There were four races today. Marathon, Mini Marathon (15 miles), 10K, and 5K.

Beautiful, scenic run down the Poudre Canyon. I was very happy that the rain they had forecasted for the past few days never materialized. We started the run that went around the entire start area then up a steep hill that led to the road that leads through the canyon. From there it was down hill to about 2 miles from which it then rolled. It was from this point that I managed an overall 6:15 pace through just before the half. I think it could have been a little faster had the wind not been as strong as it was, coming directly into our faces.

After passing one person just before the second mile, I stayed in 8th place the entire time. Passed the 13.1 at 1:22:24 which was only about 42 seconds slower than a half I did a few weeks before so I was encourage by that.

After that, I started feeling more and more sore in my feet and was glad there was a guy about 30 seconds ahead of me that I could key off and not get stuck in "no man's land". He helped keep me on pace throughout the rest of the race and I ended up about 22 seconds or so behind him. Turns out he was a 'tri' guy that hadn't done much long running for a while. Coulda fooled me!

The last 2/3 mile was slightly up hill but being able to see the finish helped motivate me to push it through the end. Overall I was happy with the time considering it was a tougher course than I had anticipated. But a beautiful course nonetheless.

One very cool note!!! In the full marathon, Kara Roy (course record holder) ended up running an Olympic qualifying time of 2:46:32 today. She turned in the third fastest time in Colorado's history and had the fastest American time run in Colorado. Very impressive because of the elevation. Not only that, she was third place overall.

Not underestimate any course. I thought it would be a much faster course but with the wind at times and some significant hills it really mellowed out the pace and made me have to push it even harder at times to maintain a good pace.

I wanted to jog a few miles to shake my legs out but there was A LOT of people in the area around the race. So, I just walked around and stretched more than usual.


Not too much. The wind at times certainly slowed things down but I tried to ignore it as much as possible. Kept telling myself that it was keeping me cool


Great race but the races all converge at one point making for a bit of a traffic jam. No complaints from me since they had only a limited area to work with but it probably caused some irritation at times.

The crowd support was excellent however. It helped kick start the adrenaline at key points along the race that kept me going strong.