Simon Gutierrez

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

Simon Gutierrez is versatile athlete as a three-time member of the USA National Cross Country team, an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon, and is a seven-time member of the USA National Mountain Team. He is a three-time World Masters Mountain Overall Champion (2006, 2007, and 2008) and has won the La Luz mountain race in New Mexico a record eight times. He is a three-time Champion in the Pikes Peak Ascent as well as Mt. Washington Road Race. Gutierrez is also a mountain representative to the USATF Mountain, Ultra, and Trail Running Council and in 2005 he was named the USATF Mountain Runner of the Year. Now 48, Gutierrez is enjoying a career as a physical therapist in Colorado Springs.

2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

Anita Ortiz

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

Anita Ortiz started racing at age 36, building her career in Mountain Running, Ultra Running and

Photo via ultrachixunite.com

snowshoe racing, competing in over 200 races and breaking 55 records in just nine years. She has competed on the U.S. Mountain Running team five times, placing highest U.S. finisher four times. She was the Mountain Running National Champion in 2002 and 2003 as well as the Masters Mountain Running World Champion in 2004. She’s won the Pikes Peak Ascent three times, setting and holding the record time for five years in 2002 in 2:44:33. Ortiz was also the National Snowshoe Champion in 2002 and runner-up in 2004. She was named the USATF Female Mountain Runner of the Year in both 2002 and 2003 and the USATF Female Masters Mountain Runner of the Year in 2004. A kindergarten teacher and mother of four, Anita is still active in the racing community, serving as Board member for the All American Trail Running Association, the United States Snowshoe Association, and coaching elementary students on the Eagle Valley Elementary Running Team.

2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

Rick Trujillo

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

Rick Trujillo is considered a pioneer in the sport of mountain running, earning his reputation as an

Rick Trujillo 1977– Pikes Peak Marathon, on the Golden Stairs

elite and unconventional runner over his long career. Trujillo enjoyed an early cross-country running career in high school and college, but later preferred mountain running. He is a five-time champion of the Pikes Peak Marathon, holding the course record from 1973-1982. He founded the Imogene Pass Run, winning the race several times and holding the course record from 1974-1985. In 1995, at age 47, Trujillo ascended Colorado’s 54 14,000-foot peaks in record time of 15 days, nine hours, and 55 minutes. He also won the Hardrock 100 Mile Run (66,000 feet of ascent and descent with average elevation of 11,000 feet) in 1996. Trujillo has never yielded to traditional training conventions, making his achievements that much more impactful.

2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

photo via: runningfreeonline.com

Priscilla Welch began her remarkable running career at the age of 35, when she quit smoking and took up running under the guidance of her husband and coach, Dave Welch, and ran the 1980 London Marathon. Four years later, she qualified for the British Olympic team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, placing sixth in the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon. On her 40th birthday, Welsh qualified for the Masters division and began setting age group world records. In 1987, she won the New York Marathon in 2:30:17. This was coupled with her second place finish in London where she set an age group world record running a 2:26:51, earning the sixth fastest time in the world in 1987, and holding the women’s masters marathon world record for 21 years. Welch again set an age group world record in the 1988 Boston Marathon in 2:30:48, holding the record for 14 years. Welch continued to run until a 1992 bout with breast cancer curtailed her career and she moved from her longtime home of Boulder to Tabernash, in the high country of Colorado, later relocating to Bend, Oregon.

2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

Colorado Running Hall of Famers top the 2013 Master’s Charts

February 15, 2014 / runningincolorado

Libby James and Colleen DeReuck on the Top Master’s Performances of 2013 | Runner’s World

Libby James Tops the Masters Charts | Running Times

February 15, 2014February 15, 2014 / runningincolorado

Running Times profiles Libby James: The Colorado 77-year-old’s 2013 performances exceed world-record efforts

Libby James Image byCourtesy of marathonfoto.com

Libby James ran one of the best races of her life at the 2013 Disney World Half Marathon in January, to finish in 1:45:52 (1:46:08 gun time). Her age-graded score of 103.75 percent topped all other performances of 2013 of any age or gender.

“I had 16 relatives running the Thanksgiving Day run with me in downtown Ft. Collins,” she says. “It’s a 4-miler and I finished right in the middle of my six grandsons, three ahead of me and three behind me. To me, that’s the legacy of having run all this time, that my kids and my grandkids run. I love that. And yeah, I feel older, and yeah, it does get harder. But I guess I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”

Lidia Simon wins women’s Half Marathon at Denver Rock’n Roll Marathon

October 21, 2013October 21, 2013 / runningincolorado

Lidia Simon wins women’s Half Marathon at Denver Rock’n Roll Marathon

Lidia Simon, a five-time Olympian for Romania who lives in Boulder, won the women’s half in 1:18:01 despite coming down with a bad cold four days ago. Simon recently turned 40.

