Dan Turk's Race Day Perspectives

Actually, this is a complete race diary that Dan Turk submitted to me by e-mail on August 27, 2003. Minor changes have been made for formatting and content.

Introduction

This year’s Pikes Peak Marathon (PPM) came with much anticipation and high hopes!

Last year’s PPM was my first in which I felt good at the top, and for most of the race. The previous year I had learned how to deal with the stomach pressure buildup that I’d experienced the two previous years, and was able to cut an hour and 6 minutes off of the previous year’s time, finishing in 5:37:56. That day I felt that I’d improved probably as much as I would be able to, but the next day I decided I might be able to take off another 30-45 minutes, putting me in the 4:55-5:15 range, good enough for a top 10-20 finish, and an age-group award. At least that was my dream.

Eric Sigler and I came into this year’s race with fantasies of doing 5:15 ± 15 minutes (Dan) and 5:21 ± 36 minutes (Eric), each fairly confident that we could meet our goal and thus place in our respective age group.

Sabbath Night, Aug 16

Well, Sabbath evening, all of us (Dan Turk, Eric Sigler, Jotham Matabi, Steve Eickmann, and Jonathan Vigh) met in one of our rooms at the Red Lion Inn in Colorado Springs to get ready for the next day’s marathon and to talk about race strategies.

Several of us had looked at a “pace calculator” that Matt Carpenter had posted on the web. This “calculator” showed splits, based on your desired ascent time, for various points along the course up the Barr Trail. The numbers were derived from historical data from many people who have run the course over the years, and thus are supposed to be fairly reliable… Or so I thought. Attention to these numbers were to become my downfall…

In any event, I bought into the idea that I could make “No Name Creek” in about 54 minutes, Barr Camp in about 1:32, the A-Frame in 2:08, and the top in 3:00. At least these were the splits that the “calculator” said I should be hitting if I hoped to make a 3:00 ascent time. And they were produced by none other than the PPM record-holder, Matt Carpenter, so who was I to question them. (To be fair, Matt also says that you should hold back and go slow and feel good on the bottom half of the mountain, especially the Ws, as they are the steepest part of the course, and the place where most people burn themselves out… This would turn out to be advice that I should have listened to better…)

Anyway, we were all jazzed about the race, all quite confident that it would be a good day and that we would meet our goals.

I was so jazzed, in fact, that I don’t think I really slept at all that night. I rested, but was conscious that I was awake most of the night.

Sunday, Aug 17

Today is race day!

My alarm went off at 5:00am, and after hopping up and running down the hall to knock on the Eickmanns’ door I was back in our room and all of us were soon up making last-minute preparations for the race. At 6:00 we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the starting line in Manitou Springs to find my brother, Stephen, who was supposed to take my extra pack to the top where they would give it to me at the halfway turn-around point. I had decided to run with my new Camelbak FlashFlo waist pack, since it was smaller and lighter and I wanted to be as fast today as possible… (It only carried 1.4L of liquid, compared with 3.0L in my larger backpack, but I could get GU out of it while running, and couldn’t do that easily with my larger pack. I planned to stop at every aid station and take 2 glasses of Gatorade and 2 GUs at No Name Creek, Barr Camp, the A-Frame, and the top.)

The race started well, with Eric and I being about 45 seconds fast at Ruxton street and about 30 seconds fast at Hydro street. (Looking back, this was a sign of things I was not doing right… if only I’d slowed down properly!)

When the pavement turned to dirt at about 1.3 miles, Eric had dropped back and I didn’t see him again until about ½ mile from the top. Knowing that Eric is a FAST mountain hiker, I should have realized this was a strong clue that I was going out WAY TOO FAST for my own good!

But I felt good, and thought that I could keep the pace up – and I had those “calculator” splits to hold to in order to make my 3:00 ascent time.

So up the Ws I went, arriving at No Name Creek about 30 seconds behind what the splits said I should be doing. “Oh well. That’s close. I should be able to make that up by Barr Camp,” I told myself. Well, by Barr Camp I was 5 minutes off... And my legs were shot.

Pushing so much up the Ws on Manitou Mt and between No Name Creek and Barr Camp I had wasted my legs and they were now tight and cramping. Unfortunately this meant that I basically did not run any between Barr Camp and the top… And my times showed it: 13 minutes behind the “calculator” at the A-Frame, and 32 minutes behind at the top. What a disappointment! L I was feeling so wasted that I had all but decided to drop out and ride back down with Stephen and Shanell.

I made it to the top in 3:32 – 17-32 minutes slower than I’d hoped for. Well, there went my dream of being in the top 20!

But the turnaround at the top does wonders, and after sitting down for 5 minutes to re-tie my shoes and get my other pack, food, and Gatorade from Stephen and Shanell, I headed down.

Eric was off ahead of me. I met Steve and Jotham within the last mile to the top, and Jonathan shortly after them.

