For the 2026 Colorado Marathon State Championship, I forgot to pack my water bottles. I errantly placed my ear bids in my gear bag that the crew shuttled back to the finish. And my watch didn’t get a full charge in the hotel and died after 10 miles. Tracking my pace was going to be important to meet my objectives and the only tool left to me was to follow the official pacers, which I did, sort of. I mostly ran on vibes and as you can see by the grin on my face, the vibes were good.

I always share my finish time and pace goals in this blog before a race. I said I wanted to qualify for Boston by breaking 3:50. And if I also have a stretch goal, I share that too. I shared that I wanted to run closer to 3:40 because to actually be accepted to run Boston, runners have to run around 7 minutes faster than the qualifying time. What I don’t generally share is my fantasy goal. For this marathon, that was 3:30 because that’s what won my age last year.

I finished in 3:31:45 and 2nd place for my age, which easily qualified me for Boston.

I ran my first Colorado Marathon in 2017 in 3:42. The only two marathons I’ve run faster than 3:31 was the 2014 Denver Marathon in 3:31 and the 2015 Boulder Marathon in 3:30, unless I count the 1980 Dallas Marathon which I ran with my college roommate Johnny Martinez at 18 years of age in 3:08. I feel as if I’ve turned back the clock ten years. That’s what following a training plan and losing 20 pounds will do.

I started the run behind the 3:30 pacer because I couldn’t find the 3:45 pace sign. I found it though after a few minutes and fell into pace with him. It felt too slow though and after about a minute, my stride drifted ahead of him. My first mile was at an 8:09 pace. My heart rate was 184, which is super high for me, about 20 beats over my max.

I fell into pace with a team of 3 runners, mid-twenties, with the 8 minute pace sign in view up ahead. I hit mile two at 7:49 and 174 bpm. I was starting to catch my breath and felt comfortable. I was already sweating a bit at 40° and took off my hoodie.

I kept running behind the same 3 runners with mile 3 at 7:58, mile 4 at 7:54, mile 5 at 7:56 and the 6th mile at 7:47. My heart rate settled into the upper 140 bpm range. I knew this was fast and I risked the wheels falling off later, but I trusted my strength training and knew that this pace had me competitive for the podium – my fantasy goal. This was the state championship after all.

Mile 7 was at 7:57, then I slowed to 8:24 on mile 8, only because I had to pee at the aid station. I quickly returned to 7:43 for mile 9 and 7:44 for mile 10 before my watch died. I didn’t actually look at my watch during those miles but knew I was on roughly an 8 minute pace because I could see the 3:30 pace sign ahead of me.

Somehow I found myself passing the 3:30 pacer in mile 12. That wasn’t part of my plan but I felt comfortable. I didn’t think I was surging and he told me he was slowing a bit because he’d been running ahead of pace. He also told me the slope would flatten out now and to expect a general slow down. He asked me how I was feeling and I responded that I felt I was a bit ahead of my planned pace but that I felt good about it.

The course did noticeably flatten out by mile 15 as we exited the canyon. Runners were starting to walk. I felt great and remained ahead of the 3:30 pacer until mile 21 when I started to feel fatigue set in. It didn’t bother me as he passed me back because I wasn’t overly exhausted and was confident I would finish under my 3:50 goal. Actually, I was fairly confident I’d finish under 3:40. A podium finish wasn’t all that important to me. I planned on coasting in, happy I’d meet my stretch goal.

By mile 23 though, a young girl started passing me, then slowing, then passing me, then slowing, over and over. Bless her heart, she was struggling and wouldn’t give up. But I found it annoying so I finally matched one of her surges and when yet again she slowed, I didn’t. I felt like racing and was back to my 8 minute pace. I even put on a kick at the finish to pass a guy who looked like he might be my age. Turned out he was 50, but like I said, this run felt like turning back the clock ten years.

Karen, Brit, Eric and Margot met me at the finish line and cheered as I won my pint glass award for 2nd place.

Of course, I’m not all about racing. I understand a thing or two about recovery too. Good vibes follow you into a pedicure.