Denver Marathon - RunMarathon

Miles 1-3: These just kind of flew by. My HR was 135 just standing in the start corral so I wasn't surprised to see it really high when I started running (close to LT!). It felt easy like it should have though and the main focus was just trying to stay relaxed while weaving in & out of people to try & stay near my pace balloons. Everyone was very chatty and in high spirits.

Miles 4-6: Had to work to get up the hill out of downtown, but it flattened out after that and the first hour pretty much flew by. My HR stayed high but breathing and RPE were where they should be so I went with it. Finally started to feel like I was settling into a pace here. There were a surprisingly large amount of people out cheering along 17th, especially considering it was still drizzling & cold out.

Miles 7-9: Lots of puddle dodging thru City Park. We got our first glimpse of people out ahead of us heading the other way and gave them a big cheer. I was starting to recognize all the people in our little "group" who were sticking with the 4hr balloons which was fun.

Mile 10 - 12: There is a hill going into Cheeseman Park and then a couple of them during the lap thru the park and this is where the first signs of having to put in an effort started to rear its head. The rain also picked up a little more here. Left the park out along 13th Ave and ducked into the bathroom between mile 11 & 12. When I started again my pace group was maybe 1/4 mile ahead. I figured I'd try & chip away to get back to them.

Mile 13-15: By mile 12.5 I had closed the gap to the pace balloons to about 100yds on a downhill section. It was follewed by an uphill section though. I kept the gap but wasn't able to get all the way back to them and hit the 1/2 way point at 1:58:36 which is a PR. The mile from 13-14 was straight and uphill along 7th Ave and while the pace balloon gap started to widen a little, I was able to stay close to their pace. It was getting difficult though and it seemed like the turnaround at mile 14 would never come, but some timely pace booty helped me trudge on up the gentle hill and keep the balloons within striking distance. By this point the chatting amongst everyone had dropped off considerably and without the 1/2 mary people who had peeled off at mile 12 everyone was alot more spread out, especially since my group was starting to get away from me.

Mile 15 - 17: On the way back to mile 15 my right achilles (the good one) started to feel tight, I think due to the crown of the road. It went away once I left 7th. Bid farewell to Capital Hill which meant some downhill to recover on. On the flats though the going was getting tough and my walks thru the aid stations started to lengthen from one table to two tables to the whole aid station. It took a little longer to get moving again after the mile 16 aid station and when I did I watched my pace group disappear around the corner ahead and I knew I couldn't match the pace any more. Every hill was taking its toll at this point. I started to realize I still had 9-10 miles to go and the doubts started creeping in. Each step was becoming a challenge so how was I going to make it nine more miles? It seemed very daunting at this point.

Mile 18-20: Started working aid station to aid station. There were alot of people cheering at the entrance/exit to Wash Park. Everyone says that starting at mile 20 is where it gets tough but I found these miles to be amongst the toughest of the race. There was just still so far to go and the effort had turned so hard it just didn't seem possible to ever get to the end. I stopped to walk a couple of times even between aid stations while in the park and it was so tempting to just say "I did what I could do" and start walking.

Miles 21-23: It flattened out a bit here, I just put my head down and kept pushing. My pace slowed to around 10:38/mile for these but it didn't feel nearly that fast so the times almost seemed like a triumph. I think if I had looked down and seen an 11+/mile it would have taken alot of the spirit out of me but to see I could still go at a decent pace even if it didn't feel that way was encouraging. As the miles remaining started to dwindle I found it easier to tell myself to keep running, just because I knew the more I ran, the sooner it would be over.

Miles 23-26: The homestretch. Even the slightest uphill now seemed like the Mt Evans hillclimb. Luckily there was only a short one turning onto Santa Fe but once I had conquered that my achilles started acting up, this time turning into a minor but sharp pain. Seemed like a lot of dry people were passing me thru the Art Distict (they were all relayers) but I could finally sense I was getting close. By this point it was actually easier to keep going just because you knew it wasn't for much longer, I mean it's not even one lap around the park I train in. And then..... About mile 24.5 something clicked and not in a good way. It's almost indescribable the feeling, but any vapors I was running on just ran out. My legs were screaming, pleading with me to stop, and to top it off there was one final hill to get up to mile 25.5. I was running next to a relay guy who was at the same pace and was trying to be encouranging but all I could really do was grunt. I really have no idea how I kept running, let alone moving, but my brain told me to so I did. I know it sounds alot like the end of a HIM but that doesn't even compare to the effort here. I hoped the inceasing crowds might give me a little shot of adrenaline and they did. A real little shot. The finish chute seemed so far away when I came around the last corner but I knew I could soon stop running and before I knew it was done!

You know, not much. I hung with my goal pace group for as long as I could and still managed to keep a somewhat good pace once I lost them. Ate a gel every 5 miles right on plan although after mile 20 my stomach wanted nothing else.

Got my little goody bag of food and sat down out of the rain. I wished it were nicer so I could have sat out and taken in the whole scene a little more but it was still rainy, cold & breezy and I was completely soaked and couldn't stop shivering so I picked up my stuff and (slowly) walked home and thought about how riding 112 miles before doing this sounds like an obscenely bad idea. The weirdest thing is that sure my legs are sore, but so are my toenails!


I only had 6 weeks of dedicated mary training after the Long Course and two of those were spent tapering. It got me thru the race, the wheels didn't start coming off until about mile 17 (which equals my longest ever run previously). If I had more time to get in a couple more long runs I think I may have had a better chance of staying with the pace balloons. I wondered a little whether my high HR (z4 thru mile 8!) zapped me in the end. It probably did a bit but I think keeping the faster pace in the beginning probably was faster than the time I would have saved with a faster pace at the end and even though the HR was z4, the effort wasn't.



Really well organized & never once had to wait to get a drink, the volunteers were great. Even though the weather was cruel it didn't cause me too many problems. The body glide on my feet seemed to pay off as I didn't get any blisters and aside from my hands which went numb I never got too too cold. Still, even with my rain coat on the whole time I was completely sopping wet and if there had been much more wind it could have turned extremely miserable. I came across Speer Blvd near the end and the cop directing traffic took one look at me and said "He's soaked, no doubt he's done the whole thing". I was amazed at the amount of people who came out to cheer despite the cold and drizzly conditions which was great. Overall pretty damn happy, especially for my 1st marathon.