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| Starting area |
I'm still scratching my head as to why the Fort Collins marathon changed their named to the Colorado marathon, but so be it. The Colorado marathon is a point to point course that begins northwest of downtown Ft. Collins at Steven's Gulch Campground, and runs along the Poudre river back into town. The finish line is in the heart of downtown Fort Collins. The course has a gradual decline of 1100 feet, which is great for those who are fearful of the idea of running a marathon at altitude. The downhill is gradual enough to benefit from without trashing the quads. The first 17 miles are spectacular, with the sun rising over the canyon walls as you travel down with the river by your side. The second half of the course is not as scenic, but the gradual appearance of more and more spectators as you arrive into town makes up for it. At some point you enter a bike path, which is not my favorite, but as far as bike paths go it's very pretty, lined with dense pine trees for shade. The finish into town is pretty festive, with free beer and pizza available to the runners at a local pub.
Stats:
Race size: The race fills up pretty quickly, as it is capped at 1700 for the marathon, 1500 for the half, and about a thousand for the 5K and 10K. The half marathon starts 13 miles south of the full marathon course, which is unfortunate, as they miss out on the majority of the fantastic scenery, but this does make the start of the full marathon much less chaotic, in fact, the start of the marathon is fairly peaceful. My only issue with the start would be that there is no shelter--once you exit the buses you are out in the elements until race start. If my memory serves me correctly we were not allowed to linger on the buses.
Weather: Even though this marathon is held in May, it's still pretty cold in this area, in fact, it snowed the night before the marathon (up in the canyon), and there was still snow on the ground race day morning. Running through the canyon was a lot colder than I thought it would be--I ended up wearing my "throw-away" long sleeved T shirt for the duration of the canyon section.
Expo: There was no real expo to speak of, as the packet pick up was in the lobby of a hotel. There were a few racks of race apparel and a few tables set up, but that was it. As far as I can tell from the web-site it appears to still be the case. Pretty disappointing for a race this size.
Swag: The medal was gorgeous. Runners were given tech shirts. All good there.
Fort Collins itself is a fun little town with lots of things to see and do. We missed out on touring the Fat Tire Brewery because they were closed on Sunday and Monday, DOH! Keep this in mind if you plan on touring. We stayed in town at the historic Armstrong Hotel, which had unique rooms and a fat cat named Oreo walking the halls and occasionally riding the elevator.
This marathon made my top 10 marathon list, mainly because of the scenery, but also because everything else about the race was pretty flawless--I don't recall any logistical issues, water stop issues, course issues, or anything sub-par with regards to the race. As far as course difficulty goes, I didn't find it to be that hard even though it was at altitude, so if you want to run a marathon in Colorado and you fear altitude, this one's for you. Here is the link to the web-site. There's a long video on the site that's worth watching too.
http://www.thecoloradomarathon.com/
More pictures from 2009, the year we ran it:
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| Oreo |
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| Downtown Fort Collins |
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| Texans in the Canyon! |
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| Happy Finishers |
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