Trail running world champion nearly makes Mountain Games history with Pepi’s Face-Off victory

When Joseph Gray shows up at the Mountain Games, he means business.

The 41-year-old Colorado Springs trail running legend opted out of trying for an unprecedented 10th-straight win in the 10K trail run so he could be fresh for Pepi’s Face-Off at 1 p.m. The strategy ended up paying off. Gray was about 15 seconds short of becoming the first runner to ever attempt a seventh lap up the 45-degree, 400-foot face since the event’s debut in 2017 —when a shorter course was in place.

“I just wanted to win,” he said after taking the win in the 30-minute suffer fest. “I think we would have gotten seven, but we didn’t run that old course.”

Two-time winner Cam Smith, a U.S. Olympic skimo hopeful, started conservatively but was inching up on Gray over the fourth and fifth trips. After burning matches early on in Sunday morning’s 10K — where he placed fourth — Smith said he knew he wanted to ease into Pepi’s.

“Either it will be obvious I’m off the back or I’ll stay close enough in it that I’ll race really well on (laps) 4, 5, 6,” he said of his mindset going in. “But Joe had too much of a lead at that point and I couldn’t make it up.”

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Gray pulled away for good in the upper portions of his final ascent, completing six laps and crossing the line 24 seconds after the half-hour mark.

“Ultimately I ran within myself,” the 29-time national champion said. “I knew I could win, it was just a matter of not getting stuck behind anyone.”

Smith was 21 seconds back and Joseph Demoor claimed his fifth-straight podium in the event with a third-place finish. On the women’s side, Courtney Coppinger was trailing Megan Cooke in the early goings but found her rhythm and tore away to complete the Sunday double. Coppinger also won the 10K trail run earlier in the morning.

Mountain Games Team athlete Lara Hamilton was 29 seconds back in second as Kimber Mattox claimed the bronze. Sarah Hochtl was the top local finisher in the pro wave, coming in eighth. Fellow Eagle County competitors Tam Donelson and Heather Pugh came in 11th and 14th, respectively. Eagle’s Erin Hood won the amateur division in wave 2, completing five laps in a total time of 37:09.7.

Gray, who has made every U.S. global championship trail team since 2008, is preparing for the Mount Washington hill climb and the Broken Arrow Ascent later this month. The latter race serves as a Team USA world championship qualifier. In recent years, Gray, who won five golds at the World Master’s Indoor Championships earlier this spring, has decided to put less focus on the international classic up/down events.

“Trying to get ready for a bunch of different distances is tougher,” he explained. “You get older, you don’t have as much time — I’ve got kids, wife and family, so I gotta focus on that. Can’t do everything.”

Smith, with his fourth place finish at the USATF Mountain Running championships in New Hampshire a week ago, already has punched his ticket to Spain for the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships at the end of September. Coming off a skimo season which wrapped up in mid-April, the 29-year-old is feeling pretty good about how the trail run campaign has started.

“I was hoping either the ski fitness would carry over and give me a good start to the season or it wouldn’t, and it looks like that strategy has paid off a little bit,” he said, adding that the repeated bouts of downhill running and pure speed are still a work in progress. Even though he wasn’t able to defend his Pepi’s Face-Off title, the Crested Butte multi-sport star left Vail satisfied.

“Joe’s amazing,” he said. “But yeah, I’m definitely motivated for more next time.”