Ron Ilgen, President of Pikes Peak Marathon (PPM), knows that the balance of the race’s international popularity needs to be balanced with local pride in addition to effective planning, robust volunteer operations and, of course, logistics. The 2022 race looms within the next month and the focus is to keep it running strong.

Ilgen himself was born just north of the Springs in Castle Rock and grew up with a view of Pikes Peak. When he moved to Colorado Springs about 30 years ago, he started running the marathon himself “and fell in love with the mountain, the concept of the event and the challenge.” He says being in proximity to the mountain all his life fostered the pioneer spirit of the marathon from his earliest memories.

As far as the enduring allure of the marathon, Ilgen says, “It is amazing people doing an extraordinary thing.” He jokes that he believes it is almost a deathbed event. He says when a person thinks back to what they have accomplished in life, these people can say, “Well, I did run the Pikes Peak Marathon!”

With an event like PPM, Ilgen says people train for years on the mountain and put in a lot of miles.

Ilgen says newcomers to the race usually get a shock. The night before the ascent, there is a get-together with the runners. “It’s people walking around like deer in the headlights, especially for the first timers, because this is one of the few event races where you can actually see your finish line. You stand in Manitou, and you can look up to Pikes Peak and see that ‘I’m going to run up there tomorrow.”

Ilgen says that can be extremely daunting. Once they accomplish that, their exuberance, their excitement, their sense of accomplishment is just palatable. “It’s really a big part of why we love this event, and why we work so hard to make it as good as we can.”

Ilgen explains that most people don’t realize (and he really emphasizes this with the runners) that the marathon is not just a running event, it’s a mountaineering event. “If you set up to climb Everest, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get up there that day. So, you have to [be willing to admit], ‘OK, I gave it my best, but I’m going to turn around. It was a tough day today, maybe tomorrow it’ll be better.”

Ilgen parallels the commitment of the runners with the commitment of the operations team who go above and beyond to set up the race. It is a continuing challenge at times, especially setting up the final aid station, which is about a mile and a half from the summit and way above the timberline. The question in the setup has always been, in terms of logistics and efficiency, how do you get water up there when there’s no creek? The other aid stations filter water out of the creeks.

At one time, Ilgen said cars or helicopters would come out and try to place water barrels. He admits some would roll down the hill, which became perilous. They finally came up with another way, which was to place a huge water tank at the summit and run 30 or so garden hoses all the way down the face of the mountain. The hoses blew out in some instances, but the marathon managed to make it work. Keeping these essentials functioning and working, Ilgen says, requires dexterity and creativity.

But the people who work for the marathon, setting this up, love it, Ilgen says. For the marathon, the aid station workers go up Friday night and stay through Sunday, camping out. He recalls that last year (2021), he got a call very early in the morning from that aid station that a bear was attacking the food (thankfully not attacking the workers). But it had been there all night. “You throw in the wildlife aspect, the weather, it’s always something up there.”

Ilgen admits setting up the mountain for the race is a monumental task. “We start a month before. We’re setting up each aid station. We’re hauling stuff into Barr Camp.” But again, he says, that’s part of the fun.

Many of the marathon participants return every year. Ilgen says many come from all over the US and this is their major run event of the year. “We have one guy from Texas, he’s done around, I think, 33 events.”

Many of the runners who began when Ilgen joined the organization are now struggling as they get older. “It’s getting even harder to the point where some of them just can’t do it and they have to turn around and walk down. Your heart just breaks for them.”

That said, he says that there is one marathoner coming up this year who is in his 80s and will give it a go.

History, in this way, is essential for the Pikes Peak Marathon and Ilgen wants to make sure that spirit inspires the next generation. “Pikes Peak is unique. Everybody knows Pikes Peak, including the stories of mining and the pioneer spirit. That pioneer spirit is really what kind of started the race.”

He explains that Manitou was established as a health-oriented town. He says many people were smoking back then and doctors here were trying to prove that it was bad for their health. “They lined up a few people, these smokers, and one [guy] beat everybody to the top, but then he dropped out of the race saying that he had to have a cigarette.” He admits that he’s not sure if that is a fully accurate story but might speak to the inception of the race.

Another big claim to fame, he says, is that the first woman to ever run a marathon ran Pikes Peak in 1959. This woman ran with her 9-year-old daughter and her husband in the ascent stage. Back then, the ascent was run on the same day as the marathon. She was a local in Manitou who ran a health studio. She ran the whole way to the top. Her daughter and husband dropped out, but she decided, “I’m going to run back down.” She made the cut-off time and completed the marathon. Then she left and no big deal was made out of it. She moved out of town and was never heard from for 50 years.

When the 50th Anniversary of her accomplishment came up in 2009, Ilgen says that they tried to find her. Ilgen brought in a genealogist to find the woman whose name was Arlene Pieper. It was tricky because she had remarried and changed names.      

Three days before the celebration event was scheduled, he got a call from the genealogist saying, “Ron, we found her. Now what?” Ilgen said, “Get her out here!” They surprised people with her presence at the event. “There were tears in women’s eyes when they saw Arlene. She was such an icon. Here comes this very diminutive, little old lady, who was just the sweetest thing that was pulled out of obscurity into the limelight. It was very historic and amazing. It really is probably one of the highlights of my time with the marathon.”

Pieper continued coming to the Marathon every year until her passing in 2019.

It is these kinds of memories that keep the focus, inspiration, and hope of the Pikes Peak Marathon alive year after year. But for Ilgen it is also about really making sure that the race continues to have a future to create this history “and that we can sustain the event the way it should be.”      

The area is becoming such a popular tourist destination that some of the areas like Manitou, the Pikes Peak Highway and the mountain itself are becoming overwhelmed. “And then you bring in three or four thousand people for this race event.” That is why the race was moved a month out to September to get more shoulder time out of peak season without going into winter.

For Ilgen, it is about keeping the soul of what Pikes Peak is about and what keeps people coming back: that pioneer soul.

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