Posted inNews

“It’s like riding an escalator”: Burro racing isn’t likely to go mainstream, but it’s having a moment in Colorado

LEADVILLE — At the sound of gunfire, the burros take off in a sprint, so fast that the trail runners gripping their lead ropes are at risk of getting dragged down the pavement of historic Harrison Avenue. Within the first block, with a crowd of several hundred lining the street to watch this spectacle, a […]

Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors

Pikes Peak Marathon legend Arlene Pieper Stine, the first woman to run a sanctioned marathon, has died

One of Colorado mountain running’s most beloved heroes used to climb up the ladder next to the sign draped across the town of Manitou Springs’s main drag — “Welcome, Pikes Peak Runners” — so that she could send off the hundreds of runners who had packed the narrow street to head off for the summit […]

Posted inColoradans, COVID, Outdoors

Without the burden of races, Colorado’s long-distance runners are shattering trail records

Jacquie Mannhard had long heard her fellow trail runners talk of fastest-known times. The prospect of tackling a gnarly route relatively unsupported had tickled the Boulder-based distance runner’s fancy for years, but she’d never gotten around to looking into it further. Then the pandemic struck.  It was April when she got the first notice: “Given […]

Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health, News, Outdoors

Coronavirus is forcing a whole new social contract on Colorado’s city sidewalks and suburban open space

Gov. Jared Polis’ instructions about when to wear a mask upon leaving home were pretty all-encompassing: “At all times,” he said.  And Coloradans mostly have accepted that the governor meant we should wear masks to the grocery store, the pharmacy, to pick up dinner or while zipping through Home Depot. (Whether people do it is […]

Posted inColoradans, Outdoors

60 years ago, the first woman to complete a U.S. marathon ran to the top of Pikes Peak and back down again

In white shorts, sleeveless blouse and dime-store tennis shoes, Arlene Pieper Stine, 29, stood on the start line of the 1959 Pikes Peak Marathon looking more like Marilyn Monroe than a mountaineer. But Pieper Stine, then a Colorado Springs health club owner, not only finished the 26-mile race, with its grueling 8,000 feet of vertical […]

Posted inColoradans, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider

Remember the Fort Collins trail runner who killed an attacking mountain lion? Here’s what his life has been like since.

FORT COLLINS — Travis Kauffman says he’s glad his 15 seconds of fame has come and gone. Five and a half months after he killed a mountain lion with his bare hands during a trail run in Fort Collins, Kauffman says he’s back to being an ordinary guy. The injuries the 32-year-old environmental engineer suffered […]

Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors

Hardrock 100 ultrarun canceled by avalanche debris, high-water risk

SILVERTON — The Hardrock 100 ultrarun through Colorado’s southwestern mountains has been canceled because of this year’s heavy snowfall and avalanche debris. In an announcement Monday, Hardrock Hundred Endurance Run director Dale Garland said that conditions on much the 100-mile course through the San Juan Mountains are uncertain. MORE: Too much snow is a headache […]