Joslyne Counselman's Staging Area

I only did the 5K while my husband ran the half. It was a nice, small town New England race. I wasn’t a fan of the medals, considering they were in the shape and color of the tech shirt. I feel like they could’ve been more creative with that. Otherwise, my 5K went through residential areas and got no view of the coast. Easy, flat race if trying for time, though.

My new husband and I ran the marathon for our honeymoon (yes, you heard that right). We are from PA so we made sure to be in the Rockies for a couple days before the race so we could see how our bodies would acclimate to the altitude. Luckily, we didn’t have any headaches or sickness, just EXTREME DEHYDRATION during the race. We yielded everyone’s advice and gulped more water than usual, but that didn’t help much. Of course, the last half of the marathon (all of the half marathon – which was virtual this year) had no tree cover or clouds in the sky. You start from elevation of over 8,000 in Hahn’s Peak Village and end in downtown Steamboat at just over 6,700. Although it’s a net downhill course, don’t think that means you won’t be climbing some hills! I ran the first 12-14 miles of the course in record time (beautiful tree cover and lots of downhill) but after mile 16, I had to have walked all but a tenth of every mile. The dehydration got to me and the heat was scorching at this point. Aid stations are only every 2-3 miles, so when you’re walking and relying on the aid station for water/Gatorade, it’s a struggle. All this to say I thoroughly enjoyed the scenic views along the way and still had a PR. My goal was 4:30 and was on pace at the half, but once I got to the second half, I was just trying to make it under 5 hours. I would love to come back to vacation at Steamboat, but I am not sure I would want to test this course again. I’ll be sticking to half marathons for awhile.