Poudre Patter

Milestone state (#20) – marathon #23 – was really a dual-purpose trip. The race (2015 Colorado Marathon) was May 3rd, but my wife and I arrived in Colorado on April 29th so that we could spend time with one of her cousins and also check out a few different areas, as we were planning to move to Colorado later in the year. Prior to the race, we visited the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for some extra motivation!

U.S. Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs, CO

We drove up into the Poudre Canyon on the 2nd to drive the course back. It was getting a little breezy, and I think a light rain – or was it even snow? – began to fall up in the canyon. Anyhow, it was quite beautiful there, right along the river. My sister and brother-in-law were running the full, my dad was making an attempt at a BQ, and my wife was running her second half marathon. The morning bus ride on race day was…interesting…

After wishing my wife good luck, we boarded the bus to the starting line. Half and full were on different buses, since we were going farther up the canyon. Our bus driver apparently did not know where he was going – we had to help guide him. Did they not give him directions?? We made it to the canyon road, which is good, because once you get there, there’s really only one road from that point. Somewhere along the route they had set up cones for the race on the dividing line in the road. I’m not sure why they put them so far into our lane, since there were several buses that had to make the trip, and it made our lane narrower. Needless to say, some buses had knocked cones over or ran them over. Our driver gingerly avoided the cones and – get this – actually stopped the bus, got out, and righted a fallen cone! It makes for a great story now, but we were all worried that we would get to the starting line late (if we made it at all!).

Luckily, we did make it on time. Barely. We ended up being the last bus to arrive, even though we were not the last to leave. One or two had actually passed us on the way up… We had a few minutes to hit the port-a-potties, and then the gun went off. I think my dad was still in one, but he was determined not to rush his BQ attempt preparations. The four of us (me, dad, sister, and brother-in-law) took a picture and crossed the start line together… a few minutes after the rest of the field, who was now out of sight.

Where did everyone go?

I ran with my dad – or more accurately – closely behind him for the first half of the race. It was a beautiful, winding road down the canyon. Great scenery and gradual downhill most of the way. I let him go ahead and slowed shortly after we exited the canyon into the Colorado sunshine. Sadly, we had used up all of our shade for the course while in the canyon. The second half was a bit warm from the sun beating down on us uninterrupted and rather uninspiring from a scenery standpoint since we were running away from the mountains. I started struggling around Mile 18, which is a pretty common place for my struggles to start, and had to walk a fair amount the last 5 miles. So, that was a pain, but I made it to the finish in 4:25:06 (fifth slowest marathon to date).

The course was beautiful in the canyon – and downhill – and the last 10 miles or so were less interesting. It had a nice finish near Old Town Fort Collins, and we had some great burgers after the race at Stuft. My wife bested her previous half marathon time by 2 minutes with a 2:42. My dad missed his BQ, but the happy news is that a few months later in Idaho, he smashed through that BQ barrier and is running Boston this coming April! My brother and mom were also in attendance, so it was really nice to have the whole family together (in our future, now current, town).

20 down, 30 to go…
Next Stop: Boise, ID