Ten years ago I was working a miserable job as a service writer at an auto repair shop in Aurora, Ill. I was unhappy with where I was, had just broken up with my long-term girlfriend, and wanted to get back to running. Some college friends, Dan, Greg, JJ, and Danny invited my to join their group out of Chicago’s Universal Sole. They were planning to run this start-up race in Denver, the Colorado Colfax Marathon, in a team relay event and needed one more runner. I said yes.

Our scrappy team of D3 runners from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin held our own and finished 4^th. Now that I look back at those results, that race was STACKED! I decided on the drive home that I wanted to return to competitive running. The next week I contacted Kevin and Keith Hanson in Michigan to ask about joining the team. A month later I moved to Michigan.

The next year, as a member of Hanson-Brooks Distance Project, we won the relay at Colfax! My first (and only) USATF National Championship.

That little race looked like it was really taking off. More importantly, I was falling in absolute love with the American West.

In 2010, I moved to Colorado and left the Hansons-Brooks group. A friend of mine, race director Creigh Kelly, asked me if I’d like to come back and run the half-marathon at Colfax. I accepted the invite and in 2012 broke the course record in the half (I lost that record last year)! I came back in 2013, ‘14, and ‘15 to race again. Some years in better race form than others.

I was asked by Creigh in 2014 to be an athlete adviser to the Board of Directors for Colfax and in the next meeting became a full board member. It’s been excellent representing the athletes and giving a different perspective than the cities, the sponsors, and the race CEO in meetings, but hearing each different person’s take as well. It’s really grown my respect for everything that goes on before a race ever takes place. We’ve also had some near-misses with the race almost NOT going off some years due to issues in the planning and partnerships, all taking place without the runners ever knowing how close we ever got to having to pull a plug on the events.

This year I had planned to run the Illinois Marathon on April 30^th and I did, finishing 4^th. All the board members were also declaring what events to run in a board meeting that I missed that day. I got the call from the CEO asking me what I wanted to run and I—perhaps too ambitiously—responded that I’d just run the full marathon since I’d won each other event but never won a marathon.

“How cool would it be to win a marathon on the 10^th anniversary of my first post-college race?” I thought. Especially since I haven’t yet committed to the sport for another Olympic cycle yet. I’m planning to race more on the trails now and the last bit of unfinished business I had was winning a marathon on the roads. This would be a special way to do that. Board member, run in year one as my first race after college, brings the career full circle, the whole deal!

I started the race with the lead relay team only to drop them at 6 miles. I was all alone from there, winding through Sloan’s Lake, the firehouse, the creek path, and back up through downtown. At one point, I had an 8 minute lead on second place and I was approaching the course record! Could I do it?

At 23 miles I ran out of calories. The luxury and curse of elite racing is that I’ve been conditioned to having my own fluid bottles on the course. Today I had only the general fluids and I wasn’t getting NEARLY enough to sustain that pace. I stopped at 23.5 to dry heave and get rid of a foot cramp. That only started a deeper cramp in my hamstrings. I stopped again at 24. My lead was dwindling as I was walking up the hill. I ran when I could and at 25, was at a pedestrian stroll at fastest and losing steam from there. At 26, the lead relay caught me only I didn’t KNOW it was the lead relay. “Did I really just lose a marathon that I’ve led for 26 miles in the last 385 yards?” This is crippling!

As I turned the last bend in Denver’s beautiful City Park, I saw the CEO and Board President holding the finish banner. The guy that passed me WAS a relay runner. I DID IT! I finally, in what may be my last road race I ever run, WON a marathon.

This journey has been excellent through the sport over the last 10 years. Graduating from North Central College, running that first Colfax relay, I planned and expected to survive in the sport for 1-2 years...tops! I’ve now made it 10 and counting, run in 3 Olympic Trials, represented the USA in the Pan-American Games, finished top-10 in USA Championships ranging from 8km-marathon, and met some of my best friends.

Only time will tell now if I come back to the roads to race again, but for now I’ll see you on the trails and mountains. I need to have fun with the process again and I’m not finding that enjoyment on the roads today. Thank you, thank you, thank you to EVERYONE who has helped me, trained with me, tolerated me along the way. A special thanks to Creigh Kelly for having a vision for our special race, inviting me to run it, and taking me under your wing in more ways than I can count. What Colfax has become from what it began is a testament to the exceptional quality of your work around the world, around the country, and in your own back yard.