Jonathan Aziz is literally a rocket scientist, using his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering to help governments with their space missions.

But he’s still working his way through this latest puzzling equation.

So far, so good, as that 12-week-old variable named Roslyn awaited him at the finish line of the Pikes Peak Marathon, where the new father won the race for a fourth consecutive year with a time of 3 hours, 54 minutes, 7 seconds that gave him a winning cushion of 20 minutes.

“I for sure don’t have all the answers yet,” Aziz said. “We’re 12 weeks in.”

There was consideration between Aziz and his wife, Tara (also a runner who is aiming to compete in the Pikes Peak Ascent next year), about sitting this year’s race out. Instead, they teamed together.

There were sleep shifts, alternating workout times and promises to be extra careful on the trail to avoid nasty falls that could put him in the hospital.

“What’s a challenge for this race in particular is taking time to drive to the summit and do a workout or do a big, long run, because then that takes me out of the house for half a day,” said Aziz, a native of upstate New York who first came to Colorado as a grad student at CU-Boulder and first found a knack for trail running after meeting his wife after moving to Colorado Springs. “That made for some really stressful days the few times we did it.”

Aziz saw a slight dip in his time – he won in 2023 in 3:43.45 and in 2022 in 3:40.41 (last year the course was shortened because of weather) – but there was no point where he was challenged.

That was not the case for the tightly contested spot behind Aziz, as a pair of first-timers (at least at this distance) found themselves locked in a battle.

Mitch Clomp had moved into second place, well behind Aziz, at the summit and knew he was in a good position to keep that spot for the long downhill finish. But Bayden Menton caught up to him despite a painful fall with about four miles remaining.

“Probably the smallest little rock in a nice part of the trail,” Menton said of the obstacle that brought him to the ground. “I was really, really tired at that point.”

Clomp, who had been running downhill without a sense of where his closest competitors were located, was energized by the challenge.

“I said, ‘Not today,’” said Clomp, a Pueblo native who ran track and cross country at UCCS. “I sprinted as hard as I could.”

Clomp finished second in 4:14:20. Menton, who grew up on mountain trails in Oregon and now competes on the trail running team at Western Colorado University, was third at 4:15:05.

Nearly a minute passed before the next runner finished.

Menton has long has his eye on this race. Western has brought a team to Pikes Peak for three years. He ran the Ascent in 2023 and the shortened marathon last year.

Clomp, who now lives in Fort Collins, never envisioned himself competing here, despite his Southern Colorado roots. He scoffed at trail running until he gave it a try and began competing in ultra races. Finally, he figured it was time to tackle “one of the premier trail races in the world” that was awaiting on Pikes Peak.

“It hurt a lot more than I expected,” Clomp said. “It was really, really good in the worst way.”