Who is Matt Carpenter, the legendary Pikes Peak record holder?

Pikes Peak is approaching and it is inevitable to remember the figure of Matt Carpenter, one of the most important American mountain runners of all time.

The athlete from Colorado (USA) not only left stratospheric marks in the two courses of Manitou Spring, Marathon and Ascent, which almost 30 years have not yet been passedbut he did the same for the 100 miles to nearby Leadville.

Really born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1964, he began to emerge as an athlete during his high school and college years in Mississippi. If at just 17 he made his debut in his first marathon with 3h11, a year later he would return, lowering the score by over 30 minutes. This was the hallmark of this nonconformist runner, who he did not mind repeating the races always with the aim of lowering his timeswhich in the end were the best of some races.

His love affair with trail running would begin, however, a few years later. And he would do so with the career he has become inextricably linked to over the years, the Pikes Peak Marathonin which it ended up breaking all what until then seemed to be the limits of the mythical distance in the mountains.

Even then it was nicknamed “the lung”, because it reached a VO2 Max of 90.2 mL / kg / min in a 1990 study at an altitude of 2,000 m above sea level, as well as other very significant variants of the genetics that this athlete carried, such as his 33 beats per minute at rest.

These values, almost unique in the history of sport, were linked to an almost unlimited working capacity. His motto for sports, and as he would later recognize for life as well, was “Get out and run hard. When you feel pain, it accelerates. “

An anecdote he himself explained reveals his way of approaching sport; “When I had a stomach ache, I did my 30 minute workout which consisted of one hard minute and one easy minute. I did this in my garage and with the remote in hand and a bucket in between, otherwise I wouldn’t have time to go to the bathroom and come back anytime soon. I would run outside for a minute, go to the garage and use the bucket. I called that workout “one minute hard, one minute pooping”.

2h01 in the climb and 3h16 in the marathon

It was in 1987 that Matt Carpenter first tried Pikes Peak, a few months after moving to Colorado. He made the climb, finishing fourth. He returned the following year already competing in the Marathon, and in addition to the victory, he set the third best time in history with 3h38. Thus was the beginning of this fruitful relationship which earned him 18 victories in 23 participations.

His best times would come, however, a few years later. In the early 90s, already a professional runner, he was at his athletic peak. He was preparing to try to be part of the US team for the 1992 Olympic marathon.who taught him new approaches to training that he was able to apply in the mountains and successes were not long in coming.

In the 1992 Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, he ran to the top with a record time of 2:05. Then he fell apart on the way down, losing to rival Ricardo Mejía for nearly 20 minutes. In a pattern that repeated several times throughout Carpenter’s career, he used that loss as a motivation and in 1993 staged one of the greatest performances in trail running history. He broke the records of both the ascent, with 2h01’06 “, and the complete route, with 3h16’39”, beating Mejía by over 25 minutes. I was 29 then and 29 years later, they are still the current brands; not even Kilian Jornet improved them.

Other businesses

While this sometimes questioned achievement is Carpenter’s best-known feat, the truth is that he has recorded other triumphs and records in high-flying racing in Colorado and other parts of the world. From 1994 to 2000 he was part of the Fila SkyRunners, which allowed him, among others, to win twice the Skyrunning World Cupin addition to putting himself to the test in Tibet, at an altitude of 4,400 m, running a marathon in 2h52.

It was already in the new century when Carpenter attempted the long distance. It was 2004 and he was embarking on a new “house branding” challenge. And it is that in his first 100-mile race, his goal was already to win. The race chosen was the Leadville 100, and not surprisingly, since it is the highest in the country, as well as being very correctable. Both ingredients were perfect for ‘the lung’ to return to history, but it couldn’t be and ‘the lung’ had to be content with being fourteenth after a hard-fought race.

But nothing better for Matt’s fighting spirit than when he was 17, he decided that his second attempt would be the one that would lead him to glory. To do this, he changed his training. He returned to what had always worked for him: short training time, high speed, and more rest periods.

A year later, Carpenter was on the starting line and would complete one of Colorado’s most memorable races. In that 2005, Matt would not only get the win, but he would stop time in 15h42 ‘, another mark that has not even been crossed. It was 7 hours less than the previous year!

That performance made history. It was not only his time, but the fact of achieving something that was believed to be impossible, reaching the finish line with the sun still shining. The editor of Colorado Runner magazine, one of the bibles of the time, pointed this out “I think Matt just took ultra-running to a new level.”

Gradually, and naturally, Carpenter’s level dropped, but that didn’t stop him from getting another win. And it is that in 2011, when Matt was 47, he won his favorite race for the last time, the Pikes Peak Marathon with which his name is so associated. But what will always be remembered is the incredible figure of one of the best mountain runners in history.

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