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Mile High Denver Marathon – September 14, 2003
by Ron Hartwig

This was our first trip to Denver and we enjoyed the city immensely. It is one mile above sea level with a marker on the 15^th step of the State Capitol Building marking the exact elevation. Because of the mile high altitude, water boils at 202 degrees instead of 212. That means it takes four minutes to soft boil a three-minute egg. Golf balls travel 10 percent farther in the rarified air, a fact Ron unfortunately didn’t get a chance to test.

Denver is the most educated city in America. Although selected as the nation’s number one sports city, more people go to cultural events annually than to all four professional sports teams combined. It brews more beer than any other city and contains the nation’s largest airport (53 square miles).

It is also a very politically conservative state. While we were there we read of a legislative proposal to require that state colleges establish a quota system to ensure there were enough conservative faculty members on staff. So much for academic freedom.

Organization: You hate to put down volunteers too much but this race did not demonstrate good organization. Registration was slow and we thought they would have a problem if they had many runners show up at the same time. Mile markers in several instances were off which was really disconcerting to us. When we finished, they had no ribbons for our finisher medal. They couldn’t find them and only the first runners got a ribbon. It was supposed to be a chip race but it was a chip race only at the finish. It appeared that all chips were activated at the starters gun so it was in fact it was a gun time you got, not a real chip time. The web site said there was a post-race party. We arrived there twenty minutes after it was to have started. We were told the race director was on his way. We stayed because we like to talk to runners from other places. Fifty-five minutes after the party was to have started we left without seeing anyone else. A month after the race Charlotte still hasn’t received her award. Marathonguide.com has some interesting comments by other participants.

Race Course: We liked the course. It begins in front of the State Capitol building in downtown Denver and is run entirely in the city. Denver has the nation’s largest park system and we ran in three parks with almost ten miles of the marathon run within the parks. The course is fairly flat with only a few rollers. There are no major hills on the course. It finishes a few blocks from the start.

Weather: We were not sure what to expect. The temperature when we got up was 36 degrees. When we left our hotel for the start it had climbed to 39. It warmed up some and we weren’t uncomfortable. It was probably 60 at the finish.

How we did: This was a training race for Chicago while was four weeks later. Ron was responsible for keeping track of the pace as John Gallagher had set a maximum pace Charlotte was to run. Ron enjoyed the slow pace. The first few miles went according to plan. Charlotte wanted to stop at a porta-potty so Ron walked on ahead. Charlotte had seen a man run into the porta-potty so thought it would be quick. After a couple of minutes she yelled, "Are you coming out of there or I am I going to have to go on ahead?" He came running out thirty seconds later apologizing. As a result we ran the next few miles faster than planned to get back to pace we wanted. At mile fourteen we saw some turn around arrows on the road but the cones continued on for another quarter mile where we did turn around. The time for this mile was much too long so we wondered if we should have turned around at the arrows. Not to worry as a couple of miles later we had a mile split, which was much quicker than we were running. From then on most of the mile markers had to have been in the wrong place. We saw two mile 22 markers and no mile 21. This can play with your mind. Following a couple in front of us we went off course briefly in one of the parks. Other runners called out to us so probably only ran an extra 50 to 100 yards. There were not a lot of volunteers and several runners went off course. Late in the race we picked up the pace slightly because we thought we were behind our target. We didn’t need to do this as we finished within three seconds per mile (ahead) of the pace John had set. For Ron it was a personal worst time. For Charlotte it was a second place finish in her age group. Go figure.

Tourist Stuff: There are a lot of things to see that we didn’t have time to get to. We went to the Capitol but it was closed on Saturday. We did go next door to the Colorado History Museum where elaborate dioramas, exhibits and artifacts tell the state’s story, from Spanish conquistadors to the Gold Rush of 1859. This was very enjoyable. Charlotte enjoyed the 16^th Street Mall. The Mall is a mile-long pedestrian path built of granite blocks with 200 trees and dozens of planters filled annually with 50,000 flowers. No cars are allowed but free shuttle buses serve it. Oh did we say they have trendy shops there? We did have some of the best food we have enjoyed anywhere. From a dipping grill to a restaurant that has received a Wine Spectator award to an Octoberfest celebration, the food was delicious and reasonably priced.

Comments: We have run in two marathons that no longer exist. With only 340 finishers, this one could join that list. There are so many intersections, each with at least one police officer; the cost of putting on this marathon must be very high. In summery: Denver was a great city to visit, the race course is good, the race organization is sadly lacking.

Next marathon: Chicago.