Bob Mann: 2024 Colorado Springs Marathon

Sat Sep 28, 2024

On Sat Sep 28 2024, I ran the Colorado Springs Marathon in Colorado Springs CO. I had backed off my mileage quite a bit over the Summer, after running 3 marathons in 3 months in the Spring. I did log at least 100 running miles every month, maintaining a streak that began in December 2020. So this is 46 months (and counting) of at least 100 miles, as well as 19 calendar years (and counting) with at least 1000 miles. I don't know how much longer I can keep these going, but I'd like to keep them going for as long as I can.

Nonetheless, once the Fall rolled around, it was time for me to choose another marathon. This particular weekend worked out well for me, so off to Colorado I went. I hadn't run a marathon at a high altitude in quite a while. At 6000 feet, Colorado Springs is up there. But in the past, I hadn't felt like the altitude bothered me in my previous marathons in Colorado, or Utah, or Idaho, or the highest one I had done, which was in Wyoming. However, those had all been quite a while ago, so I would be attempting this at a much more advanced age.

I was also going into this race with a little bit of a cold. Jill had been sick for nearly a week before I left for my trip. She missed only one day of school, but she felt crummy for a number of days. It didn't appear that I caught exactly what she had, but I was feeling a little congested and sniffly. Nothing bad, but certainly not anything that would help. And then top it off, the weather was predicted to be warm and sunny, with temps reaching into the mid- to upper-80s by the afternoon. So between the altitude, the weather, any health-related effects, and my ever-advancing age, I was expecting this to be a rather slow race.

I arrived in Colorado on Friday. My rental car from the Denver airport was a Hyundai Ioniq EV. I had never driven an EV before. I'd ridden in them (Uber or whatever) but had never driven one myself. In a nutshell, I'll just say that it was stressful to drive it as a rental car. Charging stations are not in the most convenient places, and the charging takes forever. I plugged the car in on 3 separate occasions for a total of about 5 hours and still never came close to getting it to 100%. I'd imagine that owning an EV and being able to charge it at home overnight would be no big deal. But as a rental car, staying in a hotel without charging stations, it's just not worth it. I will definitely be asking to avoid EVs from rental counters for the foreseeable future.

Normally on the day before a marathon, I will take a slow easy jog around town to stay loose. But I spent most of the day on Friday with a headache that just wouldn't go away. I even took a brief nap in my hotel room in the late afternoon because my head was hurting so much. I have no idea if that was because I wasn't properly adjusted to the altitude, or if it was just some weird coincidence. But nonetheless, it gave me a bad feeling about how I'd be able to perform in the race the next day.

I picked up my race gear, had dinner, and went off for an early bedtime. I had woken at 1:45am Mountain time (3:45am Eastern) in order to get to Newark airport. Adding that to the headache, I was exhausted and needed to sleep.

I woke up at 5:01am next morning, a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off. So I guess I had rested enough. My hotel was only a few blocks from the starting line, so I eventually made my way over. It was cool and the sun was just rising around the 7:00am start time. But it would soon warm up, and the sun would continue to rise.

Well, it didn't take long for me to begin to suffer. My first two miles were fine, around 9:30 pace. But then Mile 3 took me just over 10 minutes. I wasn't feeling bad, but I had slowed down without even realizing it. By Mile 5, however, after a couple more 10 minute miles, I could tell that I was breathing hard. By this point, I could already tell that I would be in for a long day. It had been 5.5 years since my Personal Worst in Boston. In fact, I hadn't had any other marathons within 15 minutes of that time. But I could tell already that this would be a 5-plus hour marathon. If a 10 minute pace was a struggle at Mile 5, I would be moving extremely slow at the end of the race.

And sure enough, my pace continued to drop. Past 11 minute pace, past 12... past 13. Oof, it was a struggle. As the sun rose and the temperatures climbed, I kept getting slower and slower. I reached the turnaround at the halfway point at about 2:15, which is much slower than usual. The second half would be difficult. Strangely enough, however, my two slowest miles were 21 and 22. It's not like the last 4 miles were speedy, by any stretch. But they were slightly faster. There was quite a lot of walking during this race, starting very early on. I clearly did less "running" here than in any previous marathon.

Needless to say, I was feeling awful. My left knee was getting sore, and I felt like I had a pebble in my right shoe. It was very uncomfortable. I was practically gasping for air, which is something that has never happened to me at high altitude before. But I didn't fly all the way out to Colorado to quit, so I figured I'd walk the entire way to the end if I had to. Luckily it didn't come to that, as I was able to alternate between a walk and a slow run for the rest of the race. I finally crossed the finish line in 5:20, which is a new Personal Worst by a long shot. It was even slower than the one 50K race I did many years ago. Which, I guess, makes this the longest amount of time that I had ever spent "running".

The course itself was okay. Nothing thrilling, but decent scenery. We started downtown and made our way to a trail that was mostly paved. Sometimes with asphalt and sometimes with concrete. On longer runs, I can definitely feel the extra hardness of the concrete, and perhaps this is why my knee was barking late in the race. The route was an out and back, meaning we saw the same 13.1 mile stretch twice. There was a Half Marathon also, which turned around halfway into their race. There were a few nice views of the Rocky Mountains from various points along the path, which was nice. In all, it was well organized with a fairly attractive course. Not bad for such a small race. Strangely enough, I didn't feel too upset about my new Personal Worst. I assume that as I continue to get older, I will continue to slow down, and thus continue to achieve new PWs. In fact, the only way to avoid any more PWs would be to stop running. In other words, I'd rather keep getting the PWs if it's the only way for me to keep going.

As slow as I was, I still managed to finish ahead of 30% of the field, and ahead of 32% of my Age Group. Not a spectacular performance, but not completely embarrassing either. I guess I'll take it. If nothing else, I lived to see another day, and I plan on being back out there again eventually. I don't yet know when or where, but I'll choose something.

After the race, I took a nap, and then hit the town for some food, beer, and college football. The next day I hit the road back to Denver, with a drive up to the top of Pikes Peak along the way. Some pics from my sightseeing are below. In the end, I'll take it. Sure, I wish I had been faster. But maybe I'm old enough and/or mature enough to not fret about such things. That's another state checked off for the second time, and I'll leave it at that.

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.