Colorado Marathon - RunMarathon

I tried to take advice from Julia and Richard and "bank" some time on the down hill part of the run. I tried to run an 8:45-8:55 pace. My Garmin kept messing up so it was hard to tell for sure the speed so I just tried to be comfortable and let the gravity help me. At mile 13 I took a quick pit stop. I drank water at every aid station except the very first one. I didn't feel like I needed any Gu until about mile 18 which I probably should have done earlier.

At mile 18 I decided to turn my i-pod on as I was saving it for when I really needed a shot of energy. The music really helped distract me. I know I started slowing down around mile 20 and by mile 23 I was just dead tired. I had another Gu about this time.

I remember thinking "I only have a 5K to go" but I really just want to curl up on the park bench and take a nap! I kept trying to check the time with my wristband to stay on track for a 3:55 time. I wanted to break four hours but was trying to give myself some cushion.

About mile 23 I decided I didn't care if I broke 4 hours or not so quit looking at my Garmin. I took a bathroom break at mile 24--which I know was not necessary but sitting on a port-o-potty sounded better then running at that point (as I didn't want to allow myself to walk because I was afraid I'd never start running again). I ran really slowly until about mile 25.5 then cranked up the AC/DC and picked up the speed to the end. I felt dead tired but like I pushed myself as much as I could as I crossed the finish line.

Overall, I was comfortable for the whole race--my shin splits that had been bothering me were fine, my left hip that normally aches didn't and I never had any knee, hamstring or calve problems. I was lucky. Mentally, I didn't feel as strong as I wish I would've but I think that was because my trianing was so crappy the last five weeks that my confidence wasn't great. However, I was able to keep a fairly even pace and was elated that I broke four hours. Yahoo--goal achieved!

Everything worked out fine on race day but I wish I would have been more disciplined the past five weeks and followed my training. I do cut myself some slack because this was the last month of my crazy time at work and it was hard to fit everything in but it would have helped me keep my confidence up.

Crossed the finish line and my friends Eric, Kerri and Carole were there to congratulate me. We quickly headed to the beer tent but the beer sucked so I only had one. Then my daughter found me and was a little bummed she got there late (with my friend's family) and didn't see me finish. My other friend finished in 4:13 so she was happy about that and we waited for our other two friends to finish an hour later together.


I am happy with the pace I kept to achieve the goal of breaking four hours but think if I trained harder and could be mentally stronger I could shave some more time off.


This was a good race and I would recommend it but I loved the Chicago Marathon and can't wait to run it in the fall. The people in Chicago made the race so amazing and having people yelling and cheering the whole 26.2 miles makes the time go by so much faster then this race. Still, a beautiful course and great day!