I have this race report blog and I haven't actually written my OWN race recap for it! Enjoy. :)
Ben and I spent Memorial Day weekend visiting our friends, Brice and Alyssa, in BEAUTIFUL Boulder, Colorado. We made it a big ol' couples weekend with our newly-engaged Indianapolis friends, Tony & Mary, who made the trip out as well. Boulder is so awesome, we have been coming at least twice a year for the past few years. Every time we visit, we stay longer… and longer… Go there if you have a chance!
The last race I ran at altitude (8,600 ft!) was the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. It was super fun and scenic, but a running disaster- such a struggle that I almost got beaten out by a 72-year old man. Needless to say, I was pretty hesitant to sign up for another race over a mile above sea level.
Put this on your bucket list: The Bolder Boulder 10k is the largest 10k race (largest road race?) in the country, with as many – or more – than 55,000 runners participating. Since we only had an extended holiday weekend’s worth of fun, I had only been at altitude for a couple of days when we ran the Bolder Boulder 10k. Not a lot of time to acclimate! I was really conservative going into this race. In fact, it wasn’t a race – it was a run. A run for the fun of it.
Ben and I ran this together, and when you sign up, you have to provide a qualifying time so they can put you in the correct starting corral with people approximately your pace. We were smart enough to provide seed times from our NYC Marathon in November (another race we fun-runned together and walked/stopped for photos along the way).
Pre-Race
Packet pickup was in-sane!! The Bolder Boulder team has this race down to a science. As a race director, I appreciated every little detail and though put into the logistics of this 34-year-old race. We picked up our packets at the BB10k office in the 29th Street Mall, and the line for last-minute/in-person registration was crazy long! If you do this race, I recommend pre-registering online. We flew past probably 25 people in line and were the only/first ones in line for pre-registration packet pickup.
This is interesting – once you’re there and signing up in person, or if you haven’t submitted a seed time previously, you can qualify on the spot. They have treadmills on site, and you can hop on one and run a certain distance (no clue what it is – 2 miles maybe?) within a given time to determine or better your seed time. We qualified for the BA wave. B-A: How appropriate! ;)
We picked up race packets on Friday. Race packets were unique. In addition to the shoe chip, the info book itself is actually a 2012-2013 calendar showing images from previous BB10ks with race instructions and info in the front of a calendar. Again… GENIUS. What a great way to remember the race throughout the year!
Two days before the race, Brice, Ben, and I put in a solid 18-mile run on the Mesa Trail. Think uphill. Lots of uphill. {groan}
The day before the race, we went on a quick 4-mile easy run on the Boulder Creek Path. On our run we saw tons of runners doing the same kind of easy shake-out. We also ran into some of the pro/elite runners from Peru who were participating in the international team competition. They were goofing off on their run. Also, they were going really slow!! We passed them doing 8:30 min/mi pace while they were running something like 10 min/mile. Win-- The only time I’ll ever “beat” an elite! We posited from this that the slower the easy run pace, the faster the runner. So maybe I should’ve run really slow…
On race day eve – Sunday – we went for a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, spending hours in the van and eating lots of unfamiliar foods. (Note to self: bundle up next time we go up to 10,000+ feet. We froze!) We probably did about 4 miles worth of hiking that day.
The evening ended with sandwiches from Firehouse Subs (delish!) and hot sauce shenanigans involving Brice + the hottest hot sauce in the world. Brice, you’re a champ. But that’s another story for another day. :)
Race & Start
6am is early, but when you’re in Colorado and still living on Eastern time, waking up isn’t so bad! I had a few handfuls of chocolate Cheerios and a banana for breakfast. The weather was about 50 degrees and suuuuper sunny already, with no humidity whatsoever. A high of 75 degrees for the day. This is PR weather if I ever saw it!
