Denver 1/2 Marathon Recap by a proud husband!

When I started getting into running a couple of years ago, I struggled in wanting Tanya to understand why I liked it so much. She didn't enjoy running at all, so my words fell on deaf ears. Despite wanting her to share in my passion, I know that the running bug just doesn't bite everyone. I have always been thrilled with her triathlons, but liked to kid her that she couldn't call herself an official "runner" until she ran more than a 5K. I attempted several times to encourage her towards signing up for a 10K. She always shot me down, so you can imagine my shock when she started hinting about running a half marathon!


After yesterday, I needed to hop on here and chime in about how proud I am of Tanya's race. She finished the 13.1 miles in 2:08:19 (a 9:48 pace)! To put that in perspective, in her 9 weeks of training, she only had one run (3 mi.) where she ran a faster pace.


The girls and I had a blast chasing her around the course. I rode my bike and pulled the girls in the buggy. There was nothing but giggles as I flew down sidewalks barely slowing down for dips and bumps. I tried to explain that if their mom would just stop running so fast, I wouldn't have to rush at a breakneck speed to the next spot.


Tanya wasn't the only one running fast. My cousin Scott was running the full marathon. Earlier this year he ran a Boston qualifier up at the Steamboat Marathon. Well, he did it again in Denver, but this time shaving another five minutes off! We got to watch him come down the chute (upper right picture) and across the finish line at 3:10:50. This course is beautiful, but not easy, and the weather wasn't ideal for running. It was sunny and hot! Denver tied it's record high temp at 84 degrees.


All in all there was a lot to celebrate yesterday! I've run in either the Denver half marathon or marathon each of the prior three years. I can say that I had just as much fun as a spectator and hope to be cheering Tanya on again at a future race!