Description
Join this spring and summer - pick a distance (486 miles, 272 miles, or 100 miles) and compete with your friends! Win prizes, collect bibs and medallions, and support local businesses, charities, and artists! All partners are welcome, including other race producers - just reach out. We want this to be the best thing for the Colorado running community!
10% of your registration and all of your donations go to Food Bank of the Rockies® and trail non-profits. ($1 of each reg to the trail non-profit that supports your course, the rest to FBR).
Join our Group on Facebook
Here's How It Works
- Sign up for your preferred distance (you can compete both as an individual and as a team!). Long and Short Course also gets you entered into the mini-challenges throughout.
- Log your miles, vert, and time on our platform - get tracked on our map and leaderboards. (You'll get an email before the challenge starts on how this works).
- Compete simultaneously in the main and mini-challenges for prizes and swag.
- Obey ALL closures, restrictions, and safety necessary. Take this challenge virtually unless/until it is deemed safe to do so.
Schedule
- May 25th-31st : Our first Mini-Challenge - "The Warmup: Mt. Bierstadt" - test out our results platform and compete for gift certs! Points will be given for distance/time, but also a few "appropriate" categories and challenges.
- June 15th - Colorado Trail Competition Starts (Individual and 2- /4- Person Team) - 5.4 miles / day solo, 2.7 / or 1.4 / as a team.
- 486 miles, 89k feet west to east
- Individuals can also pool miles to compete as a team If you don't have a team find one on our Facebook group!
- July 1st-14th: Spur Challenge #2 - Tour of the San Juans
- 73 miles, 17,778ft (!!!) gain
- Random/Categorical prizes for different achievements (badges/milestones will be added if RSU supports this before end of challenge).
- July 15th - Front Range Competition Starts (Individual and 2- /4- Person Team) - 4.4 miles / day solo, 2.2 or 1.1 as a team.
- Course runs from Laramie WY to the Royal Gorge Bridge west of Cañon City,
- Stopping through several towns and by the finish line of the BolderBoulder 10k.
- 272 Miles, 12.5k feet
- Individuals can also compete as a team If you don't have a team find one on our Facebook group!
- August 1st-ish Nolan's 14 Challenge
- 6 week challenge to cover the 100 miles and/or 44k feet vert of the famous challenge (normally under 60 hours!)
- Covering the 14 closest 14ers in the Sawatch Range
- Individuals can compete as a team here too!
- *Note: this is a fully virtual challenge, Nolan's 14 itself is very difficult and as always we urge you to be aware of your fitness level and respectful of Leave No Trace principles and the rights and rules of landowners*
- September 15th - Cutoff for prizes - overall and random. But you can still keep going! We'll leave the light on for you with results submission and uploads.
- September 19th - our final Spur - the Sangre De Cristos! included in your long/short course reg, or for $10 compete to run, hike, or walk 70 miles+ and enter for 1 of 2 $20 gift certificates. OR, by running 82 miles, you get eligible for an Annual National Park Pass ($80 value).
Presented by Golden, CO Based On Path Events. Currently welcoming all partners, sponsors, and friends of the CO running community - reach out if interested in a collaboration.
SWAG
Shown : Part of 6-piece "Bib Map" for Long Course, "Medal" / Cutting board / fireside table for Long Course, Bandana for all.
We'll be sourcing some cool stuff from local CO businesses vs out-of-state. For the main challenges (Long Course, Short Course, Nolan's), we are looking at:
- one custom bandana/'buff' for all distances (approximate artwork at top right).
- one special piece for each distance to be announced closer to that challenge. Long Course item: hybrid 'medal' / cutting board / fireside table, burnt with Mt. Princeton profile and strung on paracord. Uniquedly cut and hand branded from locally sourced hardwood.
- Vanity Bib for Long, Short, and Nolan's if ordered 2 weeks before event date - standard bib after (vanity digital bib always available).
- Bib artwork will form a 6-piece map across the 3 challenges and 3 of the "spur challenges". You'll get a real bib for your the Long, Short, and Nolan's, and digital for the mini-challenges. Based on demand the rest of the pieces may be printed in a limited run.
- Digital Finisher Cert (now) and along the way custom badges/achievements for each distance (Coming soon on RSU platform)
- While supplies last, a free "#wekeeprunning" car decal.