It was completely awesome that Brice & Alyssa live .8 miles from the start line of the race. The four of us were up at 6am and beginning our warm-up run toward the start by around 6:30 for Brice’s race (A corral) at 7am sharp. There were already tons of people in the street and on the sidewalks heading toward the race, too. Four-lane 29th Street looked so different lined with portajohns and runners! Once there, we took a pre-race photo and decided where to meet after the race. Brice took off toward the front of the pack and disappeared (quickly, I should add. He finished in 10th place overall!)
There was a gun start for the beginning of every single wave. Waves were labeled by A, B, C, D, etc. etc. Within each letter wave, there were sub-corrals. So, as we waited to start, we heard the A wave gun, and then the A runners would go, followed by a gun start for the the AA runners, then the gun for the AB runners. The B runners moved up (as did we), and they took off at 7:04. At 7:04:10, right after the B wave, Ben and I started our run right on schedule. THIS is how orderly and structured the race organizers are. Wow.
Everybody took. off.! Holy cow did they take off! Even in a slower-seeded corral, Ben and I were quickly dead last of the BA wave within about 200 meters. Then, a minute later, we got swallowed up by the BB wave and those runners flew by us on both sides.
This was WONDERFUL – every k (1,000 meters) and every mile on the course was marked with an overhead banner. There was no way you could miss these landmarks. I loved that each k was marked… compared to miles, they click by so much quicker!
For a race this big (about 20,000 more people than the Indy Mini Marathon), I never felt like I was weaving in and out of people like I do in the major marathons or in big half marathons. I was passing people, but I didn’t have to run 2 extra – lateral – miles of the race to accomplish this. The corrals and waves were small enough and staggered enough that it eased the crowdedness of the course. (Also interesting – the field for the race is unlimited; they can sign up an infinite amount of people because they just keep adding more waves!)
Water stops were also extremely efficient. We skipped water altogether though. Being so dry and cool enough, I easily did without. There was both Gatorade and water. Volunteers were awesome. Alyssa said she loved the bands and entertainment on the course- there was at least one performer/performance ever mile. At one intersection, they erected a full band shell and stage! We saw belly dancers, DJs, singers, guitarists, cheerleaders… you name it.
The First 5k
On the run itself, we went out cautiously.
I had felt lightheaded in the first mile of our run on the Bobolink Trail a few days before, so I took it easy enough to avoid getting into oxygen-debt trouble early in the race. The distance kept passing by with no problem. I was getting really excited – I wore my Newton MV2 racing flats (my normal training shoes were too bulky to pack in my luggage) and my legs and feet felt fast and light.
Like I mentioned, we got swallowed up by the wave or corral behind us within a minute or two. Then, about a mile or two in, we started passing each of the ones that breezed by us. And then we started passing more people. Pretty soon, we were in the thick of a few packs. Ben reminded me to keep it at a comfortable pace – no need to burn out early and suffer for the rest of the run. I was still able to hold short conversation and point out cool or notable things while we ran.
As we approached the 5k mark, I joked, “The finish is right here… right?” and sped up the pace for a few steps as if I were sprinting to the end. Doing this, I felt completely fine! This gave me the courage to step up the pace and go a little faster for the second half. We hit the 5k (halfway) point at around 22:55. Nice.
It’s always nice not knowing where I am on a race course; I hate running races in places that I’m familiar with. For example, the Chicago Marathon (a balmy 90+ degrees) in 2010 proved this to me – when I hit Boys Town, I knew I had a loooooong way to go to the finish. Here in Boulder, I don’t know the streets and landmarks well enough. I recognize things, but I don’t necessarily know how far apart they are in relation to each other. This was good! I do remember that we passed the Hotel Boulderado, and parts of the Pearl Street Mile race course, crossed the Pearl Street Mall, and ran through a bunch of really quaint and cute neighborhoods.
