The next level: Highlander Events introduces rucking to Steamboat Springs

When he moved to Colorado four years ago, Matt Ponder fell in love with backpacking and trail running.

He had spent six years in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he learned an appreciation for facing challenges and overcoming them. Ponder said he wanted to find the intersection between those qualities when he set out to create Highlander Events, an organization designed to test athlete’s limits and take them on rucking adventures throughout Colorado. 

Ponder and his team began planning their event schedule in January, and they landed on Steamboat Springs as the location for their first ruck event. On Saturday, Highlander Events hosted the Howelsen Hill Ruck, taking participants on a seven-mile loop from the Howelsen Lodge up to Blakemere Road and around Emerald Mountain before returning to the lodge. 

Rucking is walking, hiking or running while wearing a rucksack, similar to a weighted backpack. It is a common workout in the military designed to simulate carrying heavy supplies over long distances. Ponder said his goal is to share that workout with more people.

“It’s really about getting people outside, getting more active, getting people in the gym and having a more active lifestyle,” Ponder said. “That is already prevalent in Colorado, but I want more. I want to take it to the next level.”

Matt Alley came to town from Denver, and Alley finished third overall in the race at 1 hour, 32 minutes and 30 seconds. While he has competed in other trail runs, adding the 30-pound ruck made Saturday’s race all the more challenging. 

“It’s the ups and downs of it,” Alley said. “You are in deep pain going up, especially in a ruck. You feel it a little bit more in your quads, so you have to go to a deep place and push through it. It is a lot of interval training. You just have to take those breaks and time it.”

According to Alley, there’s a strategy to it. Running too hard at the start will burn your body out too quickly. On switchbacks, he would run the straights and walk the turns. For Alley, it was the downhills that became the most challenging areas.

“You feel the weight on the uphill, but on the downhill, when you are running, it will start to bounce,” Alley said. “That is when it can start to hurt.”

Beyond the pain, Ponder explained there are plenty of benefits to rucking. 

“It burns two to three times more calories,” he said. “It helps with your posture. It helps build your legs, your hips, your glutes, your core. There are so many benefits people don’t even realize.”

Highlander Events will continue to produce ruck races throughout the year. The next event will be at Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs on Aug. 19. It will be followed by a Veterans Day event in Staunton State Park by Conifer on Nov. 4.

Those races will each incorporate different distance options for beginners and more experienced ruckers. 

Ponder said they will look to scale up in the coming years and go from three races this year to six next year and then nine to 12 races in year three. 

He will always think of Steamboat most fondly as the organization’s original ruck, and he plans to bring it back to town every year. He sees it getting bigger as each year goes by and hopes to inspire more people to give rucking a shot. 

“Whenever you are working toward a goal, you are making yourself better,” Ponder said. “That is what this is all about — being a better all-around person and challenging yourself.”

Howelsen Hill Ruck
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Howelsen Hill, Steamboat Springs
Race results — 1. Bobby Hobson, 1:20.05. 2. Sheyenne Drake, 1:20.17. 3. Matt Alley, 1:32.30. 4. Zach Ponder, 1:37.17. 5. Jawad Majeed, 1:42.06. 6. Tom McGinn, 1:48.13. 7. Doug Hobson, 1:48.45. 8. Riley Johnson, 1:52.30. 9. Kristi Green, 1:52.30. 10. Shaun Hobson, 1:56.00. 11. Scott Drake, 2:01.46. 12. Tom Ponder, 2:15.07.