Connilee Walter captured the women's win in the Super Half Marathon.


RESULTS: Check out your race results in Finish Line Index
VIDEO: Start of the Super Half Marathon
VIDEO: Start of the Super Half Marathon
PHOTOS: Gallery 1 ** Gallery 2 ** Gallery 3 ** Gallery 4 ** Gallery 5 ** Gallery 6

by Travis Duncan

It felt like Super Bowl Sunday in downtown Colorado Springs this morning. At the corner of Colorado Avenue and Tejon Street, The Sunny Side Up Brass Band kicked out the sounds of piping hot New Orleans jazz and more than 1,100 runners milled about nearby, doing their best to keep warm before the start of the second annual Super Half Marathon and Game Day 5K.

The course for this year’s race followed the Jack Quinn's Running Club route to the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail. Runners completed an out-and-back course and ran across a finish line just south of the Bijou St. Bridge decorated in game day fashion, featuring a bit of astroturf and a goal post topped with two American flags.

Tommy Manning, 36, of Colorado Springs finished first in the Men’s 5K with a time of 17:12. Manning said there had been a bit of battling for position on the course with runner Paul Mann, who took the lead around a mile into the race.

“Then about two miles in, I took the lead," Manning said, "but he was never more than a few steps back. In that last 100 yards, I thought he might surge and take it.”

Manning has been injured since the Pikes Peak Ascent last August. “I just started training in January, so I’m not doing any long mileage runs right now.” Manning said his ankle didn’t bother him at all on the run today and he was excited to get it fully healed for a full season of summer mountain running.

Amanda Ewing, 32, of Colorado Springs finished first in the Women’s 5K with a time of 19:07.

“I had no expectations,” she said. “I didn’t even look at my watch. I’m trying for a 50K and a 50-miler in April and May, so I haven’t really been doing any speed work. I just focused on the guy in front of me and tried to not let him get away.”

Ewing said she would be running up the Barr Trail later in the day, instead of watching the big game. “Phil Golding started an anti-Super Bowl run about 4 years ago and they go up every year. We all run up, have some hot chocolate, and head back down,” she said.

Ryan Derrick, 20, of Colorado Springs won the Men’s Super Half Marathon with a time of 1:15.  

“This was my first half marathon, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said. “I usually run 5Ks, 10Ks, and steeplechase. This was kind of like steeple in that you really have to dig deep and endure a lot of suffering in the middle.”

Derrick said he was never more than 10 feet apart from last year's champion, Scott Spillman, 26, who finished with a PR of 1:15:10.

“I got a PR by more than 2 minutes,” Spillman said. “I wouldn’t have gone that fast, especially the second half without having him right there.”

“We ran side-by-side for a couple miles in the middle,” Derrick said. “Then we started throwing in some surges there in that last part.”

Connilee Walter, 39, of Colorado Springs finished first in the Women’s Super Half Marathon with a time of 1:29:15.

“I really wanted to go out strong, but not too fast, and then find my fast on the way back because it’s downhill,” she said. “It was between mile 5 and 6 when things thinned out and I took the lead. Then I just held steady and stayed with a good group of guys that ended up coming in ahead of me.”

Walter was greeted at the finish line by her husband and their five children, all cheering her on.

“The weather is much more family friendly this year. It was really cold last year,” she said.

Although Walter said she wasn’t very excited about the upcoming Super Bowl, there were many others who showed up with football on their minds.

Many runners wore clothes showing support for the 49ers or the Ravens. Jeffrey Goodwin, 30, of Colorado Springs took it a step further, running the entire 5K with his brother’s high school football helmet on his head and his Spalding football tucked under his arm. “I thought there’d be more folks out here dressed up,” he said.