Max Wachtel carried the memory of Alex Teves for all 26.2 miles of Saturday's Rock 'n' Roll Denver Marathon, but his heart was especially heavy when he hit the 20-mile mark a block from the University of Denver.

Wachtel teaches psychology there. Teves, one of his students, died in the Century Aurora 16 theater shootings while saving his girlfriend's life, shielding her from the gunfire.

"Where it really starts hurting and starts getting painful, and the crowd is thinner, that's right around where the course went within a block or two of DU, where I teach, where Alex took his classes," Wachtel said. "That was really powerful, very emotional. I felt like he was there with me, pushing me on."

Wachtel felt Teves' spirit in a "totally overwhelming" way again at the finish line, which he crossed with a time of three hours, four minutes, 18 seconds.

"Being at a race like this, a big race especially, is always exciting," said Wachtel, 39. "You feel the energy of the crowd and you feed off that. Dedicating the run to Alex just magnified that feeling."

Wachtel was already training for the Denver Marathon when the shootings occured. In his grief, he decided to dedicate the race to Teves and other students of his who were in the theater that night. He still has periods of denial when he can't believe Teves is gone.

"I guess in a weird kind of way, knowing the shooter is still alive helps me," Wachtel said, "because I know we may be able to learn something from it."

Civic Center was packed with thousands of runners celebrating life, good health and friendship on a brilliant fall morning while Wachtel pondered the senseless way Teves lost his life. With a speciality in forensic psychology, Wachtel often conducts psychiatric evaluations of criminal suspects.

"Those are the exact kinds of things I do for a living, so it hit me hard," Wachtel said. "It's a very surreal experience, being on the other side of it."

Just because he has studied criminal minds doesn't help Wachtel understand what happened that night in Aurora.

"That action is so extreme that psychologists don't have a good answer for it," Wachtel said. "The sickest individuals don't do this kind of thing, so when it happens, we're kind of at a loss to explain it."

Forced to confront the reality of criminal behavior and the misery it causes as part of his career work, Wachtel clears his own mind with running.

"Running definitely helps, because the stress of the job can build up if you aren't careful," Wachtel said. "You need ways to be able to deal with that and take care of yourself."

Teves had just graduated with a master's degree in counseling psychology. Wachtel said he was the kind of student a teacher doesn't forget.

"He was just a great person," Wachtel said. "He was very outgoing, very extroverted, he loved life. Very athletic, always planning some crazy adventure. In class you could just feel the energy coming from him. He was always happy, always helping other students."

Wachtel said Teves was thinking about going back to school to get another master's. It didn't surprise him at all to learn Teves died saving the life of his girlfriend.

"I think he would have shielded whoever was sitting next to him," Wachtel said. "That's the kind of person Alex was."

John Meyer: 303-954-1616, or