Running down was way better than walking up. I tried jumping over boulders to pass runners doing slow descents, and twisted my right ankle twice in the process. But now I was cruising. If I can just hold a good pace for the whole 13 miles, maybe I can do the 1:45 – 2:00 descent that I’d been hoping for… If I can make Barr Camp in 45 minutes, I ought to be able to do the last 7.5 miles in an hour… (I wish!)

When it took an hour to get to Barr Camp, that idea went up in smoke…

All throughout this race (after I pushed too hard on the bottom 6 miles) I repeatedly questioned myself: “Why do I run Pikes Peak? This is my fourth time. Why should I keep doing this? Why do I run marathons at all, much less on mountains like this? Why do I do this? Should I quit marathoning? My brother loved it when he heard me repeating my thoughts at the bottom after the race. He, of course, has more sense than to keep doing this. After completing Pikes in 2002, he clearly stated that doing it once was good enough! Maybe I am coming to my senses…

My stomach had had better days on Pikes… Several times coming up I had to relieve the stomach pressure, and several times on the way down… At No Name Creek I had just taken a pack of Gu for energy to finish the last 4.3 miles, and had just opened my second pack, when my stomach started telling me all was not OK. There I stood in the middle of the trail, in the middle of the aid station, with water, Gatorade, and food tables on either side of me, and my stomach was saying it was going to reject what I’d just put in it. Something gave me the presence of mind to move to the side of the trail (“I don’t think I ought to throw up right here in the middle of the trail…”) and there I puked three times. This relieved my nausea, left me feeling great, and I flew off down the trail to finish the final 4.3 miles.

During the final miles I set my fasted pace for any of the miles on the course (6:53 for the final mile), caught up and passed Eric, ran behind the 14^th place girl for a while and watched helplessly as she fell and skidded face-down on the trail three times, and finally took off for a 106^th place overall finish of 5:39:34. This was far from the top-20 place of 5:00 to 5:15 that I’d hope for, but it was a successful finish just the same. I’ve just got to remember to stick to MY pace, to run MY race, and not to go out so fast and burn myself out in the early miles. I KNEW this, but just didn’t stick with it this time. Oh well, maybe next time. Yes, there will be a next time. (I guess I’ve already forgotten the pain.) I’ll almost certainly run it again next year. And hopefully I’ll be closer to 5:00 – 5:15 then.

Our finish times were:

Time	Name	Overall Place (Out of 792 finishers)	Male Place (Out of 597 males)	Age Group Place (& # in group)	Age Group
5:39:34	Dan Turk	106	92	17 / 102	40-44
5:42:37	Eric Sigler	115	99	8 / 39	25-29
6:38:27	Jotham Matabi	307	255	22 / 39	25-29
7:05:29	Steve Eickmann	400	321	74 / 99	30-34
7:10:15	Jonathan Vigh	411	330	33 / 39	25-29

Here are the finishers, from left to right, Jotham Matabi, Steve Eickmann, Eric Sigler, Dan Turk, and Jonathan Vigh. Picture courtesy of Dan Turk.

Monday, Aug 18

My! How quickly I’ve already forgotten the horrible experiences I had in this year’s race: I’m thinking that if I just train well, and then stick to MY own pace, I ought to be able to make a 5-5:15 finish time on Pikes next year… Can you believe I’m really thinking I’ll do this again…?! I’ve got to be really loony to do this stuff! (Of course, Carol always tells me, “Looney never stopped you before!”)

Tuesday, Aug 19

I went running today – only 3.4 miles, but it was great to be out again, and so soon after the marathon. I felt WONDERFUL after this run. Really loosened up. At the start of the run I felt quite tight and stiff, still, but the run really helped that and left me feeling GREAT!

Sunday, Aug 24

I did a 9.4 mile run today in 1:11:54 (7:39 pace) and felt great!

Tuesday, Aug 26

Did an 8-mile trail run (Horsetooth Mt Trail run race course) with Jonathan and Phil today, and, in the end, it was great. 1:12:50 (9:06 pace). I think I’m almost back to normal running!

Pikes Peak 2004, here we come!

Statistics and Such

(Here are Dan's unofficial splits. The split # refers to just a set split, not mileage. The first split is 1.32 miles and the last one is 0.89 miles. All the splits in between are 1 mile. For comparison with Jonathan's and Eric's splits, click here -- Jonathan Vigh).


	Pikes Peak Marathon	Dan Turk
	indicates estimated splits

	Split #	Split Time

	1	0:12:57
	2	0:12:58
	3	0:12:58
	4	0:12:20
	5	0:11:47
	6	0:11:27
	7	0:10:46
	8	0:18:32
	9	0:17:40
	10	0:21:41
	11	0:21:41
	12	0:21:57
	13	0:26:06

	Official Ascent	3:32:37
	Time at top	0:06:49

	14	0:10:22
	15	0:10:22
	16	0:10:22
	17	0:11:07
	18	0:09:21
	19	0:09:23
	20	0:09:23
	21	0:09:56
	22	0:10:14
	23	0:07:08
	24	0:07:35
	25	0:07:51
	26	0:06:53

	Official Descent	2:06:57
	Unofficial Descent	2:00:08

	Official Total	5:39:34

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