Over the past week, I’ve been feeling “twinges” in my lower left leg, the beginning feelings of a chronic injury that took me completely out of running and walking for a few months in 2008. In the years since, I’ve been struggling with hip and IT band pain. In recent weeks, I’ve been fighting anemia, which has slowed down my running pace drastically and causes me to feel winded much more quickly than I would otherwise. (I’m still not 100%, but getting better every day.) Today, I felt nothing bad. I felt only smooth and refreshed. I kept thinking: I’m back! It also helped that I was now the one flying past people in this race. ;)
The Last 5k
I’ll be honest - the second half of the race was a blur. I remember passing the 7k sign, and weirdly enough, there was a 7.5k sign (Were there 8.5k and 9.5k signs?). After deciding the run my second half faster, it took a little more concentration. I couldn’t talk as easily as I had in the first half. There was a really nice downhill stretch in mile 5. Somewhere in there, Ben remarked, “This would really suck right now if this was Indiana,” referring to the sunny day and the dense humidity that always comes with Indiana summers. The day was just so beautiful and perfect!
At exactly the 9k mark, my right shoe came untied. Fortunately, I’d zip-tied my timing chip to my shoe. Rather than bend down and tie it, I just let it go. It was only .62-something miles to the end, anyway. This part of the course was relatively straight and long. I didn’t feel like I was hurting, but I didn’t feel completely relaxed either. We pressed on.
Somehow, from the 9k mark, we continued and eventually Ben said, “The 6 mile mark should be right up here at the turn.” – but I didn’t see it. We had to go completely through the turn to see the 6-mile mark, and at this point, I was going at a pace fast enough that I wanted to be done relatively soon. Then, we had to go up a hill… that was kind of cruel, but I didn’t have the breath or energy to say it out loud. All I could think was, “I train in Bloomington – I have to be better at these than people around me!” (while the devil on my shoulder told me, “Um, Hello! You’re running with people who live in Colorado!”)
Once at the top of the hill, I could see that we were about to enter the stadium. Wait a second – the race finishes with a lap around the track. Holy crap! The race was almost over!
As we entered the stadium, the surface we ran on was weird. It was a metal grate covering the field, and while it was firm, it felt springy to run on - because of the astroturf underneath, maybe? I tried to finish fast. It wasn’t a true lap around the stadium – more like a half lap (if that), especially because it cut off a good portion of the football field and wasn’t a complete lap around.
I took me too long to realize I needed to start my finish kick approach. For some reason, the 6-mile mark didn’t register to me that .2 miles is extremely short…. but I worked with the short distance I had left. I feel like I finished at a sprint – or, at least, a pace considered a sprint for me. :) Ben said he had trouble keeping on my tail as we approached the finish (which I guess is good because that means fast, woohoo!)… my only regret is that we didn’t finish hand-in-hand like we did in NYC. Totally gross, I know.
Post-Race
Once finished, race organizers had us snake out of the finish chute area in the stadium to the indoor track (or something) where we picked up our finisher bags. They were reusable green lunch bags (pre-filled with goodies like PowerBar Energy Chews (yum), pistachios, Boulder Canyon potato chips, and granola)! Then, volunteers were handing us chocolate soy milk, oranges, and bagels. I love when race directors give me something I can use everyday – as controversial as this is, I can do without the medal.
Once we picked up our lunch bags, we were directed either out of the stadium if we chose, or back into the stadium to the seats. Brice spotted us and we picked him up, choosing to sit in the FF seats and meeting back there. He went on down to sneak back onto the course to see if he could find and finish with Alyssa. Alyssa eventually showed up, after kicking some major butt in her first-ever 10k (she ran a 52:30!!). Brice finished in 32:40.
The rest of the day was kind of crazy – we took some photos after we all found each other in the stands and then walked back to B&A’s place. Our friends, Tony and Mary, had to head to the airport to fly home to Indianapolis, so we put on some non-sweaty clothes and made the trip to Denver. After we dropped them off, we went back to the stadium, where tons and tons of people were still finishing – this time, people in the N and P waves. In fact, there were people who were still BEGINNING their 10k run at 9:30am as we entered the stadium the second time!
