History
The history of the race dates to 1956 when three smokers challenged ten non-smokers to compete the over-26-mile (42 km) race. None of the three smokers completed the course. In 1966 a well-organized marathon was initiated, making the race the third-oldest marathon in the United States.
In 1959, Arlene Pieper became the first woman to enter and complete a marathon in the United States when she finished the Pikes Peak Marathon.
The most successful athletes in the history of the marathon are Matt Carpenter, outright record holder and winner of the marathon on eleven occasions, and Erica Larson, who has won the women's race five times.
The Pikes Peak Ascent race has twice incorporated the World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge competition, first in 2006 then again in 2010.
Read more about this topic: Pikes Peak Marathon
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Systematic philosophical and practical anti-intellectualism such as we are witnessing appears to be something truly novel in the history of human culture.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Don’t give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can’t express them. Don’t analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)