LA PLATA CITY – Michael Oliva just so happened to be in town from Denver visiting friends and heard there was a trail race going on. So, he and his friends decided to give it a go.

Good call.

Oliva won the 15-mile men’s race at the Kennebec Challenge Mountain Runs on a sunsplashed Saturday in La Plata Canyon, and one of the folks he was in town to visit, newly minted Durango resident Jenn Shelton, emerged as women’s champion.

Oliva finished this year’s clockwise course in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 42.96 seconds, winning by a comfortable margin of nearly 6 minutes over runner-up Yury Shtankov. Oliva said the key to his performance was hanging tough in the more technical sections, which involved potentially slippery climbs and loose rocks, which allowed him to maintain a lead once the race returned to the road.

“I know my strengths are on the road and anything not technical. ... So (Shtankov) was actually was maybe a minute behind me when we were coming down the mountain,” Oliva said. “Once we hit the road, that’s when I made my move, which is about mile nine. That’s really where I let it out.”

The big worry for Oliva was staying on course. In races in the mountains, he said keeping an eye on footing during the climbs while also glancing at what’s ahead is tricky but necessary to avoid a costly wrong turn.

“If you’re just watching the rocks, sometimes you can get off course, then your race is over,” he said. “So, basically, you have to be careful you don’t fall on yourself, but you have to keep picking your eyes up to sight the pink flags (that mark the course).”

Shtankov, competing in his first 15-mile event, said the elevation gain early in the race made for a challenging run. The native Russian, who moved to Durango in January to complete his bachelor’s degree at Fort Lewis College, said he kept trying to keep an eye on Oliva’s bright orange shirt.

“Sometimes it’s just so, like, excruciating and painful that I had to ... walk to catch my breath. And once I reached the top of the pass, just going down it was so relieving,” Shtankov said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God. Finally.’ And the views up there are so amazing.”

Matt Teague finished third overall in 2:16:05.08.

“It was a pretty tough climb the first half of the race, then just downhill from there,” Teague said.

The victory in the women’s race capped quite a stretch for Shelton, who moved to Durango from Oregon in early July. She captured the Kendall Mountain Run women’s title in late July, then added to it with her victory Saturday in 2:23:56.50. She bested Durango’s Marisa Asplund, who finished in 2:25:29.60.

Asplund grabbed an early lead as the two battled neck and neck during the race’s early stages. Shelton, who said familiarizing herself with the course through a recent training run was key, made up ground on the climbs.

“I had her in sight. When it got steep enough where you weren’t sure if running was really efficient, I started walking, and that’s when I passed her,” Shelton said. “Because then it would be like a rest, and then when I ran, I could really push. And then we just kind of stayed like that for the rest of the way.”

Asplund, a former runner-up in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race and a former triathlete, said she took up trail running because she needed a break from triathlons. Once fall came around, she was looking for a new challenge, and she was able to show off her chops in her first-ever Kennebec Challenge.

“I had really severe anemia from overtraining, so that’s why it was sort of time to reevaluate, ‘What am I doing?’” Asplund said. “I didn’t love triathlon; I didn’t love it. And I just said I want to do something I love and kind of started running trails last fall after I got healthy, and then I was like, ‘Yeah!’ It’s a cool scene. It’s really way more laid back and friendly.”

Sarah Slaughter, who has won several Kennebec Challenges and is a longtime competitive trailrunner, finished third in the women’s race in 2:38:54.16.

In the end, it turned out to be a nice weekend for both Shelton and Oliva, who was extremely complimentary of the course and race setup.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk about it. It’s obviously ideal,” Shelton said with a laugh.

rowens@durangoherald.com