Snow doesn’t stop marathon runners

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — It seemed more like the Iditarod dog sled race than a marathon.

Runners in the 10th annual Breckenridge Crest Mountain Marathon and trail races Sunday in this popular ski town had to run through 8-inch snowdrifts and 40 mph wind.

“The trail would get these little drifts of snow. It was 8 inches in places. A few times out there, seriously, we could have used snowshoes,” said runner Danelle Ballengee.

Many runners, including some of the top contestants, turned around at the 13-mile mark.

Dave Mackey won. “I had the right clothes,” he said, standing at the finish line sipping hot chocolate and nursing bloody hands and knees. “If everybody’s bundled up right they’ll be fine up there if they just keep moving,” he said. But, he added, “it was really brutal because you’re going downhill into the wind running through drifts.”

Second-place finisher Bernie Boettcher tore his shirt in a fall but he never considered turning back.

“For most of it, (Mackey) was breaking trail,” Boettcher said. “There was no way I could have found the trail if he wasn’t leading it. It was a whiteout. I couldn’t see anything. The wind was blowing so hard I couldn’t open my eyes. I was just watching his feet.”

Helen Cospolich, spokeswoman for the event organizers, said they never considered canceling it.

“I didn’t think there would be any chance we would call it off even with the horrible, crazy weather,” she said. “We’re kind of a stickler group.”