Pikes Peak 1956: A Doctor Dares Smokers to Beat Him to the Summit
Pikes Peak Marathon history starts on August 10, 1956, at the foot of the mountain, where a 56-year-old doctor waits for the smokers. His challenge: climb to the summit and come back down faster than he does. The quickest smoker reaches the top before the doctor. And stops there.
By the PacePoster desk · · 3 min · 14 sources
01A challenge from Florida
Dr. Arne Suominen lives in Delray Beach, Florida. He is 56 and a former Finnish distance runner. He wants to prove that tobacco wrecks endurance. So he dares smokers to beat him, up and down Pikes Peak. The timing is perfect: it's the 150th anniversary of Zebulon Pike's expedition, which sighted the mountain in 1806.
02How many started? It depends on who's counting
Thirteen, fourteen or fifteen starters: even on that, the sources fight it out (Harald Fricker's book on the race's history, the official results archive, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum). The smokers? Three according to most, two according to the museum. The archive names three: Ron Bierstedt, Pat Scanland and Lou Wille. It also notes that five nonsmokers and three registered smokers never showed up. The start is at the cog railway depot in Manitou Springs.
I finished the race and none of the smokers did
03The smoker who beats the doctor, on the way up
The threat is named Lou Wille. A former winner of Pikes Peak races in the 1930s, he smokes two packs a day, according to Fricker. He reaches the summit ahead of Suominen: 4:11:02 versus 4:19, according to the archive. On the climb, the smoker is ahead. But the event is a round trip. Up there, Wille lights a cigarette instead of heading down. He is disqualified. Ron Bierstedt turned around about 1.5 miles from the summit, according to the archive. No smoker completes the round trip.
04The winner isn't the doctor
The first man home is Monte Wolford, 28, a bodybuilder from Colorado Springs and a Mr. America contender: 5:39:58 (3:44 up, 1:56 down). Second is Tom Brewster, a teenager: 16 according to the archive, 17 according to Fricker. Suominen is third. There are four finishers in all, according to the official results table, and not one smoker among them. “I think I've proven my point. I finished the race and none of the smokers did,” Suominen says after the finish, Fricker reports. The doctor wins his bet without winning his own race.
05The race tobacco didn't kill
From 1960, the finish moves down to the corner of Manitou and Ruxton avenues; the museum sees this as an answer to criticism that the distance was too short for a marathon. In 1976, the start moves to Manitou Springs City Hall. Today the marathon climbs about 7,800 ft up the Barr Trail to the summit, at 14,115 ft, then comes back down. The organizers bill it as “the oldest continually held marathon in the United States.” The record, 3:16:39, has belonged to Matt Carpenter since 1993.
Sources for this story (14)
Every fact was cross-checked in at least two independent sources. Where they disagree, the story says so.
- 1956 Pike Sesquicentennial Marathon — Pikes Peak Marathon, archives officielles des résultats
- 1960 Pikes Peak Marathon — Pikes Peak Marathon, archives officielles
- Pikes Peak Marathon — site officiel
- History — Pikes Peak Marathon, site officiel
- Tails from Barr Trail: stories from some of our Pikes Peak pioneers — Pikes Peak Marathon (blog officiel)
- Key workouts from Pikes Peak Marathon champions — Pikes Peak Marathon (blog officiel)
- Early Pikes Peak Marathons: Smokers vs. Vegetarians — Vail Daily (extrait du livre de Harald Fricker, 2010)
- Smoking: a big secret in the fitness world — Salisbury Post (Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times, 2008)
- Pikes Peak Marathon — Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
- Pikes Peak Marathon (COS 150) — Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
- Pikes Peak Ascent & Marathon exhibit open at Pioneers Museum — Trail Runner (2016)
- Will the « impossible » record running up Pikes Peak ever be broken? — Trail Runner (2023)
- Pikes Peak Marathon — Association of Road Racing Statisticians
- Elevation of Pikes Peak — Pikes Peak Region Attractions
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