Over 150 runners lined up on Saturday for the 36th Annual Kendall Mountain Run and 4th Annual “K2” Double. Both races start at 12th Street and Greene and follow the Kendall Mountain Road 6 miles up to within 250 vertical feet of the 13,066 foot summit of Kendall. Runners then scramble up a steep trail to tag the summit marker before flying back down to town the way they came up. K2 Doublers make the ascent to the top twice for a little more than 24 miles.
Runners at the summit
The race was first held in 1978, started by running enthusiast Bill Corwin who modeled the race after a famous bar bet made back in 1908 which sent runners climbing straight up the front face of the mountain and hurling themselves down the avalanche chute facing town. That first runner made it to the top and back to town in 1:31:42. Rick Trujillo, a legendary Colorado mountain runner won the first edition of the modern day race in 1:40:01 and the current record is held by Sheldon Larson who ran a 1:35:07 in 1985.
After experiencing a deluge of rain during packet pickup at Smedley’s on Friday afternoon and a thick fog in town on Saturday morning, the skies cleared out and runners were treated to a perfect day on the mountain. Clear blue skies in the morning and several clouds rolling in by early afternoon, but we didn’t receive a drop of rain all day.
Ivy Lefebvre of Silverton on the summit
The first runner to the top was Daniel Kraft, 24 from Telluride who summited in 1:05, 11 minutes ahead of the second place runner. Daniel flew down the mountain for a first place finish in 1:44:54. Daniel won the Imogene Pass run this past year as well as placing 4th at the highly competitive Chuckanut 50K. Second place went to Logan Ott of Los Alamos in 1:54:28 and third was Drew Stimson of Colorado Springs in 2:07:38.
The women’s race was won by 23 year old Margaret Harkins of Telluride in a time of 2:16:13 with Becca Tudor also of Telluride finishing second in 2:19:38. Sarah Slaughter of Durango rounded out the top 3 in 2:26:06.
Erik Skaggs, winner of the K2 double on his second summit
For those runners looking for a bit more of a challenge, the K2 Double is quite the mountain running feat. Runners ascend Kendall twice for close to 7,500 feet of climbing and the same amount of knee crunching descent over 24 miles of jeep roads and trail scrambling. Erik Skaggs, a recent Durango transplant who has won the Kendall Mountain Run before was the winner and new course record holder for K2 finishing in 4:09:26. In the women’s race, Jenn Shelton conquered the mountain twice in a time of 4:57:04 for the win finishing 3rd overall.
Jenn Shelton on top of Kendall for the second time of the race
Runners were treated to a barbecue in Memorial Park post race featuring hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers on a beautiful Silverton day. All finishers received a commemorative glass pint glass and a wood token for a free Coor’s beer at Montanya’s! We hope to see you out for the 37th Annual Kendall Mountain Run and K2 Double next year on July 19, 2014. The next running race in the Silverton Alpine Running Series is the Silverton Alpine Marathon & 50K on August 24, 2013. Check out SilvertonAlpineRunning.com or call 602-361-7440 for more details!