Matthew Krichman was running with his dog on County Road 125 not far from home when he finally figured it out.
He’d been scouring maps and studying Google Earth and talking to others for months trying to determine a worthy and logistically workable half-marathon course. His attempts had failed for one reason or another: too short, too many highway crossings. That morning, on a run with Clyde, it came to him.
“This is it. This is the course right here.”
Why not incorporate little-used County Road 125 into an event? You could take it down to County Road 210 and make a scenic jog right past Lake Nighthorse.
So that became the basic course for the Ultrasteam Thirsty 13, a road half-marathon to be held for the first time Aug. 23.
Whether it’s the course or the time of year or some other factor, it’s already become a popular event. Sign up quickly, Krichman advised, because the cap of 300 runners is about to be reached.
Krichman, who runs academic support programs at Fort Lewis College, moved to Durango about eight years ago. He quickly joined the running scene and has directed the wildly popular Steamworks Half Marathon, which takes place in June along County Road 250, for six years.
The problem with the Steamworks event – if you can call it a problem – is that its cap of 300 is reached just a couple weeks after online registration opens.
“Seeing it sell out every year, it was just painfully obvious we had runners who wanted to do a race and couldn’t do it,” Krichman said.
So he set about creating a different race with two main ingredients that runners have come to love about the Steamworks race: a beautiful course and a fun post-race atmosphere.
“Thirteen miles is a big deal,” Krichman said. “You want to cross the finish line and celebrate. ... How could we take that winning formula and duplicate it?”
He’s hoping he’s done so for the Thirsty 13. It’s a mostly downhill course, which many participants will enjoy. But there are some rolling uphills toward the end. The last two miles will be challenging, and Krichman just hopes runners will remember all the downhill and withhold from cursing him near the end. The start-to-finish drop is 1,400 feet.
“It’s a beautiful, fantastic course,” he said. “I’m super excited about it.”
It begins downhill south on Colorado Highway 140. It turns left and uphill on County Road 125 for a quarter-mile climb before four downhill miles to County Road 141 (Wildcat Canyon Road). After a half-mile on County Road 141, runners will head east on County Road 210 for some rolling hills past Lake Nighthorse, then two steep downhill miles to Centennial Plaza. The route will skirt around the west side of Bodo Industrial Park and end in a short downhill to Ska Brewing Co.
A celebration will be held at Ska, and the hope is that runners then will attend the San Juan Brewfest from 1 to 5 p.m. at Buckley Park. Tickets to the Brewfest are included in the race entry, although the entrant can register just for the race.
Krichman’s thinking is that capping the event at 300 runners gives it “critical mass” and keeps it manageable and sustainable. The biggest logistical challenge is providing bus transport to the start at Hesperus Baptist Church.
“It’s big enough (that) you feel like it’s a major event,” he said. “It’s small enough that you feel really special: ‘I was one of 300 people who did this.’”
Of course, Krichman said, the event wouldn’t happen without aid stations, course marshals and finish-line coordinators – “the support of 25 to 30 great volunteers.”
johnp@durangoherald.com
Thirsty 13 info
The inaugural Ultrasteam Thirsty 13 half-marathon will begin at 8 a.m. Aug. 23 at Hesperus Baptist Church. Buses depart Ska Brewing Co., 225 Girard St. in Bodo Industrial Park, at 7 a.m. to take runners to the start.
Packet pickup is 3:30-6:30 p.m. Aug. 22 at Backcountry Experience, 1205 Camino del Rio, or by 6:30 a.m. at Ska on race day.
The run will conclude at Ska with a postrace ceremony, and the celebration will continue at the San Juan Brewfest at Buckley Park from 1 to 5 p.m. Brewfest tickets are part of the entry fee, although runners can register for the race only.
For more information and a link to register, visit www.thirsty13durango.com.
