I just moved to Denver a week and a half ago so I had no delusions of being acclimated. My plan was to do the Penguin's run/walk and do a 4 min run with 1 min walk break and hope to do around 2:45 overall. I was able to maintain this ratio most of the race, except for a few times when I only walked 30 seconds. I really fell into a nice rhythm after mile 2 and didn't feel as out of breath as I did starting which seems to be how I feel running up here.

My body felt good but I had a twinge in my knee at mile 8 that had me worried given my IT band issues that had me cancel the St Louis half, but it went away and I felt great. I kept waiting for agonizing pain to set in somewhere, but it never did!! The last half mile was really the only hard part where I was really having to push to keep moving up that incline to the finish - I don't know what my HR was but I was panting that's for sure!!

My other grumble is my damn bladder!! I only had about 16 oz before I left the house, and I went before I started, but yet still at mile 2 I was starting to feel the urge. I wonder how fast I could be at long distances without horrible potty lines!! I lost almost 5 minutes at my first pee stop due to a long line but luckily as the race went on, there were more frequent portapottie locations with no line at all so I could just duck in and out.

With about 4 miles to go, I realized that I was way ahead of where I thought I would be and I knew I was looking at a PR unless something went horribly wrong. I still kept with my run/walk ratio and it served me well. I found myself passing a lot of people the last three miles who had run past me early on and I still felt good. Looking at my splits, I was pretty consistent the last half and interestingly enough, my last mile was my 2nd fastest!! All in all, I'm thrilled with my performance and thought it was a pretty fun race.

Mile splits
1= 11:55, 2=11:27, 3=11:56, 4=12:02, 5=17:05 (damn pee line!), 6=10:39 (ran the whole mile to make up time), 7=11:46, 8=11:55, 9=11:40, 10=11:48, 11=11:44, 12=11:45, 13=11:05

I should mention that the volunteers at the hydration stations we so enthusiastic and though there weren't a ton of spectators along the course, the ones who were there were quite enthusiastic as well.

Nothing really - I hadn't trained as consistently as I would have liked the prior two weeks, but I'll consider it an extended taper :) I don't think I drank too much by any means, I think I need to accept that my bladder gets nervous during races and I'm going to lose time. Maybe that will spur me to get faster :)

I grabbed a few Panera bagels (yum!) then headed to the beer cart for my free Heineken!! I stretched a little and iced my knee when I got home.


I thought this would be horribly boring - the idea of a point to point race that was just along one road - but I actually liked it. It was interesting seeing the diversity of the communities along Colfax Avenue (there were even the occasional homeless looking sort watching the race with a smile on their face, cheering the runners) and the spirit of the volunteers along the way was quite infectious. The weather was perfect, though as the sun came up I was glad I was finishing my race because there's hardly any shade along the way ... I was guessing the full marathoners were really having a hot, bright last half of their race. Other than the lack of portapotties at the half- start, it seemed pretty well organized with enough hydration stops along the way. I also thought the medal was pretty which is always a plus in my book :)