Oww, oww, Rémi Bonnet did it!
Bonnet ran 2:00:20 to become the fastest ever up 14,115-foot Pikes Peak.
The record happened as part of the 2023 Pikes Peak Ascent on September 16. The race started in the town of Manitou Springs, Colorado, and climbed 7,800 feet over an average 11% grade toward the high altitude finish on the mountain summit. The final three miles are all above treeline, and there was snow on the higher stretches this year.
In the women’s race, Olympian Sophia Laukli continues to dominate women’s mountain running, in this case running away from the rest of the field to finish about 3.5 minutes ahead of everyone else.
Read on for the full race story.
2023 Pikes Peak Ascent Men’s Race
Rémi Bonnet won last year’s race in 2:07:02, and so his run this year was significantly faster than his former best. The previous best was Matt Carpenter’s 2:01:06, run as part of the roundtrip Pikes Peak Marathon race in 1993. Carpenter’s full Marathon time that year was 3:16:39. That 1993 performance has been widely regarded as one of the stoutest records in mountain running.
This year’s race was part of the Golden Trail World Series, and Bonnet earned a $3,000 first-place prize, but just missed a $10,000 time bonus for going under two hours.
Bonnet has made his mark as an uphill ace in recent years and in the week leading up to the race, reset his own fastest known time on the Manitou Springs Incline, a mile-long, stair-stepped, 2,000-foot climb. This was his first race back after dropping from August’s Sierre-Zinal event in Switzerland.
Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya), the two-time World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race winner, was second in 2:04:09, and that’s the third-best time ever up the mountain. Kipngeno trails only Bonnet and Carpenter on the all-time charts.
Top American Eli Hemming moved up one place from a year ago and was third in 2:07:40. Two-time Pikes Peak Marathon winner Seth Demoor added the Ascent as part of a double and was fourth in 2:09:47.
Four-time race winner Joseph Gray topped out in 2:11:19 for fifth.
Rémi Bonnet winning the 2023 Pikes Peak Ascent and setting a new course record. Photo: Golden Trail Series | Pikes Peak Ascent | The Adventure Bakery
2023 Pikes Peak Ascent Men’s Results
- Rémi Bonnet (Switzerland) – 2:00:20
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) – 2:04:09
- Eli Hemming – 2:07:40
- Seth Demoor – 2:09:47
- Joseph Gray – 2:11:19
- Roberto Delorenzi (Switzerland) – 2:11:20
- Daniel Osanz (Spain) – 2:12:34
- Brian Whitfield – 2:14:55
- Chad Hall – 2:15:08
- Noah Williams – 2:15:16
- Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau – 2:16:30
- Sam Hendry – 2:16:43
- Philemon Kiriago (Kenya) – 2:16:44
- Daniel Pattis (Italy) – 2:20:01
- Alex García Carillo (Spain) – 2:20:24
- Anthony Felber (France) – 2:22:11
- Darren Thomas – 2:22:37
- Eder Belmont (Mexico) – 2:22:37
- Juan Carlos Carera (Mexico) – 2:22:39
- Johen DeLeon – 2:23:12
2023 Pikes Peak Ascent Women’s Race
No records fell in the women’s race, but Sophia Laukli’s having a world-best year. Already the Mont Blanc Marathon and Sierre-Zinal winner, Laukli picked up her third Golden Trail World Series win of the year. Laukli pulled away in the last two miles and won in 2:35:54. She was third in last year’s race in 2:34:30. A Nordic ski Olympian, Laukli is on the start list for next weekend’s Mammoth Trail Fest 26k, also part of the Golden Trail World Series, in California, but earlier shared on the Sub Hub podcast that she is unlikely to start that race.
Second-place Judith Wyder (Switzerland) summitted in 2:39:35, and Anna Gibson was a surprise third-place finisher in 2:43:59.
Spanish runners Malen Osa and Sara Alonso were fourth and fifth in 2:47:23 and 2:48:13, respectively.
Sophia Laukli, 2023 Pikes Peak Ascent champion. Photo: Golden Trail Series | Pikes Peak Ascent | The Adventure Bakery
2023 Pikes Peak Ascent Women’s Results
- Sophia Laukli – 2:35:54
- Judith Wyder (Switzerland) – 2:39:35
- Anna Gibson – 2:43:59
- Malen Osa (Spain) – 2:47:23
- Sara Alonso (Spain) – 2:48:13
- Júlia Font (Spain) – 2:49:06
- Alicia Vargo – 2:49.:16
- Elise Poncet (France) – 2:50:10
- Tabor Hemming – 2:50:30
- Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) – 2:51:38
- Hali Hafeman – 2:52:53
- Allie McLaughlin – 2:53:19
- Giselle Slotboom – 2:56:02
- Rachel Tomajczyk – 2:57:32
- Anna-Stiina Erkkilä (Finland) – 2:57:56
- Camilla Magliano (Italy) – 2:59:20
- Monica Mădălina Florea (Romania) – 3:00:07
- Lara Hamilton (Australia, lives in the U.S.) – 3:00:13
- Jessica Yeaton – 3:02:13
- Allie Ostrander – 3:04:47
(In 2023, Ostrander was suspended for four months after testing positive for canrenone, a metabolite of spironolactone, after it was determined that she mistakenly took the drug without first obtaining a World Anti-Doping Agency Therapeutic Use Exemption.)
