Way to go!

Two local athletes have been nominated for an Everest Award, the outdoor industry's most prestigious honor. Nancy Hobbs and Matt Carpenter have been nominated in the trail runner category. According to the Teva Mountain Games Web site, the awards are "given annually to the top male and female athletes whose skill and innovation has pushed their sport to new heights and redefined the parameters of the achievable. They are pioneers, innovators, leaders, change agents and reflects the soul of the sport."

That pretty much sums up the running careers of Hobbs, a veteran race organizer, runner and writer, and Carpenter, who holds the record for both the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon. The winners will be announced at a ceremony June 3 in Vail.

Favorite quotes from these guys:

From Carpenter's inclineclub.com Web site, about when he started running and why: "When I moved to Mississippi I started running because I had nothing else to do. I had always played in the band and it turned out because of a scheduling conflict I had to drop band to take chemistry. Soon after I heard an announcement to try out for cross country. I did because I thought they really meant I would run across the country!"

From Hobbs' bio on the same site, about when she started running: "Sometime in high school because my father started running and I wanted to see how far I could run."