By Bob Stephens
PikesPeakSports.us

Three-time Pikes Peak Ascent champion Simon Gutierrez is threatening to retire from competitive racing after next year’s trek to the top of America’s mountain.

His good friend, Peter Maksimow, isn’t buying it.

“I don’t believe it,” Maksimow said quickly but with a smile. “He’s a competitor. He’s going to run hard until he can’t.”

The 49-year-old Gutierrez isn’t so sure, and said 2016 might be his swan song when it comes to challenging race leaders.

“I’m not going to say that for sure, but it probably will be,” he said. “I’d like to come back and run a good one next year.”

He won the Ascent in 2003, ’06 and ’08.

“Those days are probably gone,” he said. “You’ve got to be 2:12 or 2:15 to win and I don’t want to train that hard anymore. At 49, if you train that hard, you’ll probably get hurt. You have to respect it.”

Gutierrez is certainly well respected by his fellow runners, and Maksimow in particular. They train together and occasionally share a beer together. Gutierrez, who is a physical therapist for Select, says that while he’ll still run the Ascent, it might be time to focus on other aspects of life rather than training.

“I think I can give something back, whether that’s coaching or physical therapy,” he said. “I’ll still run, but not at the level I’m at now. Maybe I’ll pace the women’s leader or something.”

In 2012, when Kim Dobson set the women’s record for the Ascent, she caught Gutierrez near the end of the race.

“I got to run the last mile with her,” he said. “I was hurting but I got to witness history. I had the best seat in the house.”

Gutierrez, who ran for the University of Arizona three decades ago, said he still loves competing but also has a lot of friends that run.

“Mountain running is not so cutthroat,” he said. “You want to win but you’ll be the first to pick someone up if they fall. I love the camaraderie.”

Gutierrez’s wife, Donna Garcia-Gutierrez, also ran the Ascent. They met at a Pikes Peak Roadrunners Winter Series race a few years ago and were married last year.

If next year is Gutierrez’s final truly competitive run up Pikes Peak, he said he’d love to go out in style.

“Let’s plan a big party for after the race,” he said.

He shouldn’t have any problem getting people to show up. Looking around at many of the Ascent runners, he smiled and said, “Probably 20 percent of these people have been my patients.”

 FAMILY AFFAIR

Logan Bishop, a member of the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks’ 2015 national championship indoor track team, ran her first Pikes Peak Ascent in support of her father, Brenden, a 50-year-old who first competed in the event a year ago.

“He started running when I was in seventh grade to support me, because I hated running” she said. “It’s something we’ve shared for a long time now. I wanted to support him, so I ran today.”

Brenden Bishop has also run the Boston Marathon and Logan’s brother, Tyler, ran the Ascent with their dad in 2014. While she’s about to start her senior year as a cross country runner and distance runner in track, Bishop said she’s never trained or competed at altitude before.

“This is very different,” she said. “It was really hard, but it was so much fun. It was a great experience and I’ll probably do it again next year.”

She wanted to enjoy the fantastic views as she ran up the mountain, but said that wasn’t possible.

“I’d want to look down but I just couldn’t do it,” she said. “I was getting woozy.”

HOG CALLS

After Colorado, Arkansas is probably the second most represented state at the annual Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon. About 100 Arkansas runners made the trip this year.

Among them was Bill Coffelt, a 55-year-old Bentonville resident – the home of Walmart – who was competing in his 32^nd consecutive Ascent. He’s doubled 12 times, competing in both the Ascent and the Marathon.

“Some friends from Little Rock invited me out in 1984 and I’ve been back every year since,” he said prior to the race. “I’ll come as long as it’s fun and I’m healthy.”

The petroleum geologist had a heart procedure in April, but was glad to be back at the starting line in Manitou Springs. He was part of the large Arkansas contingent that celebrated a few minutes before the start with the state’s traditional “Hog Call,” a tradition at University of Arkansas sporting events.

 QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I have a lot of respect for those people who come in to run this from bordering states like Kansas and Nebraska – where they live, basically, at sea level. I felt their pain today. I was hurting, too.”

Andy Wacker, second-place finisher, Pikes Peak Ascent