The 2008 Colorado Post-News Colfax Marathon promised to be "Better, Prettier, and Faster".  The
2007 Colfax Marathon had some issues, runners complained of the lack of shade, the fact that the
last half of the marathon was uphill and that Colfax Ave. was not as hip as Jack Kerouac and Neil
Cassady made it out to be.  I commend Race Management for addressing these issues with an all
new course for 2008, which included a separate course for the Half and Full Marathon.  I'm not sure if
the course was better or prettier, but with a little statistical analysis we may be able to determine if the
course was indeed faster.

2008 Colorado Colfax Marathon
Finishers: 488, Males - 307 , Females - 181
Male Winner: 2:43:26 | Female Winner: 3:12:50
Average Finish Time: 4:30:26
Median Finish Time: 4:25:45
STD: 0:47:57

2007 Colorado Colfax Marathon
Finishers: 446, Males - 304 , Females - 142
Male Winner: 2:53:40 | Female Winner: 3:09:35
Average Finish Time: 4:39:00
Median Finish Time: 4:40:07
STD: 0:41:29

A few things we must note before we start comparing 2008 to 2007.  The temperature in 2007 was a
bit warmer, but both years the weather was hot.  Also, in 2007 the course was 1/2 mile long, thus the
times were adjusted.  The problem with adjusting times is you really can't just take an average time
(which is what they did) and reduce it accordingly, because odds are you ran that additional 1/2 mile
at less than your average race pace.  The other issue was that in 2008, the lead bike made a wrong
turn early in the race and some of the runners ran an extra 1/4 mile, some ran less, because once
the runners spotted the error they ran across the grass in City Park to get back on course, thus it's
harder to adjust these times and they have not been officially adjusted.

Looking at the data, it looks like 2008 was faster than 2007.  The average finish time was about nine
minutes faster and the median finish time was almost 15 minutes faster!  I think the median time
paints the best picture, as the 2008 results had three individuals who took over seven hours to
complete the marathon and that really skews the numbers.  Thus, the median is an effective way to
toss out those outliers.  This is also why the standard deviation is higher for 2008 than 2007.

I also looked at the results comparing individuals who ran the marathon in 2008 and 2007.  There
were 78 individuals who ran the race both years.  Out of those 78 runners, 19 (24%) ran slower and
59 (76%) ran faster.  The number of "faster" is probably greater than 76% if you time adjusted for
those runners who ran of course in 2008.

2008 Colorado Colfax Half Marathon
Finishers: 1,969, Males - 778 , Females - 1,191
Male Winner:1:12:12  | Female Winner: 1:27:27
Average Finish Time: 2:19:43
Median Finish Time: 2:10:52
STD: 37:34

2007 Colorado Colfax Half Marathon
Finishers: 1,696, Males -707  , Females - 989
Male Winner: 1:08:57 | Female Winner: 1:20:19
Average Finish Time: 2:25:20
Median Finish Time: 2:16:21
STD: 35:09

In 2008, the average Half Marathon time dropped almost six minutes, along with the median finish
time.  I believe in 2007 they gave out more cash prizes for the Half Marathon, as a few professional
runners showed up, which is evident of the winning time being more than three minutes faster.

There were 335 runners who ran the Colfax Half Marathon in 2007 and 2008.  Of those, 100 (30%)
ran slower in 2008, while 235 (70%) runners ran a faster time.

It looks like the Colfax Marathon's promise of being faster held true, which is great to see.  I thought
the changes that they made to the course were all for the better.  It's interesting that the Half
Marathon course also saw significant improvement, because the 2007 course finished before the
tough uphill portion that the Marathon runners complained about.  I'm wondering if most of the time
savings were from the cooler temperatures?