We found some good seats right above and past the finish line in the bleachers. It was turning out to be a warm and sunny day. At 11am-ish, the pros had started their race and we arrived just in time to get settled and watch them finish. Again, GENIUS - the general public (“citizens race”) is intentionally scheduled to finish so people are there to watch the elite race finish! I spotted the Peruvians we had seen on the Creek path the day prior. Yeah, they were kind of really fast. Ethiopia swept the men’s and women’s races. We saw Deena Kastor finish third, as well as Janet Cherobon (who won the Indy Mini this year? and last year).
There was a huge tribute for Memorial Day, including a F-16 fighter jet flyover from an Air Force base in California and 21-gun salute by the CU Boulder ROTC cadets. Usually, there are also several parachute jumpers who land on the field, but it was too windy for them. The national anthem was sung, we heard “Proud to Be An American,” and they honored a couple of the Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, who were present for the ceremony.
All in all, a great day and a great race. If you’re ever in Boulder, CO for Memorial Day, you MUST run the Bolder Boulder 10k!
The last race I ran at altitude (8,600 ft!) was the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. It was super fun and scenic, but a running disaster- such a struggle that I almost got beaten out by a 72-year old man. Needless to say, I was pretty hesitant to sign up for another race over a mile above sea level.
Put this on your bucket list: The Bolder Boulder 10k is the largest 10k race (largest road race?) in the country, with as many – or more – than 55,000 runners participating. Since we only had an extended holiday weekend’s worth of fun, I had only been at altitude for a couple of days when we ran the Bolder Boulder 10k. Not a lot of time to acclimate! I was really conservative going into this race. In fact, it wasn’t a race – it was a run. A run for the fun of it.
Ben and I ran this together, and when you sign up, you have to provide a qualifying time so they can put you in the correct starting corral with people approximately your pace. We were smart enough to provide seed times from our NYC Marathon in November (another race we fun-runned together and walked/stopped for photos along the way).
Pre-Race
Packet pickup was in-sane!! The Bolder Boulder team has this race down to a science. As a race director, I appreciated every little detail and though put into the logistics of this 34-year-old race. We picked up our packets at the BB10k office in the 29th Street Mall, and the line for last-minute/in-person registration was crazy long! If you do this race, I recommend pre-registering online. We flew past probably 25 people in line and were the only/first ones in line for pre-registration packet pickup.
 |
| Me & Brice running the Mesa Trail |
We picked up race packets on Friday. Race packets were unique. In addition to the shoe chip, the info book itself is actually a 2012-2013 calendar showing images from previous BB10ks with race instructions and info in the front of a calendar. Again… GENIUS. What a great way to remember the race throughout the year!
Two days before the race, Brice, Ben, and I put in a solid 18-mile run on the Mesa Trail. Think uphill. Lots of uphill. {groan}
The day before the race, we went on a quick 4-mile easy run on the Boulder Creek Path. On our run we saw tons of runners doing the same kind of easy shake-out. We also ran into some of the pro/elite runners from Peru who were participating in the international team competition. They were goofing off on their run. Also, they were going really slow!! We passed them doing 8:30 min/mi pace while they were running something like 10 min/mile. Win-- The only time I’ll ever “beat” an elite! We posited from this that the slower the easy run pace, the faster the runner. So maybe I should’ve run really slow…
On race day eve – Sunday – we went for a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, spending hours in the van and eating lots of unfamiliar foods. (Note to self: bundle up next time we go up to 10,000+ feet. We froze!) We probably did about 4 miles worth of hiking that day.
6am is early, but when you’re in Colorado and still living on Eastern time, waking up isn’t so bad! I had a few handfuls of chocolate Cheerios and a banana for breakfast. The weather was about 50 degrees and suuuuper sunny already, with no humidity whatsoever. A high of 75 degrees for the day. This is PR weather if I ever saw it!
