Record day at Garden of the Gods 10-mile run

The 33rd running of the Garden of the Gods 10-Mile Run was record shattering, to say the least.

In all, 16 course records fell Sunday after the field of 1,584 contestants conquered the challenging trail.

Click here for results (men 1-870).

Click here for results (men 870 on and women).

The first four men's finishers all broke the course record set in 2008 by Ezkyas Sisay of Flagstaff, Ariz., or 52 minutes, 26 seconds.
Coming in first and sprinting the last stretch of the trail, with his arms raised high, was Simon Cheprot. The 19-year old shattered the record by almost 2 minutes, clocking a time of 50:31.

"Being first, it's a good feeling," said Cheprot, of Aurora. "I didn't know I broke the record until I finished. Setting two records (course and age) is even better."

Finishing second was a man Cheprot knows well - his roommate Kennett Kiptoo.

Kiptoo also broke the old record, and the 29-year old set the age record for 25-to-29-year olds with a 51:19.

The next two male finishers, Sisay (51:35) and Mario Macias (52:02) of Alamosa, also broke the men's record.

Overall on the men's side, 10 age-group records fell.

But it wasn't just about the men - the women's course record fell, too.

Belaynesh Gebre of Flagstaff broke her 2008 record (1:01:20) with a time of 58:49. Four age-group records were broken as well.
Trailing about 10 minutes behind Gebre was Colorado Springs' Ashlee Nelson. The 28-year-old was the top local finisher, coming in with a time of 1:07:49.

Nelson, who also ran the Garden of the Gods race in 2006 and '08, found the honor of being Colorado Springs' finest to be gratifying.

"There's so many strong runners in Colorado Springs, so it's very flattering to be the first local woman to finish," she said. "But it's great. It's so much fun to be out here, with not only the competition, but you're out there running with friends and just enjoying the scenery. The Garden is such a beautiful place."

In both the men's and women's races, three of the top 10 finishers were from Colorado Springs.

"We came out strong and competed to our fullest ability today," said Daniel Castaneda, a Colorado Springs native and assistant track and field coach at Colorado College. "We had a really big showing from the locals and though we didn't take any of the top spots, we did great as a group."

Castaneda was one of the top local finishers, coming in 15th in 1:00:41.

Aside from the myriad records falling, the story of the day was the turnout. The number of participants (1,725) was up 118 from last year and is a drastic turnaround from a few years ago.

"Just four years ago we had less than 900 runners come out," race manager Matt Carpenter said. "The race is getting to be more and more popular among, not only the locals, but out-of-town runners."