Memorial Day 2019 dawned with clear skies for the 40^th Annual Colorado Run. This was a much-anticipated blessing after days of rain, weeks of snow, and the seemingly never-ending winter in the Colorado Rockies.

The Colorado Run is one of the oldest races in Fort Collins and has always been a holiday tradition. However, this was just the 3^rd year the race has been run on Memorial Day to kick off the summer after a long standing tradition of being run on Labor Day.  As a once very popular local race, The Colorado Run almost died 5-6 years ago when the numbers had dwindled and then was not even run for a year.  Green Events decided to keep the tradition alive and hopefully revitalize it back to its glory days. With Title Sponsor support from Raintree Athletic Club, the new date, venue, and challenging course created 3 years ago has now started a whole new tradition of it’s own. This year the race really started to make a comeback that surprised us with a 73% increase in finishers! That’s not even counting the 550+ kids/families that participated in the new Healthy Kids 1-mile race.

As part of the Veteran’s Plaza Memorial Day events in Spring Canyon Park the race brings the community together to recognize and remember the valor and the sacrifices willingly made by generations of men and women in the U.S. military to protect and ensure our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Each year the Veteran’s Plaza Memorial Day event salutes a generation of warriors. This year, 2019, our Gulf War Veterans were highlighted with a ceremony at the plaza and a dinner and dance.

In honor of Memorial Day and in recognition of those that have sacrificed their lives the race now includes a 10k Ruck March category. Ruck participants had to carry a 35lb pack (not including water for consumption weight) that was weighed in before the start of the race. This year there were even two kids who completed the ruck with their Dad! While they carried lighter packs their pack to body weight ratio was the same if not greater than that of the adults. Way to go kids! Special prizes were awarded to several of the ruck participants.

The front-runners of the 10k race showed the lead cyclists how it’s done when it comes to hills, pressing them to keep the lead to the top of Maniac Hill! The Peak Challenge sponsored by ProActive Physical Therapy might have given them some extra motivation knowing the 1^st three male and female racers to the top would win a growler and a free fill at Intersect Brewing.  In a re-creation of last year’s battle the same 3 guys gutted it out for the win, Paul Peterson defended his title of both Peak Challenge and overall winner while Nate Grimm and Michael Chavez swapped places this year on the hill challenge with Nate taking 2^nd and Chavez 3^rd. Bill Blair Michel made up time on the downhill with a 16:18 5k to edge out Chavez and claim 3^rd place overall behind Grimm. On the women’s side Ruth Waller-Liddle claimed both Peak Challenge and Overall winner with an impressive 3-minute lead over 2^nd place Melinda Karlson and 3^rd place Anna Siliciano.