Barry Siff imagined a great road race in Denver, and if the acceptance of Sunday’s inaugural Rocky Mountain Half Marathon was any indication, he may be on his way to producing one.
Winding through downtown Denver and then taking a long western loop that wrapped around Sloan’s Lake, the half marathon (13.1 miles) attracted an impressive elite field and 839 finishers. Another 360 ran in a women’s-only 8K (4.97 miles). The races started and finished at the Pepsi Center.
“It far exceeded our expectations,” said Siff, the race director. “We were expecting 600, 650.”
Low gray clouds and cool temperatures greeted the runners, making for excellent racing conditions.
“The motivation was to create a race that is a signature event for the city of Denver,” Siff said. “Boulder has such an event. San Francisco has an event, all these cities have events. Denver has not had a world-class running race – in a city of world-class runners and tons of athletes.”
Julius Kibet of Kenya won with a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes, 56 seconds. Another Kenyan, Gilbert Koech, finished 15 seconds behind to claim second. Luminita Talpos of Boulder won the women’s half marathon in 1:16:50.
Kibet took the lead with about 3 miles to go and pulled away with about 1 1/2 miles to go. His average pace was 4 minutes, 57 seconds per mile.
“It was a hard race,” said Kibet, 23. “We tried to push (the pace) but we were unable to push, so I decided to stay right behind the people in front. I said when we are coming down when you see the (Invesco) field, that is when I will start pushing and go in front of them.”
Boulder’s Scotty Larson, who will represent the U.S. in the marathon at the track and field world championships in August, finished eighth in 1:07:51. Larson battled a series of illnesses this spring.
“It was hard, running by Invesco, going up that hill,” Larson said. “We were running 5:05s pretty consistently, and I felt pretty good. Then we hit that hill and I died.”
Nonelite runners seemed to like the race, although they, too, were less than enamored with the climb by Invesco Field.
“The course was really beautiful in the beginning,” said Sarah King-Feldman of Arvada, 27, who finished in 1:27:16. “It was flat and nice, except miles 6 and 7 really stunk. The finish was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better course in Denver.”
Heather Fredriksen of Boulder, a law student at Colorado, won the 8K with a time of 32 minutes, 1 second.
“It’s a great event,” Fredrik- sen said. “It’s really nice to have an all-women’s race. It’s just a different feel; the starting line is more relaxed. People are nicer to each other – there’s more camaraderie.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
