Marathon #25: The Colorado Marathon, Ft. Collins, 2009

Finish line in Ft. Collins

I never did a race write up for this marathon back in 2009. I'm not sure why. It was and still is one of my favorite marathons, and my mind takes me back there often. Just the other day I found out that a friend's sister was running it next month and I went nuts, explaining what a beautiful course it was and how much fun Ft. Collins was as well.

In 2009 the Storey's were living near Ft. Collins, so our group took this opportunity to come visit them, and for Kathy to knock Colorado off her 50 state quest. There were 6 of us running the marathon, and the rest running the half marathon.

The course looks daunting on paper. You start at 6100 feet and drop over 1350 feet over the course of the marathon. I was nervous because, a: I sometimes have issues with altitude, and b: I sometimes have issues with downhill courses. Yikes! Even so, the course was going to be absolutely gorgeous, as it started in the Roosevelt National Forest and ran through the canyon with the Poudre river at your side all the way down. Around mile 16 you would exit the canyon and make your way to a bike path, which would lead you right into downtown Ft. Collins to the finish line. I just had to take my chances and run it! Ok, so here's to relying on my memory (and photos)...

First of all, downtown Ft. Collins is a blast. Everyone stayed in different places. Toby and I stayed in the historic Armstrong Hotel, which had this cool cat named Oreo that would ride the elevator! They told us not to let him in our room. Yeah right...

Oreo

There wasn't much hoopla concerning the fact that a marathon was taking place, in fact there wasn't even an expo. We picked up our race packets in a hotel lobby. The Storey's made us a big pasta dinner the night before the race. SO NICE!

Early the next morning, long before sunrise, we boarded the buses to the starting line. Even though it was dark for nearly the entire ride you could see giant walls of granite on both sides of you and near the top we started to see snow! Even though it wasn't snowing there was a lot of fresh snow on the ground at the starting line. They booted us off the buses into the cold cold mountain air! We were pretty much out in the elements until the race started.

6 Marathoners: Murgi, Linders, Ken and Linda

Once the race started we all split apart and I'm pretty sure I was the furthest back, cautiously running down at first. There was a lot of camber in the road, so there was some zig zagging going on, but it was just so spectacular! I really wish I had photos of that canyon on that morning with the snow and the morning fog giving way to the sunrise. It was just so so pretty! But man was it COLD! I had on a long sleeved cotton T shirt intended to be tossed after a few miles. I ended up wearing that thing throughout the entire canyon stretch.

We exited the canyon and ran alongside a highway briefly, until they funneled us onto a bike path. Although I'm not a huge fan of bike paths, the scenery was still quite pretty, and finally having spectators was welcome. Kind of...Apparently I was running the same pace as a girl named Ragina, and her enthusiastic family kept appearing with signs, yelling, RUN RAGINA RUN! Did I mention that the name Ragina rhymed with vagina?...Is Larry David anywhere around here?

The crowds grew as we started running into the outskirts of Ft. Collins, which really helped during those last miles, and finally, the finish line in the center of town, where we were all reunited!

Toby and I drove up the canyon to try to capture the course beauty, but pictures will never do it justice. Here are just a few:

I remember succumbing to the altitude and walking on two uphill stretches of the course, otherwise I felt ok throughout the run and afterwards. I didn't think the downhill was that bad on the quads either. My finishing time was 4:01, about 5 minutes slower than normal back then, but I did run cautiously, so I wouldn't say it was a slower course, but I would not consider it a PR course either. Those who ran the half missed out on the majority of the canyon scenery, as their starting line was 13 miles down the canyon, so I'm not so sure I'd recommend running the half.

I just looked on their web site and not a lot has changed, which is good! Do this marathon! Just be prepared for cold weather in that canyon!