Cheprot, Cirlan continue good showings with Garden of the Gods 10-mile wins

No one was in front of Simon Cheprot. So he decided to blow kisses and then held up both index fingers to signal No. 1 as he sped to the finish line.

For the second consecutive year, Cheprot received $1,000 cash as the overall champion in the 34th running of the Garden of the Gods 10-mile race. His 50 minutes, 47 seconds run on a cool and breezy Sunday morning was a new record for the men’s 20-to-24 year olds. Last year, the 20-year-old Kenyan from Aurora set the overall mark at 50:31.

Despite his seventh career victory, Cheprot was slightly disappointed with the race itself.

“I think last year was better because I had competition. But this year, I did not get competition,” Cheprot said. “When I get top competition, [my target is] breaking the record.

“I looked [to my left and to my right], I had only one person following me. I tried to push it.”

Mario Macias, 29, might disagree with Cheprot. Macias ran shoulder-to-shoulder with Cheprot during the middle of the race before Cheprot  surged at the 8-mile marker. Macias, an Alamosa native, placed second in 50:59, a record for men 25-to-29.

“I was pretty much with him,” Macias said. “I just kind of looked at him a couple of times to see if he was struggling. When he would kind of take the lead, he would kind of look back to see if I was done.”

Macias said he has no complaints considering he finished fourth last year (52:02).

“Anytime you can come back and run faster than the previous year, it’s a good day,” he smiled.

Daniela Cirlan set the women’s pace at 1:01:02 and received $1,000 as well after being a runner-up last year. The 29-year-old Romanian also broke the 25-to-29 group time she set last year.

“This year was easy because I know the race,” Cirlan said. “I feel very well because last year I come to second place and now I win.”

A number of age-group records fell, but the biggest to fall was in the boys under-14 category.

Zachary Alhamra ran a 1:06.40, shattering the previous record set last year by Brandon Supernaw by nearly 5 minutes.

Alhamra said he has never ran a 10-mile race and wasn’t suppose to be at Garden of the Gods if it wasn’t for Mother Nature. He was scheduled to be at a soccer tournament, but it was cancelled due to rain.

“It was a blessing,” Alhamra said.

The 13-year-old Springs native came prepared. He said he checked what the record time was in his age group, set a goal to finish in 1 hour, 20 minutes, and knew to conserve energy when running downhill.

When he crossed the finish line, Alhamra couldn’t believe what the scoreboard read.

“I just didn’t know what to think,” he said. “I was in disbelief.”