GEORGETOWN — Six years ago, after becoming a father and by necessity due to time restraints, Zach Watson gave up cycling to become a runner. Utilizing his wife, Erin, who is a running coach for LoCo Fit, based in Louisville, Watson made the transition, but it wasn’t a smooth one.
“It took a while. Both are endurance sports, but my legs, your whole body has to relearn a whole new sport,” he said. “I had my fair share of injuries to get my body used to an impact sport instead of a non-impact sport.”
The only thing he had that he could compare cycling with running was the clock. It’s you versus the clock, and on June 25 in the 15th annual Slacker Half Marathon nobody was better against the clock than the 39-year-old Louisville resident.
The Slacker rookie held off 36-year-old Eric Greene of Aurora to win the highest downhill half marathon in the United States in 1 hour, 16 minutes and 15 seconds. Greene finished 47 seconds back, while 29-year-old Jacob Flaws of Thornton was third in 1:18:47.
Though Watson’s been running for a while now and a Colorado resident, the descent from 10,630 feet at Loveland Ski Area to 8,400 feet in Georgetown still grinds on runners.
“I felt the altitude every time the road flattened out or you went uphill a little bit,” Watson said. “I tried to take it easy and back off, but I ended up paying pretty hard for it. The last few miles are pretty long. You get another steep downhill coming down the path here into Georgetown. My legs were really starting to feel the pounding.”
The altitude also impacted female winner Taylor Sie. The 28-year-old first-time Slacker from Colorado Springs said that her mile splits weren’t anywhere close to what she preferred even though her pace was solid.
“It was a lot harder than I expected,” said Sie, a non-athlete throughout school who didn’t start running until four years ago. “You hear that it’s downhill, but I wasn’t anticipating the rolling uphills throughout. I pulled through even though I almost gave up at one point.”
But she didn’t and Sie actually won with relative ease. Her time of
1:26:37 was more than 2 minutes ahead of 38-year-old runner-up Jayme Brindle of Golden. Jodie Taylor, 44, of Frisco, came in a distant third in 1:32.13.
The 4-mile races proved to be much more competitive. Kyle Snyder, a 22-year-old University of Kansas graduate and law student, chased down San Diego’s Alex Samarin, 29, in the final quarter mile to win in 21 minutes, 14 seconds. Samarin finished nine seconds back after leading for a majority of the race.
“At 3.7 miles, I realize he’s a couple of feet in front of me. I know I can make two moves left in this last quarter mile to catch up to him,” said Snyder, a member of the Kansas City Smoke racing club. “At 3.8 miles, I could hear him fade off, and I was able to push into the finish.”
Sixteen-year-old Coronado High athlete Chloe Cassens was the top female finisher in the 4-miler in 25:39, beating out 32-year-old Cherly Stahly of Grand Junction by six seconds.
Jack Quinn’s Racing Team won the three-person half marathon in 1:47:33.
Contact Michael Hicks at sports@evergreenco.com or 303-350-1047.