Allie Ostrander
Coming from her home base at sea level in Seattle to the extreme altitude of Colorado undoubtedly taxed Allie Ostrander’s aerobic system on Saturday, when the Alaska pro runner finished 20th among women at the punishing Pikes Peak Ascent.
The 13.3-mile trail race begins in downtown Manitou Springs at 6,300 feet of elevation – gulp – and takes athletes up 7,815 feet of elevation gain and technical footing to the summit at 14,115 feet.
Ostrander, 26, who grew up in Soldotna, clocked 3 hours, 4 minutes, 52 seconds in what shakes out as a wickedly hard week for her – she is entered to run the Mammoth Lakes 26K (16 miles), which gains 4,000 feet in altitude on Sept. 23.
Sophia Laukli of Salt Lake City, a World Cup Nordic skier, won the women’s race in 2:35.57.
Ostrander, who is sponsored by outdoors manufacturer Nnormal, was among several athletes with strong Mount Marathon credentials who competed Saturday. Ostrander won the women’s title on Mount Marathon in 2017 and is a six-time junior champion (2009-14) and junior record holder.
Allie McLaughlin, 32, of Colorado Springs, the 2022 Mount Marathon champ and women’s record holder, finished 12th Saturday in 2:53:22. Anchorage’s Jessica Yeaton, 31, a physical therapist who now resides in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and won Mount Marathon in 2018, finished 19th in front of Ostrander in 3:02:12. Yeaton is a former Olympic Nordic skier and winner of the American Birkebeiner, the most prestigious long-distance ski race in the country.
On the men’s side Saturday, four-time and reigning Mount Marathon champ David Norris of Alaska, finished 29th in 2:28:31. Norris, 32, who owns the Mount Marathon record and is also a Birkebeiner champ, is Yeaton’s partner and coaches skiing in Steamboat Springs.
Remi Bonnet, 28, of Switzerland, one of the world’s best mountain and trail runners, won the men’s race in a record 2:00.20.
Former Mount Marathon junior champ Ali Papillon, 18, who splits time between Colorado and Anchorage, finished just 31 seconds behind Norris in 31st (2:29:02). Papillon’s brother, Bohdi, 22, a three-time Top 15 finisher in the men’s Mount Marathon, finished 41st in 2:37:28.