The Kennebec Mountain Run - a race(ish) report

While visiting family and touring running clubs (I like to belong to one in New York and one in Durango), I heard about an amazing trail running race held in August called the Kennebec Mountain Run.

I stupidly signed up when I heard that registration had opened, hoping I could manage to plan my summer trip to see family and friends in Durango over the first weekend of August. There was a real dearth of information available online about the race, probably because it caps at 150 participants annually, and it’s really hard! So here I am, quads still aching and sometimes buckling under me 4 days after the race, paying it forward to those who might make the same silly but excellent decisions in the future. I’ll definitely see you at the race, because in spite of all these qualifiers, I had a terrific time.

Stopping to take pictures during a very serious race.

Now that I’m a trail runner, I will explain the race to you. It’s between 14.5 and 15 miles long, with 3100 feet of vert (that means you go up 3100 feet). The race starts at around 9,000 feet and tops out at over 12,000. See the ridge behind me in the picture above? We climbed up and over that, twice! What a bunch of lunatics. I think the leaders ran the whole way. I did a significant amount of power hiking, especially when things got steep and rocky. Luckily, my natural hiking pace has been labeled as being pretty unpleasantly fast, so it was natural for me. You basically run uphill for over 7 miles, go down a steep single track descent, climb again for maybe half a mile, and then run downhill for longer than is pleasant.

I had not really trained for the race but I was in decent shape from a spring marathon build, some fast laps with the team in the park, and a week of alternating running and mountain biking here in Durango, so I wasn’t afraid that I wouldn’t finish. I had no idea how long it would take, but I figured best case 3 hours and 15 minutes, worst case a little over 4 hours, just based on the times from my age group in 2025. If you wanted to take the race a bit more seriously, I think some longer trail runs and hikes would be a great idea. I’d also recommend living at altitude. But what can you do! No regrets!

This is where the race starts, and this is pretty much what you see for the first four miles

The race started at 7:30 am so we left our condo in downtown Durango around 6 am. This gave us plenty of time to drive my brother’s 38 year old truck, Gus, up La Plata Canyon to the start area. The vibes were extremely relaxed - only a handful of people were warming up. The air was perfectly crisp and cool. I used an almost brand new Osprey hydration vest (veteran move), a long sleeve sun hoodie to protect my skin, and a pair of Janji shorts I’ve run marathons in. The key was having a lot of nutrition available, not baking when the sun came up, and knowing I’d be comfortable. I also wore trail running shoes which I had run in once, but it all worked out.

We started pretty informally and I tried to seed myself maybe 2/3 of the way back in the pack. I immediately felt terrible - running uphill at that elevation feels awful even if you’re acclimated. I tried to control my breathing and not spike my heart rate too much while I enjoyed the scenery and settled into a pace. Mile one was around 10:30 which sounds slow but felt fast. After that mile, I settled in, walked when the road was steep, and noticed that my power hiking pace was the same as folks running around me.

As we climbed to the aid station, the road started to open up a bit and it got sunny. I really can’t express how pretty it was. From there, we entered a big bowl and the elevation along with how steep the road was led to some long hiking sections. I chatted with two guys and another woman around me. We speculated about whether we’d go up and over the ridge (lol, of course we did end up doing that), and just enjoyed going back and forth. I was faster on the climbs but I was pretty slow on the descents, especially compared to my two new guy friends.

This is the top of the ridge. So gorgeous!

The views were just so insane. And there was something cool about getting up this high so quickly on foot. Totally exhilarating! I was in such a great mood almost the entire race. After this, the descent came. I was not totally looking forward to this. I didn’t want to break my ankles and I knew the pounding of the descent would destroy my quads. You can’t really enjoy the scenery as much when you have to keep looking at the road ahead. But I persevered and just counted down the miles. I passed another woman maybe a mile into the descent and then I was alone for a long time until I saw my husband when I had just under a mile to go. I was catching up to my friends from the climb but my legs were totally shredded. I tried to pick it up a little but it was clear that my effort was spot on to leave me with nothing left. I rolled into the finish in abut 3:09, 6 minutes faster than my best case scenario time, and was totally delighted. My legs were complete jelly but I had done it! The scene after the race was really nice, very laid back and more like a cross race than road.

We hung out for a bit and then hopped into the truck, taking a few fellow racers about 3 miles down the canyon in the back. This was such a fun experience, I really can’t recommend it enough.

Finished!

Driving some fellow racers back to the parking lot