EPIC Rocky Mountain Relay

I ran the EPIC Rocky Mountain Relay July 20-21st.

My second year to do this relay.  They changed the course quite a bit, for the better.  I run it with Team Anadarko which is a corporate sponsored team.  The team changed quite a bit from last year only 6 of us returned this year. 12 Person Team from Canon City to Crested Butte, 190 Miles.  We finished in 29 Hours 30 Minutes.  10th overall and we won the corporate division.

I ran legs 5, 17 and 29.  19 Miles total.

 Team Anadarko at the Finish in Crested Butte

Front Row: Joe, Chelsea, Glis, Brandon, Mike

Back Row: Ludy, Raleen, Jay, Bob, Scott, Sherry, Dennis

My Only action picture, running downhill on Leg 17, my favorite of the 3.  Right at dusk, it was cool, downhill, very fast.  I had a great pace going with some great views on the ride down.

Van 1 at the finish.  We had a really good time with some fun people. 

This was my 10th Team Relay.  Had a lot of fun and saw some parts of the state I never would have.  Got the Rangar Colorado Relay coming up in 5 weeks.  Yay.  I love relays.

Colfax Marathon Relay

I ran the Colfax Marathon Relay with a team of friends/co workers.  Darin, Raj, Jim and Carrie.
We were called the Crickets.  Because no-one would answer any questions about if we were running the relay or not.  Raj was the captain.

I ran the first leg, which was great, 6.5 miles total.  Nice early morning start on a sunny but cool day, in the 40's at the start.  Nice leg, 1 mile in the park, then 2.5 on Colfax down to the fire station at Speer and Colfax, through the fire station (very cool) and then 2 miles over to mile high on the Cherry Creek Bike Path, to Confluence park and then the about a mile on the Platte River Trail to mile high stadium.  Through the stadium and then exchange number one on the other side.

Cherry Crrek Trail about Mile 3

 Mile High Stadium near the 10k mark

I ran the 6.5 at my 10k pace, targeting sub 7, similar to the 5 mile Cherry Creek Sneak.  I felt good and did a little better than goal pace.  Ran the 6.5 in 45:00, just as I'd predicted.  I was very close to my 10K PR of 42:25 at the actual 10k mark which was just before mile high.

Our team did 3:34, came in 19th in our division which had over 250 teams.  Not bad given that most them only run a small amount.   Fun race, hung out a bit.  Also running were Jeff, Pete and Jill in the half and Bob in the full.  I saw him run through after the exchange, he was on a 7:45 pace and looked good, he held on for a 3:30:30.  Just 4 weeks after Boston.

Garmin Watch Data for Colfax Relay Leg 1

Bannister Mile

The group I run with downtown had our annual Bannister Mile at East High School Track at lunch on May 15, 2012.  We run a timed mile on the track.

This year I ran a 5:39.  Better than my goal of 5:45.   I felt good the entire race.  Started fast but got into a comfortable tempo pace.  I was in 4th place half of the race with the leaders (Matt, Scott and Tim) well out in front.  I felt kind of like I was running by myself, until  the 1000 meter mark and then I heard the breathing of Chris and Dave, battling like they used to in high school.  They passed me on the curve and I tucked in behind them trying to hold their pace.  With 100 meters to go, Dave was out of reach but Chris and I kicked down the stretch.  I nudged him out at the very end.  That felt good, we have had several close finishes over the years and he usually gets the win.

We did the 8X200 relay after, I was on Matt's team.  That was really fun with a couple of lead changes.
I was the 6th leg and we were behind when Caprera started running for the other team.  When I got the exchange from Bob I ran really hard trying to catch dave who had about 50 meters on me.  I ran past a bunch of PE students who were watching us run and they yelled chase him down, I kicked it and did not quite catch him but made up a lot of the gap.  Matt was our anchor so we won by 4 seconds.

When I got done I looked at my 200 split, it was 27 seconds, I was amazed.  That has to be a PR but I have not really timed myself on a 200 very much, event with intervals.  I remember racing Jay S in a 200 a few years ago and running about 32.

A fun race this year, Matt won with a 5:01.  Scott and Chipman joined us for another year after moving from downtown.  Dave Caprera organized the event, did the post race food and took the team picture.

Here's a link to the web site with the results and the group picture.

http://www.pickledprostates.com/2012/05/2012-bannister-mile-results.html

Cherry Creek Sneak - 5 Mile Race

Ran the Cherry Creek Sneak 5 Mile race in Denver on April 29, 2012.

Great day for the sneak, my first since 2009, but probably my 7th time to run it.  Lot of good memories, good weather and bad.  This years weather was great the best I ever remembered.

I ran a 34:54.  Not great but made my goal of sub 35.  I felt really good the whole race like I was running in a good zone, dialed back the pace a couple of times early but pushed it miles 4 and 5.  I really pushed the last half mile to break 35, but the posted me at 35:03 same ask clock time but there was an 8 second difference, so I'm logging it at 34:54.

10th in my age group but the field was diluted somewhat with the 10 mile race being added this year.

5 Mile Sneak Results

http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=127117

2012 Cheery Creek Sneak, on Speer Near University, less than a 1/2 mile to go

Pi Mile - 3.14159... 5k in Golden, CO

Ran the Pi Mile 5k (3.14159...)  in Golden on April 22, 2012.
Small race, about 160 runners, no frills but a fun little course from the Colorado School of Mines Track down Clear Creek Trail and back.  Flat fast course with only a little uphill at the end.

I ran a 21:21, which was about where I thought I'd be given my 3 mile tempo runs, was hoping for a good day and a sub 21 but it was a fun race.  I did win my age group ( by 13 minutes which means the next guy pretty much walked it), top 10 though with a lot of college kids running it.

Race Results
http://www.imathlete.com/events/EventRaceResults.aspx?fEID=12762