Colorado Colfax Half Marathon: 18 May 2008

Today I ran in the Colorado Colfax Half Marathon. Two years ago, I ran in the first one and said I would never do it again because the course was terrible. 13.1M; 700 feet of climbing with most of it in the last four miles; Straight down Colfax Ave for 13 miles; no crowds; sun at your back the whole way.

Last years race was a disaster that we all know about (marathon was marked too long, no gels on the course, no port-a-potties at the start). But, they changed race management, changed the course and vowed that the race would be better.

So, needing to run a long run, I decided to run the half as an easy run, just to see how it was.

The first thing I noticed was that there were 80 port-a-johns at the start, which was no in City Park. The half marathon went out of City Park and ran east on Colfax out to Fitzsimmons before heading back to City Park via 17th Ave. It was slightly uphill on the way out and slightly downhill on the way back, which makes for a very fast course. I personally think someone could run 1:07 or 1:08 on this course. There were water stops every two miles - water, Gatorade, and at least one port-a-john at each stop. There were no gels, but usually you don't get those in a half marathon.

The marathon went out of City Park and ran west on Colfax all the way out to Sims. This still made for a long grind in the first half, but that was the high point of the race. After heading back on Colfax for a stretch, the marathon went up and around Sloan's Lake and then ran through a stretch of LoDo before hitting 17th Ave to return to City Park.

Overall, I think the race did an outstanding job of changing the perception that people had garnered last year. I think the new courses are much better (and they allow for the complete re-open of Colfax Ave much sooner in the day). The expo at City Park was very well thought out and very well attended.

The only downside of the race that I could see was parking. City Park is a large park, but there are not a lot of places to park your vehicle. Most of the people used the Zoo or the Nature Museum parking lots. I think for next year they need to direct people into the lots much better so that there is not a frantic run for the start line because of parking situations.

Results can be found at www.onlineraceresults.com and you can find out more about the race at www.coloradocolfaxmarathon.org.

Oh, I ran 1:41 and finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. Considering I had not run this far since last year's Denver Marathon, all I wanted to do was run easy, finish strong and stay healthy. It isn't time to for racing yet.