Five miles into the Top Ten race, fatigue began to seep into Connor McCabe's legs.

He'd pushed himself to the limit, wondering what he could do in only his second 10-mile event. Gritting his teeth through a tedious uphill portion of the course, he made one last turn for the finish line. He had five miles - all downhill - to run on the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail.

"I was able to pick up a lot of speed," he said. "I was feeling pretty good and I started to pick people off."

When he hit the finish , more than a few people voiced their surprise. And for good reason.

The 12-year-old Mountain Ridge Middle School student had clocked 1 hour, 12 minutes, 30 seconds. He placed 29th overall out of 230 finishers and easily won his age group.

"I was a little surprised," McCabe said. "I wasn't really sure how well I would do."

He was plenty good enough to be selected the Runners Roost Runner of the Month for August and win a new pair of Mizuno shoes. The Runner of the Month program is a combined effort of Runners Roost, Mizuno Shoes and PikesPeakSports.us.

McCabe surprised his family when he showed a talent for running. His mother, Julie, said Connor beat "the fastest kid at school," then shocked everybody in his first 5K race.

"We were thinking maybe 30 minutes," Julie said. "And then he comes around the corner at 23 and I though, 'Oh, my gosh, he has a talent.'"

Connor finished that race in 24:40, and has posted some impressive personal bests. His fastest 5K sits at 19:33. And this summer he clocked his best 10K (41:21) in the Classic 10K.  

He also enjoyed the hills in the Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run, where he finished second in his age group with a time of 1:16:45.

His family moved to Colorado Springs from Overland Park, Kan., a year ago. He and his father, Dan, a former mountain guide, couldn't wait to climb on the red rock at the Garden of the Gods.

"That and doing the Incline were the first two things we had to do," Connor said.

In June of this year he found himself charging up the hills with 1,700 other runners in the Garden 10 mile, his favorite race so far.

"Just running by the Kissing Camels and those big areas of rock where we climbed, I really liked that," he said.

Connor recently turned 13 and is a seventh-grade cross country runner at Mountain Ridge. He placed second overall and was the first-placed seventh grader in his first cross country meet.

Like many runners who dig big challenges, he is attracted to Pikes Peak. He has climbed it twice, but hopes to soon run to Barr Camp, a 7-mile ascent up Barr Trail. He said he would also like to run with 12-time Pikes Peak Marathon champion Matt Carpenter, and perhaps earn a sponsorship with Runners Roost, or another area race team.

He isn't shy about setting goals, and he really likes longer distances.
"My goal (for the next year) is to try to get a half marathon in,maybe two," he said.