A Corporate First?

Despite having to wake up at 4:30 and waiting an hour outside in the freeeezing cold to pay for a parking spot, today's Denver Rock'n'Roll Marathon (Half and Relay) went really well. 15,000 runners took to the streets of downtown on a beautiful crisp fall Colorado morning.

Dave at Mile 3.5 (sun still had not risen!)

Dave took the first leg for the relay team (8 miles) at a 6:42 pace. Zach took the 2nd (3.2 mile) leg at a sub 7-minute pace while Chris did the 10K leg at about a 7 minute pace. The ringer for the team, Andrew, came in with the fastest time over the longest leg (9 miles, 6:24 pace). They are officially listed in second place out of 324 teams, but the first place team was one female with a time of 2:32. Two things are really wrong with this: the first place winner (female) came in at 2:55 and you can't have a relay with one person. Obviously is an error of some sort, so I'm sure once they sort it out, Dave's team (the Space Cowboys) will be in 1st!

Dave's brother finishes his first half-marathon

Dave's brother, Brian, also flew in from MN for the half-marathon. He did exceptionally well for running at altitude for the first time. I think he set an all-time best with a time under 1 hour and 45 minutes. Quite impressive!

It seems only fitting that they'd both be excellent athletes and runners with a last name of SHOEmaker. :)

After everyone finished, the team gathered for pictures and the post-race concert by Semisonic. I really only know three of their songs and we stayed to hear 2 of them (FNT from my favorite movie, Ten Things I Hate About You and Chemistry). We didn't stay to hear their most famous song, Closing Time.

The LM relay team (L to R): Andrew, Chris, Zach, and Dave