Denver Marathon, Half-Marathon, and ING Marathon Relay
10/19/2008 – Denver, CO

Reported by: Justin
Big day yesterday, as I saw 4 members of AA tear it up yesterday at the Denver Marathon and half.

I started my spectating at about 10 miles and saw Clint just lighting it up through the park. Looked very strong and finished the half marathon in 1:21 and a top 25 finishing. Not to mention a 2nd place age group award:

Next up the marathon, first off, this course is definitely not easy. You wouldn’t think that it is a super hilly course, but in fact the whole thing is hilly. Not one hill in itself is very tough, but over 26 miles of rolling hills and steady inclines, it takes a lot out of you. Not to mention, altitude and it got about 70 doesn’t help.

Krebs, Dime, and Ted were all within 2 minutes of each other at mile 10 and held tight through mile 15 when I picked them up again. Krebs of course was all chatter and as excited as a 16 year old girl going to prom. I am trying to think back to any marathon where I looked and felt like I had just started running. He seriously looked like he had just stepped onto the course. Although in the finish chute I did detect a little bit of a limp, hopefully it was just typical, I just ran a marathon soreness. I am in awe of this guy, he just ran Boulder Backroads a couple of weeks ago and here he is right back at it.

Then came Ted, I started running with him to try and take some of the load, he was looking very strong at this point and was hovering right around that 2:50 area. We hit wash park and you could tell that this was Ted’s home court. I think every woman Ted has ever known and even some he didn’t were cheering him on. Apparently Ted had some troubles at the start the gun time was a little slow, but he was still holding 6:40s through the park and started reeling some people in. At 21 the hills started to get to him and he faded a bit through to the end. Ted all I can say is, it was one of those days. Your fitness level is way faster than 2:50, but in a marathon you don’t have many perfect days, but a marathon can fail in many different ways. I know it wasn’t in preparation and the next time out you will hit that time.

Then came Richard, he passed Ted at about 21 at the same exact pace he had been running since I saw him at mile 10. He just kept plugging along at 6:40-50s I could feel him fading somewhere between 23 and 24, but that man is tough and he pushed through those last couple of miles without dropping much time. Most of us know what those last miles feel like and how easy it is to quit when it hurts that bad, and only a few of us can push through that pain – Nice work Richard.

So we had 3 top 30 guys, and a 2nd and 3rd in age group awards. Nice job fellas, you did us proud.

Also, for those of you from the Reach the Beach relay:

October 20th, 2008
Categories: General . Author: hbakker

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