Everybody took. off.! Holy cow did they take off! Even in a slower-seeded corral, Ben and I were quickly dead last of the BA wave within about 200 meters. Then, a minute later, we got swallowed up by the BB wave and those runners flew by us on both sides.
This was WONDERFUL – every k (1,000 meters) and every mile on the course was marked with an overhead banner. There was no way you could miss these landmarks. I loved that each k was marked… compared to miles, they click by so much quicker!
For a race this big (about 20,000 more people than the Indy Mini Marathon), I never felt like I was weaving in and out of people like I do in the major marathons or in big half marathons. I was passing people, but I didn’t have to run 2 extra – lateral – miles of the race to accomplish this. The corrals and waves were small enough and staggered enough that it eased the crowdedness of the course. (Also interesting – the field for the race is unlimited; they can sign up an infinite amount of people because they just keep adding more waves!)
Water stops were also extremely efficient. We skipped water altogether though. Being so dry and cool enough, I easily did without. There was both Gatorade and water. Volunteers were awesome. Alyssa said she loved the bands and entertainment on the course- there was at least one performer/performance ever mile. At one intersection, they erected a full band shell and stage! We saw belly dancers, DJs, singers, guitarists, cheerleaders… you name it.
The First 5k
On the run itself, we went out cautiously.
I had felt lightheaded in the first mile of our run on the Bobolink Trail a few days before, so I took it easy enough to avoid getting into oxygen-debt trouble early in the race. The distance kept passing by with no problem. I was getting really excited – I wore my Newton MV2 racing flats (my normal training shoes were too bulky to pack in my luggage) and my legs and feet felt fast and light.
Like I mentioned, we got swallowed up by the wave or corral behind us within a minute or two. Then, about a mile or two in, we started passing each of the ones that breezed by us. And then we started passing more people. Pretty soon, we were in the thick of a few packs. Ben reminded me to keep it at a comfortable pace – no need to burn out early and suffer for the rest of the run. I was still able to hold short conversation and point out cool or notable things while we ran.
As we approached the 5k mark, I joked, “The finish is right here… right?” and sped up the pace for a few steps as if I were sprinting to the end. Doing this, I felt completely fine! This gave me the courage to step up the pace and go a little faster for the second half. We hit the 5k (halfway) point at around 22:55. Nice.
It’s always nice not knowing where I am on a race course; I hate running races in places that I’m familiar with. For example, the Chicago Marathon (a balmy 90+ degrees) in 2010 proved this to me – when I hit Boys Town, I knew I had a loooooong way to go to the finish. Here in Boulder, I don’t know the streets and landmarks well enough. I recognize things, but I don’t necessarily know how far apart they are in relation to each other. This was good! I do remember that we passed the Hotel Boulderado, and parts of the Pearl Street Mile race course, crossed the Pearl Street Mall, and ran through a bunch of really quaint and cute neighborhoods.
Over the past week, I’ve been feeling “twinges” in my lower left leg, the beginning feelings of a chronic injury that took me completely out of running and walking for a few months in 2008. In the years since, I’ve been struggling with hip and IT band pain. In recent weeks, I’ve been fighting anemia, which has slowed down my running pace drastically and causes me to feel winded much more quickly than I would otherwise. (I’m still not 100%, but getting better every day.) Today, I felt nothing bad. I felt only smooth and refreshed. I kept thinking: I’m back! It also helped that I was now the one flying past people in this race. ;)
The Last 5k
I’ll be honest - the second half of the race was a blur. I remember passing the 7k sign, and weirdly enough, there was a 7.5k sign (Were there 8.5k and 9.5k signs?). After deciding the run my second half faster, it took a little more concentration. I couldn’t talk as easily as I had in the first half. There was a really nice downhill stretch in mile 5. Somewhere in there, Ben remarked, “This would really suck right now if this was Indiana,” referring to the sunny day and the dense humidity that always comes with Indiana summers. The day was just so beautiful and perfect!
