Brittany Lee raises her hands in the air as she crosses the finish line in first during the Colfax Marathon at City Park on May 21, 2017, in Denver. The 12th annual Colfax Marathon took thousands of runners on an urban tour of Denver, including a run through the Denver Zoo for those participating in the half marathon.
Competing on the final night of a four-month comedy improv contest is a pretty unorthodox way to count down the final hours to a marathon that starts a few minutes after sunrise the next morning. It worked out pretty well for Brittany Lee.
Improv and running are her two passions, so she set her alarm for 4:15 a.m. Sunday to run the Colfax Marathon after performing Saturday night in the final four of “Denver’s Next Improv Star” at the Bovine Metropolis Theater. She came up short in the comedy contest but didn’t let it discourage her.
“I was like, ‘All right, I didn’t win that, but I can go win the marathon,'” Lee said.
And she did.
Not only did the Denver resident win Sunday on four hours of sleep, she broke the woman’s course record in two hours, 52 minutes, 50 seconds.
“I just wanted to go out and kill it,” Lee said. “I felt good and I knew once I got to Mile 22, it was just hanging on. It’s a PR for me by five minutes.”
Lee, 28, ran for Mullen High School and Colorado State, where she walked on as a junior. Now her goal is to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials in the marathon. She’ll probably need to take about eight minutes off the personal-best she ran Sunday, and she knows she won’t make the Olympic team even if she does qualify, but that’s not the point.
“I want to be up there with my idols and I know I can do it,” Lee said. “You’re working so hard and you appreciate how hard they work, how amazing they are. It’s just a privilege for me if I get to run with my idols in the same race. I’ve been running since I was 14 and I’m just starting to get good and winning. It takes a long time but it’s worth every minute.”
In high school and college she ran the 800, the mile and cross country.
“I was never amazing,” Lee said. “I was never state champion, but I love running and I just love how far you can take it. It’s up to you.”
The men’s marathon winner has big dreams, too. Ramon Paredes finished in 2:31:07. A 22-year-old student from Chihuahua, Mexico, Paredes took five minutes off his Colfax-winning time from 2015.
Paredes is training for the Pan Am championships this year and hopes to make the Mexican Olympic team one day. He has no shoe contract.
“I’m pretty humble,” Paredes said. “I don’t have a lot of means, in terms of funds. I’m doing this because I am expecting bigger and better things.”
The same goes for Lee, in running and in comedy. Along the way she tries to encourage others to pursue their dreams, starting with setting aside the fear of failure.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s a million people better than you, there’s always going to be people better than you,” Lee said. “The biggest thing is commitment. If you’re going to go for your dream, it’s an everyday thing you have to plan.
“With improv, I do it every single day, just like running. You build it into your schedule. If you want it, you find a way to do it. And running, I’m so thankful for it, because now as I’m on this improv and comedy journey, I’m like, ‘It’s taken me 15 years to get good at running, it might take 15 years to get good at comedy. But if you love it, it’s worth the journey.’ And it’s all about the journey.”
Colfax Marathon results
Marathon — Men
Name … Hometown … Time
Ramon Paredes Becerra … Chihuahua, Mexico … 2:31:07.20
