The Mancos Project Altitude Training Center
In the mountains of southwestern Colorado, this center provides ideal training conditions and local economic development.
By Myles Schrag
courtesy of The Mancos Project
What do you get when you mix an energetic runner, sky-high trails in Colorado, and the support of business leaders and politicians in the area? You get The Mancos Project, a for-profit venture that started in the summer of 2013 with plans to help runners train--and to drive economic development in the area around Mancos, Colo.
The enterprise is the brainchild of Ben Hahn (pictured above), a two-time NCAA Division II All-American at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. Shortly after earning his education degree, Hahn, now 25, moved to Mancos and started the RunMancos! club. But his ambition quickly grew.
Local leaders had talked about developing a high-altitude training center. Hahn, determined to stay involved in the sport that has netted him PRs of 14:13 for 5K and 1:06 for the half marathon, was willing to put in the sweat equity to bring it to life, and he created The Mancos Project LLC. Hahn obtained advice from the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center and received a $25,000 micro enterprise loan from the Region 9 Economic Development District. He found nutritionists, physical therapists, exercise physiologists and other support staff, many in nearby Durango, and partnered with the owners of a Mancos natural foods store and arranged access to a spartan, 8,000-foot-eIevation camp facility.
"There was already this spider web of people working on it and talking about it," Hahn says. "I just became the guy."
The Mancos Project offers various packages for teams and individuals--"from college kids on a budget to pro teams," Hahn says--and had 15 guests in its first year at the training center. One of those was Tyler Mueller, who decided to "pull out all the stops" to get ready for his senior year at Lehigh University.
Mueller doesn't entirely credit his 2013 Patriot League individual title and becoming the second Lehigh runner ever to qualify for the NCAA cross country championships to his six weeks on the Western Slope of the Rockies. But after acclimating to the thin air, he said the coaching, the collegial atmosphere and the lack of distractions were as beneficial as any increase in red blood cells. "It was an experience of a lifetime," Mueller, a Pennsylvania native, says. "It's just you and running. I benefited from an elevated quality of training."
Hahn hopes more endurance athletes are looking for that same experience. This year, he will hold the first Mancos Cowboy Half Marathon on May 17, which he expects to be the start of a race series in the region. He will add high-altitude training for cyclists and triathletes. Hahn hopes locals will continue to benefit too, both physically and economically. "By investing in running and broader sport and wellness, you're investing in your community and your region," he says.
He expects steady, sustainable growth to continue.
"In year one, guys with sponsorships are calling me," Hahn said. "It blew me away, in a good way. Clearly this is untapped. We'll run with it."
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