13 years after his last Mountain Games appearance, former Summit star gets on the pro 10K trail run podium

Liam Meirow was chilling in New York City on Friday when he called up his Boulder-based running buddy, Cade Michael, and asked him what his Sunday long run plans were. When Michael answered that he was going to be competing at the GoPro Mountain Games, Meirow changed his flight.

“I’m so competitive,” said Meirow, who flew in Saturday. Having been at sea-level since September, the former state champion Summit High School runner arrived at the base of Golden Peak for the adidas Terrex 10K Spring Runoff with “no expectations.”

“I was like, ‘I’m doing this for the love of the game,'” he said. “And I just kept going and kept getting a second wind.”

The 29-year-old Portland-based pro finished second overall, 45 clicks behind Tyler McCandless, who stopped the clock at 41 minutes, 50.3 seconds. Four-time national champion Andy Wacker (43:03.5) rounded out the podium in third. All three runners were happy to find some redemption after less-than satisfying performances at the USATF Mountain Running Championships last week in Sunapee, New Hampshire.

“I had a bad day and it’s tough because you only get one shot,” said Meirow, who was ninth at the event, which doubled as one of Team USA’s world championship qualifiers.

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“It didn’t go very well. It was very technical and steep and I didn’t feel like it showed my fitness,” McCandless added. “I kind of had a lot of gumption in coming for revenge to just go out and rip it today. I felt like I just hammered the whole time and it felt awesome.”

The 39-year-old Fort Collins runner tore away from the 172-person men’s field in the opening climb and never looked back.

“Tyler was in a different realm today. I never even saw him,” said Meirow. “But I’m stoked to beat all the guys who beat me last Sunday.”

Meirow last competed at the Mountain Games as a high school sophomore in 2012.

“It feels really cool to be back as a completely new athlete competing with the guys I looked up to,” he said. One of those idols was Wacker, who has represented Team USA 17 times over his illustrious career. After battling achilles issues the last couple years, the former CU Buff All-American recovered well from Haglund’s surgery and put together an impressive spring road running season. He recently ran 30:32 at the Bolder Boulder.

“In general, my fitness is better than it’s ever been,” Wacker said before adding that he’s still building some trail-specific sharpness. “I think this year I took a little bit of a risk not having a long transition period of doing trail workouts. I feel like mostly on the uphill, I’m not as powerful as I could be.”

Wacker leads The Trail Team, a development program aimed at luring talented young runners into the trail running scene. One member is Marshall Graybill, son of Kay Graybill — a member of the 1996 USATF world mountain running championship team — who placed third at the inaugural Cougar Ridge Classic in Minturn last fall.

“It’s working too well — in a good way,” Wacker said of the initiative. “Because it used to be just Joe Gray and I here at the Mountain Games. Now we’re getting a whole new wave of people. It’s really cool to see them doing well and making teams and improving our sport as a country.”

In two weeks, Wacker, McCandless and Meirow are hoping to parlay their Mountain Games momentum into the Broken Arrow Skyrace Ascent — their final chance to qualify for the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, slated for Sept. 24-28 in Canfranc-Pirineos, Spain. Meirow plans to train in Boulder for the next couple weeks to prepare.

“Today was a good sign,” he said. “It was beautiful, man.”

Unsponsored elite wins second Mountain Games 20K title

Mason Coppi doesn’t care about the carbon-plated super shoe revolution.

Fresh off qualifying for his second world championship team — courtesy of a runner-up finish at the USATF Mountain Running Championships last week in Sunapee, New Hampshire — the unsponsored runner laced up his Brooks Catamount training shoes Sunday and ripped apart the Mountain Games 20K trail course. The 27-year-old Lakewood elite completed the two-lap race in 1:26:55.2 to finish over a minute in front of Boulder’s Cade Michael.

“I think the training shoes are actually faster for a lot of cases. I don’t worry about rolling an ankle,” Coppi said after claiming his second 20K Mountain Games victory in three years. “I think some of the carbon-plated shoes and lighter-weight shoes, you have to be a lot more specific about where you plant your foot. I can just bomb descents.”

Coppi gapped the 69-person field on the first steep uphill.

“I could see Cade coming after me on a few of the switchbacks, so I knew I couldn’t jog it in or anything,” he said. “I had to push it the entire time.”

Jonathan Aziz (1:29:37) rounded out the podium and Vail’s Jason Macaluso (1:46:18.1) was the top local finisher in 13th. Coppi plans to spend the rest of the summer preparing for his second-career world championships.

“I’d love to get on the podium,” he said. “But the big one is getting Team USA on that podium.”

Without a shoe brand supporting him, the $2,500 prize for Sunday’s win will likely go into either his travel budget or wedding fund, as he’s getting married later this year.

“It was just so exciting coming across the line,” he said. “I’m just really happy with how things have been stacking up.”