By Gavin McGough
From Imogene Run website.
It’s a cold, early morning in Telluride, slightly gray and feeling a bit more like autumn than summer. Except for some high smoke from Western fires, it's a fine day for a run. That’s a good thing, because it’s the Saturday after Labor Day, and, for the last forty-nine years, this has meant one thing in Telluride: the Imogene Pass Run.
In this mountain tradition, over a thousand race runners set out from Ouray, Colorado at 7:30 in the morning. Before ten o’clock the first runners are rounding the turn off Tomboy Road in Telluride and running the last few blocks of the 17-mile race right down Oak Street. Second-place finisher Daniel Craft ran it all in two hours and twenty four minutes. Standing at the still quiet finish line, he says he was running hard till the very end.
“It’s great, beautiful weather. I had a really tight finish with Jimmy Par, who’s, like, a five-time champion, and I had to run the last mile all-out,” Craft says.
Craft has run the race twice beforehand, when he used to live in Telluride, and says the run embodies the spirit and energy of mountain communities.
“For me, I just love Telluride so much it’s an excuse to come back. And it’s really fun to come into town over the pass,” Craft says. “It's an awesome community on both sides and has a lot of history.”
Racers came from around the United States and even traveled internationally — one top finisher was from Great Britain. Meanwhile, a crew of over 200 volunteers handed out water and high energy snacks along the course. The crowd at the finish line, which grew throughout the morning, was full of Telluride residents either waiting to greet a friend coming over the pass, or to just pause and recognize a storied tradition.
The pass, peaking at 13,114 feet, makes for a grueling course. Roy Bohling, relaxing at the end of his run, says the elusive summit always seemed just a little further ahead.
“The hardest section on the way up is the last mile because you’re so close but it's the steepest part…and it's demoralizing for a while watching the summit not come any closer,” Bohling says. “What was going through my head? On the uphill it was like: ‘I just gotta make it to the summit.’ On the downhill its was like: ‘just gotta make it to the finish.’”
After the race, Becca Bramley, one of the top female finishers, is sitting on the sidewalk. She was enjoying a feeling of gratitude.
“Honestly, I’m just grateful that my body can do this and be out here today. It was definitely struggling a little, but I’m grateful that my body can be out here and do this,” Bramley says.
She is sitting with her boyfriend, who had dropped her off in Ouray that morning. While chasing the summit, Bramley says she had her doubts.
“On the uphill, I thought about turning around and meeting him back in Ouray,” she says, laughing. “I didn’t really want to do it, but I did,” Bramley says.
As the early hours passed into mid-morning, and the sun begins to beat down into the canyon, runners come streaming over the Tomboy Road towards Oak Street. Standing in the dust on the side of the track, spectators have gathered to greet them.