Thursday evening’s Hill Climb in Salida saw around 100 participants make the trek to the gazebo above the ‘S’ on Tenderfoot Mountain and back down onto F Street. With no age limit or age minimum for this FIBArk’s tradition, event participation was a mixture of runners ranging from children, fathers and mothers, high schoolers and even grandparents.
Matt Juba and his children, Truman and Opal, participated in this year’s Hill Climb. Photo by Henry John DeKam
Hundreds of spectators lined F Street to cheer on the runners. Some watched with binoculars as runners loped up past the ‘S’ on the mountain.
Matt Juba and his young children, Truman and Opal, ran the race together this year. Though they weren’t competing to win, Juba said the race gave him an opportunity to do something fun with his children.
This year’s winner, Camden Gillis, took only 11 minutes and 48 seconds to finish the event. Gillis, who ran cross-country, graduated from Salida High School a few weeks ago.
Camden Gillis won this year’s Hill Climb. Gillis ran cross-country at Salida High School.
“It’s a big local race and it’s always fun,” Gillis said. “It’s our home mountain.”
Even more impressive? Gillis hasn’t been training for the run. In fact, he really hasn’t been running at all.
“I haven’t been running much,” said Gillis. “I have been on a bike a lot. I’m training for a few bike races.”
Gillis, who also played soccer and raced mountain bikes in high school, joined a handful of his cross-country teammates in the event.
“It’s fun to show off our cross-country team,” said Gillis, “We all wore our jerseys to show [our team].”
Gillis advised future runners to “take it easy and watch the loose rocks.”
“I definitely had a few slides coming down,” said Gillis with a laugh.
Brian Glaffey participated in the Hill Climb for the first time. Glaffey recently moved to Salida from Alamosa. An avid runner, Glaffey thought he would enjoy participating in the race.
“I’m just running for fun,” said Glaffey, with a smile. “I run quite a bit.”
Hi! It was a terrific race! We all cheered Camden on (one of his school friends sat nearby). There was also a competitor on crutches that was so inspirational! We posted a video of the hill climb on our IGTV channel if anyone would like to see it! 🙂 https://www.instagram.com/tv/ByseDxql9tb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link