- and some random giveaways along with the door prizes from local partners (the more people register, the more of them we'll give out. Beer mugs and tokens, gift certificates to running stores, you know the drill).
- Swag for the "Spur" mini-challenges is fully virtual unless otherwise noted.
In More Detail / FAQ
The challenge goes for 3 months for the long course, allowing for 5.3 miles a day, and 2 months on the short course (4.4 miles/day). You can run any combination of events, and log miles every day if you want - your miles will be totaled starting with the appropriate start date, distance, and category (individual or team) you submit in. And if for some reason you want to register for multiple events, you get $10 off. If all of these are too crazy, well.. there'll be some quick challenge "virtual races" along the way.
Each segment will be accompanied by leaderboards and live tracking maps for individuals and teams.. as well as other goodies that probably haven't even been thought up yet. And in true mountain style, there will be some surprises and challenges that come up - things will go wrong, things will go right.... but as always it'll be entertaining.
In each distance there will be Pro and Open categories . Pros will have a prize kitty you pay into and are held to more stringent rules (finish distance and vert, etc), Open categories work at your own pace if you just want to do distance, or also go VERTual, and you'll get random prizes from both the top finishers and true random drawings. Bottom line - have fun, be ridiculous, we're all in it together.
Here's the full rules for the Challenges (as of 5/11 - will note if updated). tl;dr if you're not in competition for top 3, just read below and have fun!
The Rules (initial upload - 5/11 5:22pm MST)
How does Individual / Team competition work?
- When you register as an individual (or after), you have the option to join a team. Miles will count towards both, and if you are in the pro competition, to both prizes.
- Teams are not done 'relay' style, miles, times, and vert are summed up. For the Nolan's Challenge, this will likely be done manually. See event rules here.
What counts as miles? Do I have to run?
- Nope, Run, Walk, Hike, etc. The goal is to cover things done on foot where one foot is put in front of the other. As we know in the mountains, a 20 minute pace can be as hard as an 8 minute pace on flat land, and walk breaks are a life saver.
What if I don't make the cutoff of September 15th?
- You can continue on "self-supported", the competition will be closed temporarily for awards tabulation, but we will open back up results submission indefinitely.
- If you're not sure about the cutoff, why not join a team with someone?
How do I track my miles?
- Super simple, click a button on the results tab and enter your workout. Screenshots will be added soon.
Do I have to have a GPS device ? Do I count moving time / elapsed time?
- Total time, please. We reserve the right to verify workouts in pro competition, especially where money is at stake.
- As of now, we are requesting GPS submission for all pro competition. We may be willing to make an exception for certain workouts that may wipe out a GPS device, for example mountain climbs where a timestamp is shown on a photo at trailhead and summit.
When does swag get mailed out?
- Bibs and Bandanas will be mailed out around the start of your competition.
Do Treadmill miles/gain count?
- Yes for "completion/participation" prizes, not officially for "money" and any "achievement" prizes. We reserve the right to verify any or all mileage in pro competition.
- Exception: Spur Challenges may let up on this a little.
How do the "Spur" Challenges work?
- "Spur Challenges" are short challenges that will pop up throughout the competition and last 1 day - 1 week. They'll focus on other areas of Colorado we're not giving as much love with our main courses. Their rules and prizes will be announced shortly beforehand to allow for making the most of new features in RunSignup, and participant feedback.
- If you sign up for the Long or Short Course, you will automatically be copied over the day before challenge start, and new registrants imported once a day. Your miles count towards both if you log them in both (unfortunately at this time there is not a way to only enter one set).
- If you only register just for the Spur challenge.
Is there a Strava group for this?
- Maybe. eyeballing this for verification of photos/challenges.
Race Contact Info
If you have any questions about this race, click the button below.
Run Colorado this Summer!
The Run Through Colorado is a project of Golden, CO based On Path Events, with the support and advice of many Colorado runners and industry partners. OPE owner Josh Reed has worked on executing countless large events across the country in the past including recently the BolderBoulder, Colfax Marathon, and several others in Colorado. This is his first endeavor into supporting the local running community in his new home and he looks forward to your questions and thoughts at josh@onpathevents.com .
This challenge benefits The Food Bank of the Rockies, with additional donations to the Colorado Mountain Club and Front Range Trail Non-Profits.
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