Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

The view from Pikes Peak moved Katharine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful" in 1893, but for a handful of Austin runners, the challenge of running up the Colorado mountain is what inspires.

The 55th running of the Pikes Peak Marathon is scheduled Aug. 21-22, and 34 runners from the Austin area are planning to be there.

The event is divided into two races: on Saturday, the ascent; on Sunday, the round trip. Many runners do one. Some runners, including Austin's Brenton Buxton, are planning to run both races.

Now, Pikes Peak is not the tallest of the Colorado Rockies. But it soars to 14,115 feet. The ascent race covers 13.3 miles of rugged trails and switchbacks in an elevation climb of more than a mile. Those who do the round trip have a full 26.2 miles to contend with.

Buxton, who lived in Manitou Springs at the mountain's base during the 1980s and early '90s, has run the double 24 times, and has what some might regard as a casual approach to training. He runs twice a week and does some weight lifting.

"When I lived in Colorado, I trained right on the trail, so I'm very familiar with the course and the race strategy," said Buxton, a systems engineer for an Austin-based defense contractor. "So part of my casual approach comes with the familiarity.

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