Peaktus interuptus – Part II

By MATT CARPENTER

In response to the letter from Robin Walters concerning my Peaktus Interuptus article I would like to clarify a few things.

Robin used the “we” approach in addressing my article to come to the “everybody is a winner” conclusion. However, when Robin says “we” she is forgetting the fact that I ran the Accent this year. As an Ascent runner I am entitled — I hope — to express MY views on MY run — hence the use of the words “I, me, and my” 39 times in the first four paragraphs alone. I was one of the 1750 Peak Ascent runners that she claims I was “unfairly trying to diminish the accomplishments of.” Had I never ran the Ascent — but instead always ran the Marathon — and wrote the Peaktus Interuptus article, perhaps her criticisms would be justified. However, and again, the article represents what I felt after I ran the Ascent. Whereas Robin is expressing her opinion (so too is she entitled) and often generalizing — “numerous physical and mental obstacles” — I was stating verifiable facts. Thirteen goes into twenty-six two times, or expressed as a fraction — 1/2 — hence the use of the word “half” throughout the article. It is also a fact that Ascent runners do not do, or experience, the things I wrote that they/we/I did not do or experience when they/we/I ran just the Ascent. But I did not try to imply, like Robin, that taking a van ride down somehow factors in to the equation to make it all balance out. Does that mean the people who rode down without “regurgitation receptacles” have even more courage?

Robin would like to have things both ways when in one paragraph she writes people are signing up for a challenging 13-mile race and then two paragraphs later she writes “this really isn’t a race to most runners, but a personal challenge.” The simple fact of the matter is BOTH events are, in fact, races — complete with starting lines, finish lines, judges, course marshals, aid stations and race numbers. While not much of a problem in the round trip, there are far too many people turning the Ascent into nothing more than a did-a-thon. If people find it such a challenging, rewarding, personal goal just to get to the top of a beautiful mountain, why not do it on some other warm summer day and make it a truly personal experience? I believe, or at least hope — yes this is an opinion — many people ARE racing. Maybe not to win first overall, but maybe racing to win an age-group. Or racing to place in an age group or to beat a friend, or to better their own time or a predicted time etc. For one man (I use the word man loosely) the race is to beat a woman, but at least he is racing. Racing to finish does not even make sense!

When I wrote finishing is winning, I was referring to a race that went bad for one individual. She did not start out with a goal of only to finish. There are times for all runners, that in the end, the race becomes that to finish — but that does not mean the purpose of the race is to finish. Robin takes a line that I had in my article about the marathon “...a race sometimes is more than trying to win or run a fast time, but about finishing” and uses an almost identical line to come to the conclusion that finishing the Ascent is winning and finishing the Marathon is winning.

Well, that is not what I meant, but so be it. I have already shown using simple math that the Ascent is one half the distance of the Marathon, so it only stands to reason that if the race turns into one of finishing, and if finishing somehow becomes winning, then half the winning has been done in the Ascent. Please note the words “if” and “winning.” Perhaps mathematical formulas do not apply to such intangibles as goals and accomplishments. But, AT LEAST FOR ME, winning is not an intangible. I am not first person across the line in many races and, believe or not, I once finished last in a race (I am not talking about the cross-country race where I broke my ankle and did not finish). On these occasions I do not try to tell myself that I was a winner because I finished.

I did not say that running the Ascent is not accomplishing a goal — although to use phrases like “tackle the peak” and “conquered the mountain and won” might be stretching the accomplishment a bit far. I did not say that “Ascent runners won’t have to come up with the courage to complete the round trip” like a letter writer in the November issue of Rock Mountain Sports claims I wrote. (I would use his name but it turns out the writer might not have used a real name. There is no “Sean Gentry” from Manitou Springs that I can find. And despite “his” claim, I can also find no such person in last year’s Ascent results). I was talking about the courage needed to run fast after a fall. I know — as Robin pointed out — people fall going up. But, AT LEAST FOR ME, when I fall going uphill, I wipe the rocks off my hands and laugh at how stupid I was for not paying attention. The last time I fell going down the Peak I was knocked down by an uphill runner who did not read the RACE rules and yield to downhill runners. Hitting either him or the ground — I am not sure which — I managed to crack a rib. He then proceeded to tell me to watch where I was going! As a four-time Ascent runner, I can safely say I have had no such encounters when I took the warm van-ride back down the mountain.

“Sean Gentry” also went on to write “I guess that in order to set records and win, a certain degree of arrogance and compulsiveness is necessary... Does demeaning the 1,800 people who chose to run the Ascent make him feel better somehow?” I did not purposely demean anyone and am not trying to demean or diminish the accomplishments of anyone now — although I can imagine the did-a-thoners (yes, they have rights too) might be a little miffed. If you want to see what demeaning is, read what “Sean Gentry” wrote about me.

When I wrote “then again maybe Ascent runners do know these things and that is why they do not run the Marathon” I was putting myself in that category. I have no problem admitting that one of the reasons I skipped the marathon is that I did not want to deal with just how hard it is — especially considering that for me it would have been the day after I ran the Ascent. I apologize if in an attempt to analyze why I skipped doing “the double,” I took some who are already satisfied down from their high.

Until we run into each other,

Matt “I don’t feel like I ‘conquered’ the Peak because the Peak always wins” Carpenter

PS Someday I will write about my race up Monte Rosa in Italy. It gained over 11,000' in only 9 miles to get to 15,000' — half of it over a glacier with one-foot wide snow bridges crossing 20' deep crevasses! It took me over 3 hours just to get up and I had to walk (yes, me, Mr. Arrogant) over 7 of them and barely finished in the top 10. On the way down I sometimes fell and slid on my butt for short sections at over 30 mph and could barley run for 3 weeks after that. When I do write about it however, get out your pens and get ready to write more letters to the editor because compared to it, the Pikes Peak MARATHON is a 1-mile fun run and the ASCENT won’t even get a mention!

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