak. Runners gain 3,630 feet of elevation before turning around at Barr Camp, which sits at 10,200 feet above sea level.

Silvio Guerra, who holds national records in Ecuador in the marathon, 10K and 5K, pushed Carpenter early in the race.

“For about 10 minutes, he was running with me,” Carpenter said. “He held on really well and was only about a minute behind at the top.”

Guerra, a three-time Olympian, placed second in the Boston Marathon in 1999. Sunday he had to settle for third, finishing in 1:35:06.

“He just got here yesterday,” Carpenter said. “This race is about trying to get the best people we can, and it was a big honor to have him in it.”

Bryan Oller The Gazette Lisa Marie Goldsmith, who also won the 2005 Pikes Peak Ascent, beat defending champion Katie Blackett by more than six minutes.

Colorado Springs resident Ryan Hafer, who last year became the youngest winner of the Pikes Peak Ascent at age 19, was second in 1:32:31.

Lisa Marie Goldsmith of Nederland beat defending race champion Katie Blackett of Boulder by more than six minutes to win the women’s division in 1:52:16.

She has won the last two years,” said Goldsmith, who won the 2005 Ascent. “Last year she passed me with less than a mile to go. So I was never thinking ‘Oh, I have this race in the bag,’ knowing the whole time that Katie was behind me.”

Blackett finished second in 1:58:47. Bronwyn Morrissey of Superior was third in 2:02:38.

The race’s popularity has grown steadily. Registration closed after two weeks this year, but one regular came back for another try.

Since the race’s founding, Max Armstrong of Wichita, Kan., has come to Manitou Springs to compete. This year, at age 73 and the oldest competitor, Armstrong said he felt better than ever, finishing in 3:12:07.

“I took up running when I was 65,” Armstrong said. “I saw people running up the mountain and thought that running up a mountain would be almost impossible and I had to try it.”

Bryan Oller The Gazette Matt Harrington, 38, of Austin, Texas, had enough energy to have some fun Sunday near the finish of the Barr Trail Mountain Race.