Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

By KEVIN CARMODY, The Gazette

While her dad, Bryan Willis, raced at the 11th Summer Roundup Trail Run on Sunday at Bear Creek Park, Tiffani Chase’s mind wandered.

To put her mind at ease, the Manitou Springs native walked her 3-year old Llewellin Setter, Cooper, at the nearby dog park. She wondered about her dad’s attempt to break 65 minutes.
She thought about seeing her husband, Daniel, later Sunday at a celebration at Buckley Air Force Base to promote the master technical sergeant and spending time together before his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan in December.

Check out a photo gallery from the race.

Most of all, she felt the kicks from inside and tried to think positively. After a stillbirth and miscarriage in the last 21 months, Chase does all she can not to think about the past but instead a bright future and a adding new member to the family.

So she yelled encouragement at Willis as he rounded the final curve. It must have worked; Willis, 50, finished the 12K race in 56 minutes, 39 seconds to win the men’s 50-54 age group.

“I compete through him,” Chase said. “I get so nervous when he races.”

Watching each second elapse on the scoreboard clock has nothing on Chase’s daily journey toward motherhood — Dec. 4 is the due date — and her husband’s departure to the Middle East shortly thereafter.        “For me, I have to be around good people and stay positive,” Chase said.

She doesn’t have to look far for that encouragement in Willis, who gave fist pumps to just about everybody around following his finish and looked just as energized as ever, even after nearly one hour on the gravel and dirt trail, the first 3.7 miles taking runners on a 1,000-foot ascent.

Alex Nichols of Colorado Springs took overall honors in a rout, completing the race in 45:34, nearly two minutes ahead of runner-up Michael Selig of Lakewood. The race marked the second leg of the Triple Crown of Running, which started June 13 at the Garden of the Gods 10-Mile Run and finishes Aug. 21 with the Pikes Peak Ascent.

Men's results

Women's results

Willis finished 36th overall, not bad for someone who didn’t take his first steps as a competitive runner until 10 years ago. And add to it a diagnosis of pars fracture, a crack above his fifth lumber vertebrae that makes running downhill especially uncomfortable.

“I actually started running so I could get in better shape to go elk hunting,” Willis said. “I weighed 190 pounds and had a 37-inch waist, and I couldn’t get uphill to get to the good hunting places. I knew if I didn’t get off my couch and do something, it would end up killing me.”

Ironically, Willis has changed his lifestyle and diet so dramatically in a decade that he barely eats meat anymore, so there’s no need to hunt elk anymore.

“It happened slowly, but I whittled off the weight,” said Willis, a former army small arms repairmen. "I ended up throwing away my scale, and I don’t wear a fancy watch. Those things just discouraged me. In the end, if I feel OK, then I must be doing something right.”