Wasson graduate wins area trail marathon

Justin Ricks never won a state championship during a successful career at Wasson High School, but the 1998 graduate was runner-up four times in cross country or distance races.

He ran a year for Colorado-Colorado Springs before losing interest and quitting school. He ballooned to 240 pounds by 2006. Then, he rediscovered his love of running.

“I ran a marathon two years ago with dad,” Ricks said. “I weighed about 200 and finished in 3 hours, 13 minutes.”

The trim 6-foot-2, 180-pounder beat that time by a mile Monday. Or, more accurately, he beat it by nearly seven miles.

Ricks ran away from the field of more than 400 in the American Discovery Trail Marathon, finishing in an impressive 2:32:30 to win the $500 prize. That cut 20:03 off the course record.

“I’m just running for fun,” said Ricks, 29, who lives with his wife and two children in Pueblo West. “I mostly run ultras.”

Ultras are races longer than a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. Ricks’ longest race has been 50 miles, although he recently ran the Trans Rockies, a six-day stage race that covered 113 miles through the mountains. He also ran the Pikes Peak Marathon three weeks ago.

More than 1,000 runners participated Monday, with just more than 500 doing the half-marathon and 108 running a relay.

Ricks was so good that his time for the first half of the marathon (1:12:48) beat the winning half-marathon time of Kent Wories (1:16:46). Elbert’s Andrew Abdella (1:21:10) was second in the half-marathon, followed by Monument’s Marc Johnson (1:23:22).

“(Ricks) was gone by Mile 2,” said marathon runner-up Gerald Romero (2:45:04), a Sierra graduate who ran for CSU-Pueblo from 1990 to 1994. “We thought he might come back to us, but we never saw him again.”

Loveland’s Dan Goding, 33, was third (2:45:53) after winning last year. Adolfo Carrillo, 37, of Colorado Springs (2:48:30) was fourth, followed by Westminster’s 46-year-old Hendrik Moorlag (2:54:34) and Calhan’s Ron Snedaker, 32, (2:55:26).

Westminster’s 27-year-old Hayley Benson (3:00:35) was the first female finisher in her inaugural marathon.

“I’ve never been in a race like that,” said Goding, who battled Romero and Carrillo in the middle of the race. “The three of us were together for like 14 miles.”

Romero, who pocketed $250, improved 10 minutes from a year ago while Goding, who won $100, was 7 minutes faster. But they couldn’t compete with Ricks, who said he averaged 5:30 per mile for the first 10 miles.