Nicholas Mockeridge’s workload hasn’t been conducive to maximizing his training as a runner, but he still managed to run the fastest Colfax Marathon ever Sunday.
Mockeridge recently graduated from an accelerated nursing program at Metro State, and in recent weeks he has been pulling 12-hour shifts at the Denver Veterans Affairs hospital.
“You’re on your feet constantly for 12 hours,” said Mockeridge, 29. “Trying to go run after that is pretty tough. When I was just in school, it was fine, but when you’re in clinicals, on your feet, it’s hard to run. So the last four, five weeks have been awful.”
Except for becoming a father two weeks ago, that is.
“I’ve been sleeping fine,” Mockeridge said. “My wife does everything. She’s great.”
Mockeridge finished in 2 hours, 34 minutes, 27 seconds, which was more than three minutes ahead of runner-up Erik Grumstrup. The previous Colfax best was set by Matt Kempton in 2009 on a slightly different course, was 2:41.
Nicole Chyr claimed the women’s race record in 2:59:01. The previous best was Heather Utrata’s 3:07:13 in 2010.
Despite a cold mist at the 6 a.m. start in City Park, plus a sprinkling of snow in Lakewood and gloomy conditions all morning, the event attracted 1,001 in the marathon, 4,857 for the half marathon and 2,635 in the marathon relay.
Mockeridge’s wife, Sarah, was at the finish line along with his slumbering, 13-day-old son, George.
“We got here just in time,” Sarah said.
Mockeridge ran the 2005 Chicago Marathon in just under 2:29 and finished the 2007 Denver Marathon in 2:30:57.
“This guy rarely races, he only races once or twice a year, but he comes out to workouts and just kills everybody,” said training partner Justin Mock, who was the top American at the 2010 London Marathon. “He’s like the most humble runner there is. He said he was going to run 2:40 here, and I knew he was a lot fitter than that.”
He didn’t feel that fit, though.
“Going into it I was a little nervous, because the last couple of weeks, even short runs were hard,” Mockeridge said. “To win, it’s pretty good.”
Charles Hillig, the runner-up at the Cherry Creek Sneak two weeks ago, won the half marathon in 1:11:33. Joanna Zeiger, who was a 2000 Olympian in triathlon, prevailed in the women’s half with a time of 1:23:52.
Zeiger won the half Ironman world championships title in 2008, and is one of Boulder’s many world-class triathletes, but at the 2009 world championships she had a bad crash on the bike that still causes her problems.
“It was very close to the end of the bike and I was going through an aid station,” Zeiger said. “I was trying to grab a water bottle, and the person didn’t let go of the bottle. We basically played tug of war and he won. I took a flying leap off my bike.”
A broken collarbone required surgery and she had several broken ribs.
“I’m still having some issues with some scar tissue and hypermobility in the ribs,” said Zeiger, 41. “It’s been very frustrating. Even on the first half of this race, I really had to take it a little bit easier because my ribs hurt and I had a little trouble breathing.”
Zeiger’s goal now is to make next year’s Olympic Trials in the marathon. She finished second among masters runners at the 2011 U.S. cross country championships behind her Running Republic of Boulder teammate, Colleen De Reuck, a four-time Olympian.
“It’s been more than a year and a half of dealing with injuries,” said Zeiger’s husband, Mark Shenk. “When you’re able to compete at a certain level and then there’s just days you get up and have pain, it’s really difficult.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
