Running Colfax Marathon - a recap

On Sunday, May 20, 2018, I ran Colfax Marathon 2018, and in the process completed my third marathon of 2018. 

This being the home state marathon for me, and likely the first and only marathon I will run in Colorado in the next few years, it was indeed a special experience for me. I had invited many of my friends in Colorado to come cheer for me on this occasion and make it special indeed.

I wasn't expecting to set a personal record at this event as my training leading up to it was not adequate, but the 5h7m finish time matched the time I accomplished at the Los Angeles Marathon in March and exceeded my expectations by a good 10-15 minutes. 

My nephew Shashidhar drove me to the start-line; we started from home around 4:30am to make it there around 5:30am. That gave me a good enough time to walk over to the start line, use the toilets near the start line and get in the corral ready to start on time. 

My friends Amar and Tim surprised me at the start line with a sign! Seeing my name on a sign, I was very surprised and walked over to see who it was. 😆

Had enough time to get a picture with them before I had to start running. 

Amar and Tim again surprised me at Sloan Lake just as we were leaving the lake area and heading back to Colfax Avenue. Amar got a video of me running at this stage. 

Instead of heading back home as per the plan Shashidhar and I had originally discussed, Shashidhar surprised me by suddenly showing up around the 8-mile mark when the marathon course turns away from Colfax Avenue towards Sloan Lake. With all of it happening so quickly, I didn't think about taking a picture at that time. Thankfully, as the marathon course had us return to Colfax Avenue, I met him again and was able to get a picture with him. 

I came upon my friends at Dojo4 around 19.5 miles mark just before turning from Colfax Avenue to the Mile High Stadium. Ara Howard got a good video of me running at this stage.

Around the same stage, Corey Kohn got a very good picture of me running. 😀

The Dojo4 team met up me again at around the 25th-mile mark. This time I made time to stop and take a picture with everyone!

During this marathon, unlike the two earlier marathons, I was not keeping track of my progress regularly by checking Endomondo app on my phone. I wanted to just run at a natural rhythm without pressurizing myself about being slow. The only times I took out my phone was to take pictures. 😀

At the two earlier marathons, I had religiously followed the 3-minute-run, 1-minute-walk cycles in the second half of the marathon. At this marathon, I did the 3-minute-run, 1-minute-walk cycles only a small part (2-3 miles) of the run after the halfway mark, and tried to run as much as possible rest of the way. Nevertheless, I had to slow down and walk some parts of the run in the last 6 to 8 miles. 

I was successful in keeping up with the pacers some part of the run. All around the Sloan Lake (8-11 miles), I was keeping up with the 4h45m pacer, talking with her and fellow runners about how to become a pacer, why we were running, etc. Just as we were exiting the Sloan Lake area, I had to stop for a toilet break; that made me fall behind. 

I met up with the 5h pacer just as we got back into the Mile High Stadium and kept up with her for a mile or two before falling behind being too tired to keep going at the same pace. At this point in time, I was worried that my finish time would be over 5h30m; so was very surprised to see my finish time was 5h7m. 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my home state marathon! Thanks to all my friends who came out to cheer me on!

The main lesson I am taking from running the Colfax Marathon is that I need to work on strengthening myself to run strongly in the second half of the marathon; so I will be working towards achieving a negative split in my upcoming marathons. 

The marathons I have planned for in the near future:

• Cheyenne Marathon in Wyoming on September 23, 2018. That will be my sixth marathon.
• Chicago Marathon in Illinois on October 7, 2018 (2 weeks after Cheyenne Marathon)
• Moab Trail Marathon in Utah on November 3, 2018. Trail Marathon; so should be much slower than other marathons. 
• Memphis Marathon in Tennessee on December 1, 2018.
• 3 Bridges Marathon in Little Rock, Arkansas on December 15, 2018. If all goes according to plan, I will be ending 2018 by finishing a total of 10 marathons all-time!
• A1A Fort Lauderdale Marathon in Florida on February 17, 2019. Starting off 2019 visiting my family members in Florida and spending some time on the beaches!