It’s still 11 weeks before the Durango Double, but if you’re serious about doing it, the time to start training may be nigh.
The Double, in its new and sleeker format for 2014, is set for Oct. 11-12. It’s back-to-back days of running events, with a half-marathon trail event Saturday and half-marathon road event Sunday.
Brendan Trimboli, the event’s first-year race director, said that the pace of registrations for this year’s event is ahead of last year’s.
“We’ve got a lot of people signing up,” he said. “New Mexico runners in particular. That’s exciting to me because it means we’re bringing in more out-of-town runners.”
Trimboli said at least 70 runners have registered for each of the events, and many of those, as the race title would indicate, are doing both.
Trimboli, who also directed the Narrow Gauge 10-mile run on Memorial Day weekend, said he’s been busy contacting potential sponsors and nailing down some of the logistics of the event. He’s been marketing the race to running stores in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona as well as Colorado’s Front Range.
To get runners focused on training, the Durango Double is working in conjunction with The Vault, a fitness center at 810 E. College Drive, on a 10-week training program.
The program begins in August, featuring two workout sessions each week at The Vault, a weekly group run, a couple of lectures, a T-shirt and a 30 percent discount on a Durango Double entry.
Late summer and early fall offers a great time to train for something like the Double, Trimboli said. And it’s a good idea to get going soon, “especially if it’s your first.”
The Durango Double was first held as the Durango Marathon in 2002. It morphed into the Double and continued through 2006. It was resurrected in 2012 with Animas Surgical Hospital as the main sponsor.
In previous years, the Double featured 25- and 50-kilometer trail runs one day, with half- and full road marathons the next. Having shorter courses, and two fewer courses, means less stress on organizers and volunteers, not to mention the runners themselves, Trimboli said.
“Simplifying logistics this year was one of my biggest goals,” he said, “not having to have (volunteers) out there seven or eight hours.”
The event’s primary beneficiary is the Women’s Resource Center, which also helps provide volunteers for the event. Trimboli said volunteers will serve many roles, including providing about three aid stations – some of which will be used twice – during the races.
Another new feature this year is fun runs for kids. These will be about a mile long and will be held before both the trail and road runs.
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