At exactly the 9k mark, my right shoe came untied. Fortunately, I’d zip-tied my timing chip to my shoe. Rather than bend down and tie it, I just let it go. It was only .62-something miles to the end, anyway. This part of the course was relatively straight and long. I didn’t feel like I was hurting, but I didn’t feel completely relaxed either. We pressed on.
Somehow, from the 9k mark, we continued and eventually Ben said, “The 6 mile mark should be right up here at the turn.” – but I didn’t see it. We had to go completely through the turn to see the 6-mile mark, and at this point, I was going at a pace fast enough that I wanted to be done relatively soon. Then, we had to go up a hill… that was kind of cruel, but I didn’t have the breath or energy to say it out loud. All I could think was, “I train in Bloomington – I have to be better at these than people around me!” (while the devil on my shoulder told me, “Um, Hello! You’re running with people who live in Colorado!”)
Once at the top of the hill, I could see that we were about to enter the stadium. Wait a second – the race finishes with a lap around the track. Holy crap! The race was almost over!
As we entered the stadium, the surface we ran on was weird. It was a metal grate covering the field, and while it was firm, it felt springy to run on - because of the astroturf underneath, maybe? I tried to finish fast. It wasn’t a true lap around the stadium – more like a half lap (if that), especially because it cut off a good portion of the football field and wasn’t a complete lap around.
Finish time-- 43:35
First 5k – 22:55
Second 5k – 20:40
First 5k – 22:55
Second 5k – 20:40
Here are some splits (totally love that they recorded mile splits!) from the Bolder Boulder 10k results website:
Once finished, race organizers had us snake out of the finish chute area in the stadium to the indoor track (or something) where we picked up our finisher bags. They were reusable green lunch bags (pre-filled with goodies like PowerBar Energy Chews (yum), pistachios, Boulder Canyon potato chips, and granola)! Then, volunteers were handing us chocolate soy milk, oranges, and bagels. I love when race directors give me something I can use everyday – as controversial as this is, I can do without the medal.
Once we picked up our lunch bags, we were directed either out of the stadium if we chose, or back into the stadium to the seats. Brice spotted us and we picked him up, choosing to sit in the FF seats and meeting back there. He went on down to sneak back onto the course to see if he could find and finish with Alyssa. Alyssa eventually showed up, after kicking some major butt in her first-ever 10k (she ran a 52:30!!). Brice finished in 32:40.
The rest of the day was kind of crazy – we took some photos after we all found each other in the stands and then walked back to B&A’s place. Our friends, Tony and Mary, had to head to the airport to fly home to Indianapolis, so we put on some non-sweaty clothes and made the trip to Denver. After we dropped them off, we went back to the stadium, where tons and tons of people were still finishing – this time, people in the N and P waves. In fact, there were people who were still BEGINNING their 10k run at 9:30am as we entered the stadium the second time!
We found some good seats right above and past the finish line in the bleachers. It was turning out to be a warm and sunny day. At 11am-ish, the pros had started their race and we arrived just in time to get settled and watch them finish. Again, GENIUS - the general public (“citizens race”) is intentionally scheduled to finish so people are there to watch the elite race finish! I spotted the Peruvians we had seen on the Creek path the day prior. Yeah, they were kind of really fast. Ethiopia swept the men’s and women’s races. We saw Deena Kastor finish third, as well as Janet Cherobon (who won the Indy Mini this year? and last year).
There was a huge tribute for Memorial Day, including a F-16 fighter jet flyover from an Air Force base in California and 21-gun salute by the CU Boulder ROTC cadets. Usually, there are also several parachute jumpers who land on the field, but it was too windy for them. The national anthem was sung, we heard “Proud to Be An American,” and they honored a couple of the Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, who were present for the ceremony.
All in all, a great day and a great race. If you’re ever in Boulder, CO for Memorial Day, you MUST run the Bolder Boulder 10k!
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