Article written by Ryan Sederquist of Vail Daily:
The 2023 Mountain Games weren’t quite the same without Joseph Gray. After Sunday’s adidas Terrex 10K Spring Runoff, all is right with the world.
With the 2023 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships coinciding with last year’s Mountain Games, Gray was forced to put a pause on his streak of eight-straight victories in Vail while he wore Team USA colors in Austria. On Sunday, he was back at the Gondola One starting line.
Gray pulled away late from Tyler McCandless — who won both the 5K and 10K last year — for a 22-second win. The 40-year-old covered the 5.64-mile course with 1,452-feet of climb in 36 minutes, 8.1 seconds to claim the $2,500 winner’s check.
“It’s one of the first races of my career in this world of trail running, so it’s always special to come out and win,” Gray said.
“Thinking about the history and remembering it — my first times out here and the years I didn’t win — you really have to embrace those moments when you win a race this big. Especially, you know, they draw a good field, so you can’t just come here and sandbag it. You’re going to have to work.”
The 24-time U.S. champion and nine-time world champion certainly had some work to do, though some of the heavy lifting consisted of weaving through 20K racers who’d started five minutes earlier on the same course. Early leader Andy Wacker “made the race honest,” said Gray, who eventually surged to the front on the upper switchbacks. Only McCandless stayed with him.
“We had a little fight halfway up and there were some big moves made before that,” Gray said. In the last mile, Gray finally gapped the Fort Collins runner to claim win No. 9.
“Objectively, I did what I had to do to put myself in position to win and not get too crazy,” said Gray, who is targeting an eighth Mt. Washington Hill Climb title next week. “That race is really important for me as well this year.”
Actually, every race is important for the Colorado Springs runner.
“Everything I’m going to do is going to be big this year. I don’t do any really small races or development races,” Gray said. “When I race I like to show up.”
One event he hopes to show up sharp for takes place in his backyard: the Pikes Peak Ascent on Sept. 21. Last year, Remi Bonnet broke former Vail resident Matt Carpenter’s “unbreakable” 30-year-old course record while Gray finished fifth — running with a broken hand. A four-time Pikes Peak Ascent winner, Gray also battled COVID in his last two tries at the 13.3-mile climb.
“I don’t think I necessarily would have run Pikes again this year; I probably would have tried something different,” Gray said. “But because I had some unfortunate events happen before, I kind of want to come back.”
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