ADT Marathon, Labor Day 2004

Member

I like smaller races and the ADT Marathon only has around 160 runners each year. This was one of my most enjoyable races, although my time would end up much slower than I prefer.

Monday morning I got up at 4:30am for the 6:30 start. Had a couple of cups of coffee and a bagle. The weather was going to be great for this race – 48 at the start and in the low to mid 70s at the finish. At 6:00am the shuttle took runners from the host hotel to the start of the race – maybe a 5 minute ride. The new course this year starts in a new park that was to be sodded the day after the race so we had to stay off the dirt areas. But everything went well. Just before 6:30 “America the Beautiful” was played and all 180 or so of us were given the commands to go.

The course is 85 - 90% trails with very little concrete to have to worry about. For the marathon it consists of a 3.3 mile loop and then a ~22 mile out and back loop.

The first 3.3 miles was a small loop to the South before returning to near the start area and continuing north on the trails until we reached the 2nd turnaround point near mile 16.

We would also encounter the half marathon runners along the longer 2nd out and back portion of the course after their 7:30 am start. We shared the course until they reached their turn around point where we continued on. Along the way I watched a Gallorunner faithfully doing his walk breaks around mile 3. From mile 6 to about 10 I ran with a very nice lady by the name of Katie from Littleton. At that point we were on a pace for about a 4:20-4:25 finish

Miles 12 to 18 were rolling hills and definitely took some steam out of me although they were not severe. They were just constant. I passed the half way point at 2:12. About mile 18 my legs stopped cooperating and I slowed considerably although I still felt good. At mile 19 that Gallorunner passed me right up as if I was sitting still. Based on his pace at that time I’m willing to bet he ended up finishing 30 minutes or so ahead of me. Note to self: Perhaps should have used walk breaks on this one.

As I continued on, I knew I was really slowing down because as I reached the aid stations they were all able to call me by my name. I’m sure they were checking off those of us in the back of the pack to make sure they accounted for everyone. But I did appreciate them knowing I was still out there.

I continued on and reached the 26 mile marker with 365 yards to go. Because of the way the markers had to be laid to avoid us running on any of the soil in the park let me tell you that winding final 365 yards seemed like it was going to take forever. Around the path I went and finally crossed the finish line in 4:52:41.

My final time was by far my slowest marathon ever, although I’m not upset with it. I enjoyed this race and felt very good even after finishing it. Had no muscle cramps, or limping that day or afterwards from the race. Why I finished so slow I don’t know. I figured that at the worst I would come in at 4:15 or so. I’ll do some thinking about this as I pick back up my training again this week for the White Rock ½ marathon.

The ADT Marathon was very well organized, all aid stations adequately staffed with friendly volunteers, water and Gatorade. One of the stations around mile 16 ran out of cups and they had to give some of us water in our hands, but I did pass their runner coming back to the aid station with cups before I reached the next one. A minor glitch and the volunteers hustled to get cups for the remaining runners on the course. You have to appreciate that.

If you are looking for a well organized small trail race I highly recommend this one. Especially if you have no interest in running Pike’s Peak but desire to run a marathon in Colorado. The city of Colorado Springs and the surrounding area has lots of family events to take of you as well as numerous running, biking and motorcycle activities.

Go here for pictures of the course.

Edited to add: if you go to the pictures, simply double click the adtmarathon album. The slideshow works pretty well if you then click it. You do not have to order any prints. It's a free service.

Excelent

Sounds like a real nice race and course

Nice job

PRESIDENT

Nice job, sounds like you had fun too. dance

The Pinball

to anyone who runs 26.2 miles

lots of trails sounds really rough to me, but it seems like you were really well trained for this one. congratulations on your marathon finish.

Member

Member

Member

Nice job. Feeling good after a marathon, you must have had some good training.