Colorado Springs runner Pete Peterson and his friend Quentin Genke were between miles 12 and 13 at the Leadville Trail Marathon when a bear crossed in front of them, temporarily halting the race.

The runners stayed calm, and were able to resume their race within 20 seconds after the bear safely made its way to the other side.

Colorado Springs runner Pete Peterson has had some luck with animal encounters in the past year and a half, seeing both a mountain lion and a bear on the trails in two separate instances.

This weekend, his streak continued at the Leadville Trail Marathon when he once again crossed paths with a bear.

Peterson had started the day with his friend, Quentin Genke, also of Colorado Springs, with a Leadville prerace, carb-loaded breakfast tradition they started a year before: a Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) and a cinnamon roll.

“Typically we get a PBR after the race or training runs, but it’s Leadville,” Genke told Runner’s World. “It’s already a race on a mountain at high elevation, so it’s a crazy event to begin with. This just adds to the insanity of the day.”

Little did he know, the most incredible part of the day was still to come.

Both runners were using the race as a training run for other mountain and trail races later in the year, so the mood was relaxed as they set off. For the first half, they were cruising. They had a solid pack of runners with them between mile 12 and 13 when Genke glanced to his right where he saw a bear running along the course.

“I don’t think (the bear) was interested in running the race,” Genke said. “So I reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone quick and yelled, ‘Bear!’”

This section of the race took place on a service road where cars were active even during the race. So runners had been hearing people yelling about cars coming, and were used to moving to the side of the road to let them pass.

Hearing about an oncoming bear prompted a different reaction, though.

“Everyone froze,” Peterson told Runner’s World. “We let the bear do what it was going to do, and it found a gap in the runners to cross and then took off into the brush. Everyone just looked at each other like, ‘Did that really just happen?’ It was so casual. That was what was funny about it. In trail races, we see wildlife all the time, but you never expect a bear to jump out in front of you when you’re in a mountain race.”

Though everyone stayed calm, it didn’t stop some people’s survival instincts to pop up in their head.

“I thought of the old running saying that’s like, when you see a bear or a wild animal, you don’t have to outrun the animal, you have to outrun the people around you,” Genke said jokingly. “I looked around and said, ‘I think I could outrun one or two of these people.’”

Before people could even comprehend what was happening during the 15 to 20-second encounter, the bear charged across the road through a gap in the runners and disappeared in the brush. The runners then continued on with their race.

“We know we were in the bear’s territory,” Peterson said. “No one chased the bear or ran up to take pictures. We respected its area.”

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Aside from the encounter, the rest of the day went on without a hitch. Peterson finished with a 5:05:46—more than an hour faster than his 2018 time—and Genke finished in 5:37:14. Peterson also saw his daughter complete her longest run ever as she completed the Leadville Heavy Half.

But an even cooler sight for him at the race was watching Olympic marathoner turned trail runner Kara Goucher take on her first trail race. Despite stomach issues caused by altitude sickness, she pushed through for a fifth-place finish.

“We were pretty excited for her and heard great support from people,” Peterson said. “It was a blessing for us to see an amazing athlete push through and finish. A lot of elites will walk off the course if they’re having a bad day, and she pushed and finished, and to see that, it was just a inspiration for us.”

Andrew Dawson Gear & News Editor Drew covers a variety of subjects for Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand.

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