Leadville Trail 100 + The Pikes Peak Marathon And Trail Events!

NEW Footwear On The Wall!

The Inov8 TrailRoc 255 trail runner is on the wall at all Alabama Outdoors locations! A perfect high mileage trail trainer and racer. The Trailroc 255 has the most underfoot protection of any shoe in the line, but is still a very light (only 9oz) low to the ground (6mm heel drop) trail shoe. This shoe is one fast animal.

Epic Runs Out West

It’s the Rocky Mountain Olympics of Trail Running up in my old home state of Colorado this weekend. The Leadville Trail 100mile Run is this Saturday plus the 3rd oldest marathon in the states, The Pikes Peak Marathon, is Sunday!

The Leadville Trail 100mile Run, like all ultras this year, is stacked with not only the deepest field of competition possibly ever in it’s history, but will also attract the largest list of entrants ever (topping 1K this year!). Upfront for the ladies will most likely be 36-year-old New Balance runner Liza Howard from Texas and 37-year-old Pearl Izumi runner Darcy Africa from Colorado. If she clinches a win on Saturday evening, Darcy will be one step closer to the Rocky Mountain Grand Slam (winning 4 RM 100s in a row) – she’s already won the Bighorn 100, Hardrock 100, and the bear 100 will run in September. On their heels, and maybe up ahead on the trails, will be Leadville native and two-time winner Lynette Clemons (39) and Boulder Colorado’s Tina Lewis (37, go get em Tina!). The women’s race could turn out to be the big event this year.

And for the men…29-year-old New Balance mountain goat Anton Krupicka (TK!) is, as always when it comes to Leadville, the odds on favorite. He tells me he’s in the best shape of his life and could make a run at Matt Carpenter’s record this year (as long as he doesn’t blow up at mile 70! Tony play it safe bro!). Oh his heels will be very steep competition from New Zealand’s two-time Olympian – 4x Ironman Champ – Road Runner turned Ultra Trail Runner – Mike Aish. This will be the moment when the speedy road runner (he runs a 2:13 marathon) goes up against the mountain goats. Mike has already turned in the 2nd fastest time in the Leadville 50 last year and the 100 course is, sadly, very road runner friendly (save for the 2 times over Hope Pass at 12K feet and the 2 times over Surgarloaf Pass at 10K). Here’s an fantastic video about Mike and his Leadville pursuits this year (some of those switch backs are etched in my memories of Colorado and Leadville!). Pearl Izumi’s steady eddy Nick Clark (old and awesome!) might just be the one to beat though as he knows how to maintain a strong pace for the duration of the miles better then anyone. Watch out for Nick! And of course there’s a ton of others looking to dominate this year.

I’m a little sad to say I won’t be running in this year’s Pbville race, I have some fond memories of races past, but I’m thrilled to running The Pinhoti 100 this year here in Alabama!!! This weekend after my long run on Sat I’ll be glued to I Run Far’s live coverage of the race starting early Saturday and running all day till late that evening/night when the first finishers start coming in.

The Pikes Peak Marathon! Can you believe that the 3rd oldest marathon in the states is also the highest, maybe the hardest, and almost all on trail! Makes me happy. 47 yr old Mountain goat legend himself, Matt Carpenter, overall record holder at Pikes Peak, Leadville 100, Lake City 50, and a slew of other insanely hard races, will be running for his 17th win of the PPM. Matt will for sure be the local fave, but all odds and eyes will be watching the Salomon’s young gun, and legend in his own right, Killian Jornet (hopefully he’ll follow the American trail rules, but….did he cut switch backs at the Speedgoat 50k to maybe make a statement????). My odds for the women’s race is Salomon’s youngster Emelie Forsberg of Sweden. She’s been stateside for a month running everything in site, including the big peak in Colorado Springs. Like all trail races this year, Pikes Peak is looking to break it’s attendance records with the largest entrance list yet in it’s history.

We’re loving the rise in popularity of trail running! and this gets us amped for our own trail running season just around the corner!! Come out and join us Every Tuesday at Red Mountain Park as we host a guided trail running experience with us. We’ll also be sponsoring and supporting several great trail runs and races in our very own beautiful state of Alabama on our very own Alabama dirt!:

The Birmingham Track Club (our wonderful partners in running) will be hosting an entry level – new to running – fast for those of you who are experienced – 5 mile trail race August 25th out at Oak Mountain State Park.

We’re proud to sponsor The Autumn Equinox Ultra 25k/50k out at Oak Mountain State Park and the race director is our very own local Alabama ultra man Owen Bradley!

We’ll be presenting 5 very fun Xterra Alabama Trail Races this fall with Dirty Spokes Productions in 5 different beautiful Alabama locations!

We’re honored to be partnering with Todd Henderson in presenting both the 5th Annual Pinhoti 100 Trail Race out on the beautiful Pinhoti Trail, and the 3rd annual Mt. Cheaha 50k Trail Race, both here in Alabama.

Like Us on Facebook to keep up to date on all our Trail Events, Trail Running Clinics, New Trail Gear, and Group Trail Runs. We’ve got your trail running needs covered all 6 of our Alabama Outdoors locations, your source for getting out in Alabama.

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