Ran the Denver Rock and Roll Marathon to cap off my fall racing season. It was a very good race for me, and I felt great the whole way, rare for a marathon. Ended up winning by almost 15 minutes, but I did have half marathon runners to pace with for the 1st half of the race at least.
I really liked the course...ran through a lot of great neighborhoods and parks in metro Denver. Lot of turns, which I actually liked (I hate long straight-aways). Lot of rolling hills, especially the 1st half, combine that with the 5280' altitude, the course is very fair. I wanted to respect the hills and the altitude, plus the fact that I did not train nearly as hard as previous marathons, so paced the race conservatively.
A lot of the mile markers were off, but I'll add my mile splits later. According to the race tracking, I was 17:06 at 5K, 34:33 at 10K, 55:44 at 10-mile, and 2:06:06 at 23-mile. Ended up at 2:26:42, which is 5:35, so I think I paced it pretty even. I did not catch a half split, but I think I must have been in the low-1:13s.
With 3 miles to go, I wanted to lay the hammer down at bit, as the last 3 miles would be downhill, but every time I tried to increase my stride, my calves would go on the verge of cramping up, so I just had to lay back and stick with the status quo. Other than the calf cramping, my body felt great. Breathing was really good too...wasn't sure how a loop marathon at altitude would go, but it wasn't too bad. I think the last non-downhill altitude race I've done was Park City in 2005...
Weather was beautiful, cool and overcast, with no wind. The sun came out right after I finished, which was perfect timing. Crowd support was pretty good, and the whole route was on closed roads, which of course is great. So I'd definitely do this race again, although probably not next year or anything.
I'm definitely greatful for the win...it's always good to get through a whole season healthy and to get a good peak at the end. Even though the race wasn't that competitive, it was still Colorado's largest race, so the media was making kind of a big deal about it...I had 4 microphones and a camera shoved in my face withins seconds of finishing...kind of funny.
I'll do the Fort Collins Thanksgiving 4-miler next month, but other than that I'm done for the year. Goals for next spring/summer are to work on my 5K/10K, try to break 15:00 in the 5K, and then do a fall marathon before getting ready for LA in 2016.
Mile splits: 5:01, 4:53, 6:39, 5:47, 5:33, 5:30, 5:54, 5:07, 5:24, 5:53, 5:09, 6:15, 16:30 (13-15), 5:04, 6:07, 5:03, 5:43, 5:37, 5:45, 5:32, 5:55, 5:40, 5:41, 5:40, 1:10.
(as you can see, most of the splits were off!)
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