You can almost say the Colorado Marathon is a story of two races. The first half is an incredibly beautiful downhill race through the gorgeous Poudre Canyon. It was shaded, peaceful, and fairly easy going (of course, the downhills eventually get ya!). Constant glances of the national scenic Poudre River and the surrounding canyon will make those miles go by in a flash. Yes, it does start around 6000 feet – so if you aren’t used to the altitude it may affect you a bit. I live at 5400 so it didn’t affect me at all, but altitude adjustment is pretty personal. The second half, on the other hand, is when things get a bit more difficult. After a few more canyon miles, the course flattens out a bit and the sun shows up (most years, anyway – Colorado is a sunny state). By the time you get to mile 20 your legs are probably tired from the downhills, and the sun adds into the beat down that you so richly deserve for deciding to show-off and run a marathon. You do follow the Poudre River a lot of the way and run through a park on the Poudre Trail, but it was a bit odd since you were sharing the trail with recreational bikers and non-race runners. But again, by this point you could be running by yourself and there weren’t *that* many people on the trail, so I didn’t find it to be a big problem. And finally, you do end the race in Fort Collins, which is a very nice city in its own right.

This is not a race that thrives on crowd support. In the canyon the only non-runners you will see are pretty much course support and the people working the aid stations. Out of the canyon it doesn’t improve a great deal. There are a few groups of people once you get into Fort Collins, but even then this ain’t the Boston Marathon!

The logistics of the race seemed to go off without a hitch. Since this is a point-to-point race, we needed to take buses from Fort Collins to the start-line. The buses were lined up right outside of my hotel, so I just followed the line to the first one. They loaded the buses from 4:15 AM to 5:00 AM, which is ungodly early, but at least they were comfortable and convenient. There were no starting corrals, but it wasn’t needed with the size of this race. I just lined up close to one of the race pacers who was close to my target time, and I was able to go at my own comfortable pace without dodging and weaving people who were too far up. Communications leading up to the race were minimal, but they were enough (probably the race’s Facebook page was the best way to keep up to date). The expo was small but easy to navigate.

You don’t get a lot for completing the race – we got a very bright neon short-sleeved Brooks tech shirt (picked up at the expo), plus the medal. The shirt has a nice logo, and even though it is super bright I will have no problem wearing it on runs. There was only one shirt for all races (the 5k runners got the same shirt as the marathon), but whatever – still a pretty nice shirt. And of course we got the medal, which I really liked. It was a pretty nice view of mountains with the Colorado state flag on top. Plus, it has a bottle opener! So, not a lot of swag – but who runs this gorgeous race for the swag?

Overall, this was a fantastic race. Since I do travel for races, I really like a race to reflect where they are held. If it’s a big city race I like to get a feel for the city. In Colorado – you want scenic beauty, and the Colorado Marathon delivered!