Memorial Day weekend in Durango is about more than biking.
The Durango Running Club and Durango Swim Club both offer events for non-cyclists who want to do something athletic or even Iron Horse participants looking for a little more.
Swimming enthusiasts can compete in the annual Narrow Horse 1,500-meter swim Friday at the Durango Community Recreation Center.
Warm-ups will start at 1 p.m., and the heats will start at 2 p.m.
Running enthusiasts can compete in the 37th annual Narrow Gauge 10-mile and 4-mile run, starting at 8 a.m. at Santa Rita Park.
“It’s older than the Bolder Boulder,” race director Brendan Trimboli said, referencing the popular Memorial Day race on the Front Range. “It’s a low-key, locally oriented event. It’s a non-profit event.”
This year’s race will benefit the Fort Lewis College cross country program, La Plata County Search and Rescue and the Mark Witkes Memorial Fund.
Trimboli is in his first year as race director and has made several changes.
The race now will start and end at Santa Rita Park as opposed to the last two years at Animas Surgical Hospital.
“That allows us to do a loop that brings back the piece along the loop of Rim Drive on the Fort Lewis College campus,” Trimboli said. “We’ll be running in the reverse direction so the highway crossings are at the beginning of the race. We get those out of the way in the first 5 minutes.”
There also will be a free, 1-mile kids run with free Cream Bean Berry ice cream waiting at the finish line.
“There are people that argue, ‘Why would you have this running event on the same weekend of the Iron Horse?’” Trimboli said. “Not everyone’s a biker; they have this alternative event they can take part in.”
And for those really wishing to push their limits, they can combine all three.
DSC is sponsoring a triathlon of sorts that will take the competitor’s times in the Narrow Horse swim, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic Citizens Tour on Saturday and the Narrow Gauge 10-mile.
The top three men and women will be given awards.
The Iron Horse Citizens Tour will leave at 7:35 a.m. Saturday from Buckley Park in Durango to Silverton.
The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, of course, will have events Saturday (the road races), Sunday (the criteriums and mountain bike races) and Monday (the individual time trials).
“I think it gives everybody a different option. There’s so many just runners, just bikers and just swimmers,” DSC head coach Suzanne Schieltz said. “We try to encourage people to do all three.”
Schieltz said about 10 people participated in all three events last year, and the size of the triathlon field fluctuates on a yearly basis.
“We’ll always continue to do it if people want to do it,” she said. “Our issue is that not a lot of people know that it’s going on; it’s hard for us to get the news out there.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
Run with Scott Jaime on the 486-mile Colorado Trail
Scott Jaime ran the length of the 486-mile Colorado Trail in 8 days, 7 hours, 40 minutes in August of 2013, setting the fastest known time for the route.
Matt Trappe filmed the entire endeavor, which began in Durango, and made a documentary called “Running the Edge.”
Jaime, Trappe and “Running the Edge” are coming back to Durango for a screening at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Smiley Building.
Backcountry Experience and the Durango Running Club are sponsoring the screening, which costs $8 at Backcountry Experience, Maria’s Bookshop and online at trails2000.org.
The price will go up to $10 the day of the screening.
All proceeds will benefit local nonprofit Trails 2000.
“I do know both of them through the ultrarunning community,” said Brendan Trimboli, a race director with the Durango Running Club. “I thought it might be appropriate for folks in Durango to experience the film.”
Jaime has run the Hardrock Hundred Endurance Run in Silverton seven times, finishing third in 2013. He was a career-best second in the 2008 100-mile run.
This isn’t just a gritty film about endless running, though.
Jaime has a wife and two kids in addition to a job that he balances with his ultrarunning hobby.
“They’re his priority. He’s not this lone guy going out and tackling these crazy endeavors,” Trimboli said. “It’s cool that he’s been able to develop these challenges for himself, but he has a job, lives up in southwest Denver and has a family.
“I think that’s why they came up with the name ‘Running the Edge.’”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
