Trakkers at Denver Marathon

Sunday morning was the final installment of the Denver Marathon before it turns into the "Denver Rock and Roll Marathon". I have run this race the past two years (the full in 07, and the 1/2 in 08). It's great with 10,000 people, most of them in the 1/2 marathon. This year I didn't race, but I decided to spectate. Trakkers was doing a beta test at this race so I wanted to head down to help Carole collect Trakkers units and to represent Trakkers with style! At 4:30 am I hit the road from my house running. I wanted to get my 18 mile long run in before the race so that Troy could get his in later so I decided to run down to the race start. It's kinda scary running at 4:30am on the bike paths through the shady areas of town. I had one scare where a guy came up on me in the dark on a bike and yelled "Hey" so that I could hear him. He scared me, I went on the defensive, cussed him out, put up my dukes to fight, then realized he was friendly. I appologized and we had a good laugh while he asked me what the hell I was doing. Heh Heh, crazy is hard to describe.

I got there just in time to do a nice warmup with Michelle Ford (PIC). She was racing the half, and was wearing a Trakkers unit and a Trakkers hat. I ran into Gaye too, also wearing a Trakkers unit. Michelle and I did some active warm up plyo stuff and it was time to get her into the corral.

Here she is all excited and stuff, with her new light pink Trakkers hat on (one that I don't even have, gonna have to work on that)!

I saw Randi and Ross on their way to the start. Randi was doing the full, Ross the half. I helped them up and over the fences into the corral and they were ready to go. Randi was testing a Trakkers unit as well.

Then I took off running. I made it down to the 1 mile mark, check out how many runners there are. This is just a TINY sampling of them.

Then I ran up to the 4 mile mark. I was getting some great mileage in. The best part was that I was wearing my BRIGHT green Trakkers top and everyone I knew recognized me and would yell hello as they ran by. I saw so many friends out there, it was great to cheer for them all. the mens leader was flying. It was great to see Framke and Cyrus in the front, as was Matt Reed!

When my fellow Phidippides Track Club member Jay ran by he had me laughing up a storm. He was ROCKING the green Trakkers visor, and the Trakkers unit on his race belt. What a spokesperson, eh? The dude is 50 years old, but he's HOT! Jay ran a 3:09 marathon yesterday, whoosh!

I ran on over to mile 11 where I started getting "Your everywhere" comments from the runners. Love it! I was cheering up a storm. Saw Matty go by me flying (he went 1:14).

Then PIC Michelle came running by...FAST. I hopped in with her and gave her a little push (not literally). Just a little "drop your arms", "pick up your cadence". Before she could slaughter me, I pulled off to the side and booked it to the finish so I could see her cross the line. Michelle was gunning for sub 1:40 and she went 1:41:18. SOOOO Close. And her Garmin had her right on pace, but the course marked a little long on the Garmins. We'll get her there!

I love this shot of her.

After she finished I hung out and collected some Trakkers units, then Tyler and I hit up the marathon course. We sat outside on the curb, ate breakfast, and cheered. After cheering for Randi who rocked the marathon hard, just 6 days after Steve had her run 24 miles, I headed up the road to swap with Troy. I hopped in the car, he hopped out. He ran home, I drove!

It was great to see the Trakkers units out on my home course. As with technology, beta testing is a "process" and I'm confident that Trakkers will produce a great product when beta testing is complete.

On that note, here's a parting photo. He ran the MARATHON, I saw him like 5 times on the course. I'm wondering if he lost some sort of bet?