Vertical Milers

Clyde Ormsby, Colorado steelworker, removed his false teeth just after the starting gun, gave them to a highway patrolman. Gordon Mace of Estes Park, greased from head to toe, collapsed. John Sutak, onetime Colorado College footballer, sandwiched between signs advertising "Sutak's Peanuts," sprinted ahead of the field, dropped out from exhaustion after two miles. An ambulance followed the procession, picked up those who fell. For those who survived, barrels of water--placed a mile apart--served as combination drinking troughs and bathing pools.

Such was the scene that greeted U. S. sightseers who went for an auto ride one day last week to the top of Pikes Peak. There, along the highway, from Crystal Creek to the summit (12 1/2 miles), 15 sturdy runners plodded along in a unique contest called the Vertical Mile Marathon, sponsored by the Colorado Springs Junior Chamber of Commerce. At the snow-banked summit (14,108 ft. above sea level and exactly one mile higher than the starting point), a sunburned crowd of 300 watched all but five of the runners finish.

First to break the tape was Boston's 119-lb. Francis Darrah, a seasoned distance runner at 25, whose time of 2 hr., 8 min., 14.6 sec. was the fastest ever made on foot up the mountain. Six minutes later came Paul Donato, another Bostonian, who (like Darrah) had eaten a pound of rare beefsteak for breakfast. Loudest cheers went to 45-year-old Clyde Ormsby of Colorado Springs, oldest entrant in the race, who finished seventh. Called upon by broadcasters to say a few words over the radio, Mr. Ormsby was in a sorry predicament. The patrolman to whom he had entrusted his false teeth was at that moment chasing a holiday tippler down the peak.

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