Rock 'n' Roll Denver Marathon : Official Thread (Page 3)

I'm #11022 and will be wearing my ridiculously bright fluorescent yellow Brooks ID tank. Unless it's cold, in which case I'll be wearing my longsleeve black Brooks ID shirt with the ridiculously bright fluorescent yellow logo and accents.

When I did The Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in Arizona last year, we were able to dispose of clothing during the first mile of the race as it warmed up. The clothes were then donated. Does anyone know if this will be allowed at this race?

Good luck everyone!

I asked, and yes, they will be collecting discarded clothing for the homeless. I picked up a throwaway sweatshirt at goodwill yesterday...it's going to be pretty chilly at the start!

That was good thinking.  Off to find a disposable layer...

For those of you arriving from the south, are you driving, taking light rail or..?  If you are taking the light rail, which line are you taking?

Good luck to all you BT'ers and have a great and fun race!

I'm driving in, planning to leave around 5:20-30.  PM me if you want to carpool,

Had a good time, but was a little disappointed on some of the organizational aspects of the race... anyone else? Just a little surprised that the "rock and Roll" name brand didnt seem to be instituted too smoothly this inaugural year. among other things, I for one heard very little rock and roll. I counted 4 bands total that were actually playing when I passed them

other than that, had fun, and set a PR by 30 seconds.. not bad especially considering I haven't run more than 12 miles (and that was just once) since my last marathon 9/2/10  :D 

Edited by VinedC 2010-10-17 11:42 PM

Hmmm, I think most of the bands were playing when I passed.  I think my only real organizational issue was that Gu wasn't available until mile 10.  And maybe a few more port o potties early in the course would be good (although thankfully I didn't need them). 

Most of the bands were active when I went by, although the one after mile 3 was playing a slow ballad, and the next two were C/W, but whatever.  My favorite was in the last mile of the 1/2 course on the bridge over 13th street, doing Pink Floyd "Shine on You Crazy Diamond"

There were tables with GU in City Park just before the loop around the museum.  The road there was pretty wide though, and there were no volunteers handing them out.  

Not when I went by and it was not listed as supposed to be there so I wonder if someone else put them out? 

I thought it was weird there was an unmanned aid station, never seen that in an event before - but then again it was weird for me to be running a 1/2 marathon in the 1st place .  When I went by them I to navigate over b/c I'd been going along the centerline of the road, but when I saw what it was my stomach flipped a bit at the idea so I passed on it.

Edited by StMaas 2010-10-18 9:05 PM

There are all sorts of things you faster runners don't get to see.  For example, did you know that the 8 mile arch sprung a leak and had to be deflated.  In order to do so they made runners go through the grass around it while they took it down?  I saw them folding something up and was a bit miffed that they seemed to be packing something up even though I had lots of runners behind me but part of my cheering crowd (cause I had a 3 separate groups of them ) caught it with a camera. 

That was my favorite too! They were playing AC/DC when I went by. School of Rock I think they were. I could have used more of that out there!

I had a great time and really enjoyed the race the only real problems I saw were Port-a-potty's as mentioned and at the finish line I couldn't believe the were handing you all this stuff and you had no way to carry it or nothing to put it in. A bag or something would have been great. And maybe a better selection...believe it or not I was really wanting one of those stale bagels and a banana after finishing.

Not that I was in any condition to eat but I was looking for the bagels and bananas also. Isn't that a staple at races?

Personally, I much preferred the apple dippers to the stale bagels and bananas! I definitely agree on the handing stuff but nowhere to put it, though. They did a similar hand-out at the kids race, but at the end of the line, they gave a bag (with more goodies in it) that you could put all the stuff in. Something like that would have been nice. I was lucky to have a friend with a stroller right at the exit from the secure zone, so I was able to unload everything onto the stroller until I got my gearcheck bag. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty well organized.

This was my second RnR event, the first being RnR Arizona in January, and while I had fun in AZ, I had an absolute blast yesterday. Sure, part of that was having friends out on the course, both running and spectating, but I think the race itself was better. Certainly more scenic, although the last 10k of the marathon was not the greatest. The energy on the course was fantastic, especially for the first half, but even through Wash Park up to mile 20. I'd like to see them do something better with that last 10k, although I'm not sure what. You've got to get back to the start, and I know the city limits them as far as what streets/crossings they're allowed to use, but there weren't a ton of spectators in that section, and it's not the prettiest area. Add to that having to go up the 8th Ave viaduct at mile 23.5 for no good reason...

The crowds weren't as bad as I thought they might be, although the aid stations through the first half were kind of a mess if you wanted to take aid and keep running. Other than that, though, I really didn't feel like the course was crowded enough to be slowing me down at all.

I thought the medals were awesome (way better than AZ!) and the shirts were great (huge improvement over last year's non-RnR shirt). The expo, while better than last year by far, was not nearly as good as RnR AZ, but the free brownie samples from Tony's rocked. :-)

I had a great race. My time was not what I was hoping for, but I had an absolute blast and smiled the whole 26.2, even during the pain and misery of the last 10k!

Oh yea the brownies....heaven...should have had some o those at the finish line.....

Great improvement! You learned a lesson - eat your own food instead of relying on the race to provide it.

For further improvement - from what you've logged it appears you need to run more miles each week, and there were no runs of more than 14 miles in the last couple months of training. To be able to hang on to a solid pace throughout a marathon you should build your weekly mileage to at least 50-60 and have long runs of 16, 18, and maybe a couple 20 milers. Since you seem to fade toward the end, use a fast finish when doing the long runs. Depending on the length of the long run, a fast finish would be doing the last 3-5 miles at a much faster pace than the rest of the run. If you can pick it up by 30 seconds or even take it all the way up to your goal race pace, it would be beneficial. Mostly just run more. Most serious marathoners run 70-100+ miles/week. It can take several years to work up to that kind of mileage. You've made a great start.