Four of six women standing atop this year’s Denver Colfax Marathon and Half Marathon podiums had kids on their hip or in tow.
![Female runners at Colfax](https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2018/05/WEB-2018_ColfaxMarathon_36-700x467.jpg)
A qualifier for the prestigious Boston Marathon, Denver’s historic Colfax Marathon, which includes a half-marathon, a 10-miler, and a 5K, draws 20,000 runners from around the nation. Racers are treated to a tour of the city and are challenged to sustain a race pace at 1 mile above sea level.
Women stole the show this year, with moms taking over a majority of the marquee events’ podium spots. New Mexico distance runner Malika Camacho won the half-marathon, and Denver’s Julie Olsen-Smith took second in the full 26.2-mile road race at 3:08:53. Both winners are 36-year-old mothers of two.
And Olsen-Smith trailed only 25-year-old Emily Van Meter’s searing 6:44-per-mile pace.
Winning Moms at Colfax Marathon
![Colfax Marathon in Denver](https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2018/05/2018_ColfaxMarathon_121-700x473.jpg)
While she’s an experienced Ironman triathlon competitor, this was Olsen-Smith’s first real sanctioned road marathon. “I’ve always said that doing an Ironman is harder than going through labor,” she told us, laughing.
Olsen-Smith, a middle school teacher, said she’s faster now than before having kids. She pins her post-kids athletic success on three things: preventing injury by focusing on a triathlon instead of running exclusively, having a tight window of free time that makes her training feel mandatory, and counting on running as her number-one stress-management tool for family life in the fast zone.
![Runner Julie Olsen](https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2018/05/Julie-Olsen-700x443.jpg)