Dear Editor:

I realize that I may already be stirring an overstirred pot when I jump into the fray of Matt Carpenter’s various exchanges with PPRR members about his “Peaktus Interruptus” article. But I cannot resist at least partially coming to Matt’s defense.

Whether this agrees with the current ethos of false modesty or not, I believe Matt, as arguably the best mountain runner in the world, deserves at least a modicum of arrogance. In any case, I believe we should feel somewhat honored that the best mountain runner in the world lives here in our community and that he cares enough to participate in the PPRR, to include entering dialogue with various letter writers to the LONG RUN.

On another point mentioned in several exchanges, Matt has argued that the Pikes Peak Ascent is only one half of the Pikes Peak Marathon. I believe he is partially correct. During the 1970s when I used to run the Pikes Peak Marathon, there was still only one race and all of us “veteran” Pikes Peakers felt that we were wimps if we quit at the top, even though separate awards were given for competitors who wanted to quit at the top. So until there were two completely separate races on successive days, most runners would agree with Matt’s sentiments about Peaktus Interruptus. Now that there are two races, however, I think we could draw parallels with numerous marathons around the world which also have attendant half marathons and even 10Ks. Many world class runners as well as average runners choose to compete in the half marathon rather than the full marathon and in some instances the half may even be the most competitive of the two. Since my advancing age and potential injuries from downhill runni ng have challenged my desire to race the “round trip,” I have been competing in the Ascent (7 of the last 8 years) and I have learned to love and respect this race as unique, even among mountain races. But then my favorite race distance is the half marathon so perhaps I am just a little bit biased.

— Bob McAndrews


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