James Burns may want to start hanging out with some more helpful runners.
Plowing through a cold north wind, Burns lead a pack of six for 2.5 miles on Saturday in the Winter Series III 5-mile race. Nobody wanted to take the lead.
That may have been a mistake.
"They were all kind of sitting on me," Burns said. "I did all the work on the way out. I stayed conservative and built into it."
When he hit the turnaround on the flat Santa Fe Trail just south of Monument, Burns had the wind at his back and enough energy in the tank to pull away and win in a course record time of 27 minutes, 5 seconds.
"Every mile, I ended up getting faster," he said. "It was definitely a hard race. That wind was incredibly tough."
The only runner to hang with him was Michael Weiss, Burns' triathlon training partner, who finished a stride behind and was also given a time of 27:05.
"He came up on me and the two of us hammered the last two miles in a 5 (minute) flat pace," Burns said. "It came down to a sprint and it just happened to be my day."
Burns beat Weiss in the Winter Series II race in similar fashion and has now won all three of the 2103 Winter Series short races. There are two distances on each race date, long and short, with the overall lengths increasing at each event.
Logan Wealing was third in 27:14.
Katie Rainsberger, 14, paced a band of young runners and won for the third time in three starts. She hit he line in an age-group record time of 31:52. Claire Ranchwitz, 18, was second in 34:19, followed by Aubrey Till, 15, in 34:40.
Seven of the top 10 women were 18 or younger.
In the short-series overall, with one race to go, Burns now leads with a cumulative time of 1:05:33. Justin Chaston, 49, is second in 1:06:49, followed by Logan Wealing, 31, 1:07:30.
Rainsberger is running away with the women's series title. She has totaled 1:17:20 in three races. Kayli Tabares, 13, who has run the last two races with a cast on her wrist, is second in 1:23:33, followed by Till (1:23:40.)
In the 10-mile long-series race, series leader Clare Bar, 25, set a new course record, blasting through the wind in 1:09:23. It was Bar's second Winter Series win. Stephanie Wurtz, 30, was second in 1:11:45, followed by Amanda Ewing in 1:13:14.
The men's race saw a new name in the top spot. Mike Killam, 30, of Colorado Springs won in 1:01:53, while 16-year-old Corban Pagnotta of Rye finished second in 1:02:53. Tyler Dimson, 19, USAFA, was third in 1:03:29.
In the long-series overall standings, Bar's 2:53:31 leads the way. Wurtz is second with a 2:56:48, followed by Jenni Leppert, 38, 3:01:15.
Tommy Manning, the three-time member of the USA Mountain Running team had lead the men's long series, but didn't run on Saturday. Pagnotta now leads the overall with a total time of 2:38:37. Brad Poppele, 41, of Manitou Springs, is second at 2:40:23, followed by Dimson at 2:40:53.