The finale of the first-year USATF Colorado Grand Prix brought a fast field to Marble's incredibly scenic Lead King Loop 25K. With money going three-deep ($200, $150, $100) and a separate $200 for first master, both the men's and women's course records were broken. Inov-8's Alex Nichols (Colorado Springs) finished just ahead of his teammate, Peter Maksimow (Manitou Springs) as the race winner. Finishing in 1:51:06, Nichols becomes the USATF Colorado state 25K champ, collects the winner's prize money, a marble foot, and earned an entry into next year's U.S. 10K trail championships in North Carolina. Maksimow was just behind in 1:51:14, while Boulder Runnning Company's Adam Rich (Colorado Springs) was third in 1:53:27. Bernie Boettcher (Silt) ran 1:59:47 to finish fifth overall and first master. The course record was previously 1:55:42, set by Aaron Coe in 2006.
Alex Nichols.
Top-5 men with USATF's Tania Pacev.
In the women's race, Stevie Kremer (Crested Butte) took a huge chunk of time off Cynthia Arnold's 2:19:37 course record from 2009. Kremer ran 2:11:19 on the Lead King course to establish the new mark. With a win at the Barr Trail Mountain Race earlier this year, she has certainly established herself as one of the state's (and country's?) best trail runners. Myriah Blair (Glenwood Springs) and Rachel Viele (Vail) ran 2:13:12 and 2:14:11 to finish second and third, and also well under the previous course standard. Cindy O'Neill was the master's winner, running 2:32:07.
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