Official Time: 1:26:36
Pace: 6:37/mi
Overall: 27/3885
Men: 22/1441
AG (M40-49): 4/401
The Long Story
Background
The 2012 Colfax Half Marathon was a very personal and meaningful event for me for a variety of reasons. First, this was a race I entered (originally to do the full marathon) as a tribute to my friend and former Endurance Nation teammate, Chris Gleason, who tragically passed away in November when he suffered a cardiac event in the last mile of the Philadelphia Marathon in November, 2011. I didn't know Chris well, but he was a very active member of EN, and always extremely encouraging of everyone. Chris had progressed from an average triathlete to an extremely good one, and like me, he had been working hard on the run portion of the event. I believe Chris was shooting for a sub-3 hour finish in Philly and was very likely to make it before the event that caused his death.
Needless to say, Chris' death was disturbing to many of us at Endurance Nation as well as at Slowtwitch, a triathlon site and forum that we mutually frequented. After Chris' passing, I decided to enter the Colfax Marathon on May 20, 2012 as a tribute to Chris, and to use his inspiration and focus to see if I could finally get to the elusive 3:30 time I have been seeking. Unfortunately, time, family and other commitments and distractions prevented me from really training the way I wanted, so I decided last minute to race the half marathon instead.
I have been really focusing on my running and body composition over the past two years. I've always been an above-average triathlon swimmer (which isn't saying much) and a fairly strong cyclist. It was always frustrating to pass a bunch of people on the bike only to watch them fade into the distance on the run. My last half marathon race was this same race in 2010. On fairly meager training I managed to squeak out a 1:52:16 (~8:30/mi). Prior to that, my PR was 1:44:02 (~7:55/mi) in 2009.
Last year I had really improved my running over the winter, and I was looking forward to seeing how well I could run at the Boulder Peak and the Ironman Boulder 70.3 triathlons. Unfortunately, in March, during my final run test, I injured my left achilles, and it took nearly 6 months to fully resolve. As a result, my run training took a real hit, and although I raced the entire Boulder Peak (I was happy to average 4:46/km on the 10k), I decided to skip the run on the 70.3.
The achilles injury finally seemed to resolve after September 2011, and I started running again. I was surprised to find I really hadn't lost that much. I rode my bike a lot over the summer and I think that helped with the run fitness maintenance to a large degree. In any event, I was able to restart run training at an amazingly high level of fitness considering my dearth of running over the summer.
When Chis passed away in November, I knew I wanted to honor his memory by setting a goal to reach for something he would have liked, so I chose one that he himself had been reaching for... a PR in the marathon. So, I signed up for the Colfax Marathon and started training.
The Race
Race pace/HR details and a map of the course (with profile details) are shown below.
The race started in Denver's City Park, about 4 miles from my house. I parked about a mile away and decided to use that as my warm-up. I arrived at 5:30 am for a 6:00 am start, so I was a little later than I wanted to be. I had eaten a banana and a bagel with peanut butter at 5:00 am, and I sipped a little water on the drive over to the race. I got myself ready at the car and then jogged over to the starting line, doing a couple of short accelerations to warm up the legs.As I was arriving at the start, they announced that all runners needed to line up in their assigned corrals. I had been assigned to Corral B, which was right behind the first people to start. I was a little disappointed, as I saw the 1:30 and 1:45 pacers up ahead in Corral A, and I figured I should have been in the front group. But I figured it really didn't matter, as I was running my own race, and we all had timing chips on, so I just chilled out and waited while they did the obligatory announcements followed by the national anthem and the challenged athletes start.
At right about 6 am, the first corral was sent off. We walked behind them up to the start line and the next thing I knew, we were off and running.
The course is pretty much flat, although is slightly uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back. My strategy was simple. I would push a little harder on the way out, while I was fresh, to see if I could keep my pace at 6:50/mi or better uphill, and then I'd rely on the downhill stretch to bank a little time without having to increase my effort. It worked like a charm!
Miles 1-7 were exactly what I expected. Mile 1 wound through Denver's City Park and ended just as we were leaving the park. Mile 2 exited City Park and moved up Exposition to Colfax. Mile 2 was the most difficult because it was all uphill and was the steepest incline. It wasn't bad, though, and I managed to keep my pace at 6:50/mi for that split. For the rest of Miles 2-7 (east on Colfax to Hanover), I was pretty much at 6:40 or better, hitting mile 5 at 6:25/mi when the climb turned into about a mile long descent between Monaco and Yosemite. This stretch up Colfax was where I passed a lot of people. I was running well pushing myself to try to keep my pace up, because I figured this might be where most people would try to conserve a bit for later in the race. At about Mile 5 I passed the 1:30/mi pacer. :)
Mile 8 was a short detour around Aurora City Park as we wound our way around to 17th St to head back to Denver's City Park (confusing, I know). It was all downhill, and I hit it at right on 6:30/mi pace.
The surprise for me (which shouldn't have been a surprise, since I'd seen the course layout) was the climb from the Mile 8 marker to the Mile 9 marker. I had in my head that heading back to Denver was all downhill. To hit that mile long climb (although not a significant elevation change) was a little disrupting. Still, I felt pretty good and I could hear Chris telling me to suck it up and enjoy the race. So, I pushed the effort a little to keep my pace at 6:44/mi. I managed to pass 5 or 6 more people by running hard on this stretch.
Miles 10-12 were what I had expected, heading downhill on 17th back toward City Park in Denver. My pace was high (~6:34/mi) for this stretch, and I picked off three or four people who had been running in front of me. As I was hitting the outskirts of City Park (~Mile 11), I could tell someone had come up on me, and was running only a few yards behind. This was confirmed as we passed a spectator (apparently a friend of his) who encouraged him to catch me. This, combined with the presence of another guy a little in front of me that I had slowly been reeling in, inspired me to surge a little at about mile 11.75. I was still feeling good as we passed the Mile 12 marker, so I surged the pace again.
Mile 13 was my fastest, as I really wanted to finish strong. I upped my pace to 6:25/mi and attempted to bring it home. I managed to pass one more guy with about half a mile to go, but he stayed right behind me as we hit the finishing chute. He clearly had a lot left in the tank and motored past me to finish a few seconds ahead. The other guy who had been chasing me never did catch up, and finished 30 seconds or so behind me.
I was elated to see 1:26:36 on my watch, as this exceeded my goal and expectations. I really expected to finish right at 1:30 if not a little before or after. To be able to hold onto 6:37/mi for 13 miles was gratifying!
I managed to finish 4th in my age group and 27th over all. I finally felt like maybe I was a real runner, and I was happy that for once, I didn't see that long line of folks passing me during the race. :) Next up for my running are my only tris of the season at the Boulder Peak and the Ironman Boulder 70.3. The Peak is always a lot of fun, and this year, I plan to finally meet two goals at the 70.3. First, I will finish the entire race (I've entered 5 times and never completed the race) and I will break 5 hours at the 70.3 distance.
