About 20 cyclists that I know were asked to shepherd wheelchair athletes on the inaugural Colfax Marathon about 10 years ago. My job was to ride with the wheelchair athlete and clear the path. The other 19 riders and their athletes took off like a shot...I never saw them again. My athlete was a mid60s woman with MS who wasn’t confined to the chair but needed it for mobility. We took off at a much more leisurely pace.

Soon we were passed by the elite runners. Then the good fitness runners. Then the not so good fitness runners. Then the walkers. Then the families with strollers. And, finally, the families with kids running...perhaps even a few with kids that didn’t want to be running.

Needless to say, the “pace” wasn’t all that conducive to actually pedaling. Think doing the world’s longest slow speed bicycle race. I can ride slow but after 5 miles or so, it was just easier to push the bike.

Colfax is the only east-west road in Denver that goes all the way through the city...from the eastern suburbs to the western suburbs....that isn’t an interstate. The marathon completely shut the road down and bisected the city. Of course, the city can’t be cut in half forever so there was a roll up end that started at eastern end and rolled west. All of the runners were supposed to be off the route by noon on the west end and they had buses to remove runners who couldn’t get off the route in time. We even ran up against the buses. We were nearly at the top of the last hill before a long downhill to the finish when the buses came up behind us. The cops refused to take my athlete on the bus because she was so close to the end. We got an escort for the next half hour that it took to top the hill, ride down it and up to the finish line. At least I got to actually ride the last mile.

I left the athlete for before the end...she had a phalanx of motorcycle cops around her...and rode on home. I was foot sore, had to walk about 20 miles of a 50 mile “ride” (I rode to the beginning and home from the end) but it was a great day, all things considered. Riding...well walking a lot of it...the entirety of Colfax within the Denver Metro area without traffic was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been able to do.