The Colorado Marathon – A Review of This Beautiful Course

The Colorado Marathon was my 6th marathon, and I loved/hated it…. ya know, the usual for marathons. I like to write about my marathons. Partly for you, the reader, and partly for myself, to remember such monumental times.

I LOVE running. Love it. And I’m always hoping I can inspire others to run or to run more. People are capable of so much more than they realize.

So if you landed on this page because you’re thinking of running The Colorado Marathon… AWESOME. You are incredible.

And I think you should run it.

About The Colorado Marathon

The Colorado Marathon is 26.2 miles down the Poudre Canyon near Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins is around an hour north of Denver. It was $150-ish in 2024. They also offer a half-marathon, 10k, and 5k.

There were plenty of relatively inexpensive hotels available nearby for this race… we booked ours pretty late and were happy to have more than a few options. AirBnbs were kind of limited.

Here’s My Review of The Colorado Marathon

  • Overall: 4/5
  • Difficulty: 3/5
  • Scenery: 4/5
  • Organization & Production: 3/5

Overall, I loved The Colorado Marathon. It was SO beautiful, the downhill was nice, all the people involved – volunteers, race managers, etc. – were all wonderful, and it was worth running. It’s an excellent choice for Colorado if you’re trying to run a marathon in every state.

I’m going to get really picky and detailed now.

Difficulty of The Colorado Marathon

All marathons are difficult. Period.

The Colorado Marathon had some Pros and Cons in the difficulty category.

Pros of The Colorado Marathon Course:

  • Elevation Loss of 1200 ft – this is the main pro.
  • If beauty helps you run faster, the views are lovely.
  • A decent percentage of runners qualify for Boston with this race.
  • Runners are spread out. You never have to run through big groups of people or feel like you’re in the way.

Cons of The Colorado Marathon Course:

  • Elevation. You start at 6111 ft. This means less oxygen, which can be particularly difficult if you’re coming from sea level.
  • The camber (I just learned this word) in the road is kind of rough. The road is uneven, so sometimes you feel like you’re running at a tilt? If that makes sense.
  • There is not a lot of support along the course. If you like people cheering you on, this may not be the race for you.

It’s paved the whole way. This could be seen as a pro or con, depending on what terrain you like.

Scenery of The Colorado Marathon

This is where this marathon really excels. You start at the top of Poudre Canyon in The Rocky Mountains. As you run down, the sun rises over Poudre River. It’s seriously so peaceful and beautiful. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I didn’t want to pull my phone out. You’ll just have to trust me that it’s so so pretty.

You lose some of the prettiness for a bit in the middle. You’re running along a highway, but then you get on some paved park trails that are also peaceful and pretty.

Organization and Production

Some details:

The expo happens the day before for you to pick up your bib. You can also pay extra to pick it up on the day of the race.

The morning of the race, you have to board a shuttle between 4:15 and 5am. SO early. You park close to the shuttles and wait in line to board. They only board 1 or 2 at a time, and they verify that you’re getting on the right bus.

The bus ride takes around 40 mins up the canyon, and they drop you off at the starting line. There are porta potties, energy gels, coffee, water, and a gear check.

The Marathon starts at 6:30am.

There’s some food/drinks at the end. Parking for supporters at the finish line was easy. You get a free local beer, and they had music/an after party. You do have to walk a half mile or so to your car.

I highly recommend boarding the later shuttles so you don’t have to wait as long in the cold at the top of the canyon. I also recommend wearing warm layers and dropping them at the gear check before you start.

Most of the organization was done really well. The expo was small but nice. Catching the bus in the morning was easy. The medal, shirt, and little art poster you get are all great.

One issue I always have with races that you have to shuttle to the start is that every single person needs to use the bathroom at the same time. There are never enough porta potties. We had to wait for quite a while and were then gear checking our stuff as they were announcing “2 minutes to start!” We barelyyy made it to the start line as the race started.

I also feel that the food at the end was lacking. It was bananas, tiny granola bars, and oranges. Would have loved a bagel or something a little more substantial.

My Colorado Marathon, if you care 🙂

I knew the #1 rule about marathons: Do not try anything new on race day.

What did I do? I tried a new gel on mile 4 and felt terrible for the rest of the race.

I had a fast first half and then knew I couldn’t keep up that pace while feeling like I was regurgitating everything that I ate/drank.

I REALLY struggled at the end; I definitely hit the dreaded wall.

Miles 22-25 were awful. I would start walking, think that I’d never be able to start running again, calculate in my head how much longer I’d be out on the course if I was going a 30 minute mile pace, and then force myself to run through the pain again.

I ended up finishing in under 4 hours, but I’m not sure how. 3:59.

My almost 3 year old got to see me finish! I got to my parents and loudly announced, “THAT WAS SO BAD.” Everyone around us thought that was comical, but I truly felt so bad.

Will You Run The Colorado Marathon?

I hope you do! I hope you run it and have a better race than I did. I think every person who runs a marathon should feel like a badass.

Here’s the official website: COmarathon.com

More on Running:

Run The Colorado Marathon Pin

Pin The Colorado Marathon for Later!