“For next year I will be masters,” Simon said. “We’ll see, too, if I can keep going with elite runners.”

And maybe a sixth Olympics in 2016? She’s hoping.

“You never know.”

Parthenia “Potts” Jones, beloved by Denver running community, dies at 61

July 11, 2013July 11, 2013 / runningincolorado

Parthenia “Potts” Jones, beloved by Denver running community, dies at 61

Via The Denver Post

For decades she was a beloved fixture at Denver road races, helping race organizers in a variety of roles and touching thousands of runners with the sweetness of her spirit. When a cancer diagnosis brought her to the chemotherapy clinic, she would bring gift bags to lift the spirit of fellow patients.

Parthenia “Potts” Jones, who died Wednesday at the age of 61, will be deeply missed by the Front Range running community, by police officers in Aurora and Denver and by juvenile offenders she supervised in Aurora’s probation department.

“Whether it was cajoling young people in Aurora who had run afoul of the law to be wiser, smarter and better human beings, or simply gathering excess donated product after running events and turning those items into a brand new donation to a shelter, she consistently put others’ needs first,” said Denver race organizer Creigh Kelley, a close friend for 30 years. “When you reflect on the definition of a saint, you quickly realize that Parthenia could wear those words as a robe.”

Jones founded the Potts Trotters running club and was inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame in 2011. She worked as an Aurora deputy marshal before joining the city’s probation department. She put on “End of Watch” fundraising races to pay for memorial park benches in honor of fallen police officers, most recently Denver officer Celena Hollis.

“Potts was an inspiration for all of us in how to serve your fellow man,” said Aurora police captain Jerry Hinkle, a friend who attended chemo sessions with her. “She was generous to a fault, both with her time and her resources, even though she was a very humble working-class woman. She had a sense of dignity in terms of how people should live, and she passed it on to her daughters. She passed it on to the kids that she counseled as a probation officer, and she also did that in how she worked with volunteers at the races.”

Jones was diagnosed with cancer of the intestines and liver in 2011. This past February, friends got the grim news that it had spread to her lungs.

“Once the cancer got to her lungs, everything pretty much shut down, kind of like a wildfire,” Hinkle said. “She was becoming less responsive. If you stayed and spent time with her, she would rally over a few minutes or an hour, and you could have a pretty good conversation. Very quiet, very subdued at the end.”

Jones knew she was in a tough fight when she was featured ina story in The Denver Post last April.

“I can’t say I’m going to beat this,” Jones said. “It’s up to God. It’s his will, and he has a plan. I live for him every day. He’s the head of my life. Everything else is after that.”

Hinkle said her two daughters were at her side when she died in home hospice.

“You hope and pray that you live life well, and that when you pass, you pass in the arms of your loved ones,” Hinkle said. “That’s exactly what happened with her. She passed in the way that she would have wanted to.”

A funeral service will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Friendship Baptist Church in Denver.

“My sister is gone to God,” Kelley said, “and my heart aches in the passage.”

“Potts” Jones, beloved figure in running community, in cancer battle

April 22, 2013April 22, 2013 / runningincolorado

Parthenia “Potts” Jones, right, shares a happy moment with longtime close friend Creigh Kelley, a race director who also has battled cancer. ( Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post )

Beloved in Denver’s running community, Parthenia Jones, 60, was inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame in 2011 for her tireless work at hundreds of road races over three decades.

“She has the heart of a lion,” said Creigh Kelley, a close friend for 30 years. “Her love just radiates. There’s not a person she hasn’t loved, and hasn’t loved her back. How could you not fall in love with her?”

Now, Jones needs all the love she can get. She is fighting a battle with cancer, and the cancer appears to be winning. Nevertheless, she shines with a peace that comforts those who worry about her.

“I can’t say I’m going to beat this,” Jones said. “It’s up to God. It’s his will, and he has a plan. I live for him every day. He’s the head of my life. Everything else is after that.”

Read about Parthenia Jones
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Former local entering running hall of fame: Ulrich runner, mountaineer, adventure racer

April 9, 2013April 9, 2013 / runningincolorado

Via Fort Morgan Times

Marshall Ulrich

“Initially, I wanted to show people that they can do more than they think they can.”
That philsophy has taken former local resident Marshall Ulrich to every continent on the globe, and next week it will take him into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame.