Pain lets you know you're still alive: Defending the Colfax Cup

We switched a few things up this year for the Colfax Marathon Relay, a new team name and we had to switch out our lead off runner. The greatest thing about CO however is that there is no shortage of good runners to fill any team spot you may have. We settled on the team name "Race For The Tap" keeping our traditional non-offilliation and to keep it fun. We didnt make up tank tops this year, instead we were dawned in all black, murdered out and ready to kill it! Think of it as an incognito team trying to be the underdog.

Promptly at 6:05 (five mins late for the start) the gun went off. Wave 1 including: the Marathon runners, Half Marathon runners and the first leg of the relays, were off for a loop around City park on this cold and rainy morning. Many of these runners had to get up at 4am just to make it to the start on time so they were eager to get this thing under way and get out of the cold as quickly as possible. Our newbie Ryan did not let us down leading us off to a great start in about 20 mins (3.27 miles) and about 5th place.

At the exchange we were neck and neck with what was expected to be our closest competition the Boulder Express Women's team.

Kylee took to the course for us and attacked her 6.37mile leg in 38:30 (including a sub 18 min 5k). The leg was a mix of roads, Colfax Ave (passing by the state capital building), and the Cheery Creek Bike Path which concluded at Invesco Mile High stadium about a minute behind the BX women's team. We were 4th.

Next up it was Emma's turn to run the longest leg 6.46 miles which was mainly uphill. Within the first 2 mins of her run she eyed down the BX team through the cold rain and passed by without flinching. Just a cold hard snipe and she was gone. We were now in 3rd behind the Mens BX team and an all male team made up of mainly runners sponsored by the Boulder Running Company (running store). Emma also handed off at Invesco (in about 39 mins). Scott and Emma had no hand off trouble like last year. He had what was marketed as the best leg, a fast downhill run (3.97miles) that took him past all the sights, even through a firehouse. I had just missed the hand off when I arrived and started warming up but I had a pretty good estimation of the times we were expecting, of course people do some amazing things on race day. Scott showed up about 5 mins early and it was difficult to see him through the rain and recognize him in all black and with a winter hat on. He ran right past me at the beginning of the exchange shoot so I ended up having to track him down, get off my warm up gear and pawn it on him before beginning my leg. Well I didn't exactly get all my gear off, I still had on a long sleeved top that I was on the fence about taking off. While waiting 40 mins or so there had been a few snowflakes that came down and if you've read any of my post race write-ups you know that I'm more of a warm weather runner.

My 6.15 mile leg started off downhill for 1/4 of a mile and then started weaving around on the Platte River path. I probably went out around 6:20 pace for the first mile due to wanting to warm up (my feet were already numb from the start), and the downhill start. We were still the 3rd team, behind the 2nd place team by at least 4 mins so I knew the possibility of us catching up to them was pretty slim. There were a few short but steep inclines as I transfered to the Cherry Creeek Path and then the streets of Downtown Denver. It was like doing tempo intervals!

At mile 3.5 there was a massive hill on 17th St. that definately slowed me down and increased my heart rate, I fought the hill as best as I could and pulled over to the water stop at the top. It was here where I doused my already cold face with water and proceeded to snort a little as well, lets call that a water station failure, and on top of that it tasted like hose water (dont you hate that?). I recovered quickly and picked up the pace, I knew the women's BX team wasnt more then 3 mins behind and that I had to be careful to stay out of view and out of range of their anchor leg. Which she did do at mile 5, but by this time the course was starting to descend a little and I felt pretty strong and prepared for a finish battle. A half a mile later we entered City park and went on this out and back tangent to add on some distance before joining the half marathoners to the finish. This tangent included a 180* u-turn and opportunity to size up my competition. She was about a minute behind me and we slapped a high five as we passed each other. I wasn't worried at all, even if she was half the distance, she still wouldnt have been prepared for my strong kick.

When I joined the half marathoners, there were a lot of trotters and walkers (this was the last 1/4 of those runners), so I had to weave around a bit as I lengthened my stride and tried to locate the finish line. With 400 meters to go I meet up with 3 of 4 of my teammates and we all kicked it to the finish line together. It was sort of a hidden finish line and I felt like I was kicking forever! I finished in 43:10 mins which is good enough for a 10k PR, and our total time was 2:47:22. Just a few off from the Womens Marathon Olympic Trials Qualifier (2:46:59). We were the 3rd relay team, ahead of 4th by about 45 seconds and well ahead of the 2nd place coed team about 28 mins back.