On Monday, I ran my annual third BolderBoulder. I love Boulder, CO and this race is the most fun, if not chaotic, run of the year. The weekend began with a 10-mile Garden of the Gods training run on Saturday morning with my running peeps who also ran the BB on Monday. The Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run is coming up in less than two weeks and overall TCR training is the priority for me this summer so I stayed on schedule with this run despite having the upcoming BB race. That said – I took the Saturday run very easy.
Sunday was a rest, recovery day. The BolderBoulder is a family affair for the Mods, we always go up together. This year my son, Andrew, participated in his first 10K run and my other two children cheered us on with some friends from the stands. My sister, Rupal and her husband, Jamie also ran the BB and we stayed with them in Denver with plans of a short drive into Boulder for the race.
The Mods drove up to Denver on Sunday afternoon and hit Whole Foods for lunch and pre-race fuel shopping. Dinner was take-out from Rebellion Pizza. I indulged in a few slices of the most outstanding vegan veggie pizza.
The next morning, the seven of us woke up pre-dawn and began our race day journey. Fueled with my chia/hemp shake and a few sips of Gatorade on the way up to Boulder, I felt race ready. Unfortunately, I was ready a little too early. Mark, Jamie and I were scheduled for wave times beginning around 7:15 a.m. Rupal and Andrew were scheduled a bit later but we all headed out to the start together. We parked at the stadium and hopped on the bus to take us to the start area. We anticipated about a 15-20 minute ride to the start. The ride ended up taking almost an hour. The start was chaotic, lines for port-o-potties and gear check were long and we ended up starting in waves much later than scheduled. I was frustrated by the madness of the morning and late start time – the last couple of years seemed to go more smoothly. Several of my running crew took the RTD ride and run from Broomfield to Boulder and also experienced some delays. I think in the end it is just too big of a race with 50,000+ runners to go off without any hitch.
Andrew on the right, having fun
I felt great for the run itself. Having started a little late, there was some crowd dodging – but the since the BB does draw so many runners, I think that is part of the deal regardless. Aid stations presented another bottleneck – they were positioned on both sides of the course so people were stopped on both sides, leaving only a narrow lane in the middle for those of us who wanted to run through. The BB’s festive atmosphere is catching- the stress of the morning disappearing as I ran with a crowd past the belly-dancers, music, slip-and-slides and flying marshmallows. I knew pretty early after hitting a few thicker pockets of runners, that I wouldn’t be hitting a 10K PR.
run Andrew!
I still pushed my pace as best as I could and ended up with a PR for the BB course with a 54:08. Last year’s Classic 10K in Colorado Springs remains my PR (51:30).
me, game face, trying to get a kick at the end LOL
Post race, I quickly found Mark and Jamie. We grabbed our goodies – lunch bag, free beer and headed into the stadium where we were planning to meet our running group (team Beanie Weenies :-) ). The crowd was thick though and it was taking a while to find the Beans – so Mark went outside to wait for Andrew while I searched for my friends. I finally found them and was so pleased that two of them had hit PRs! And Julie had just completed her 10th consecutive BB!
The girls went to shop the expo and I began a search for everyone in the family. It just seemed as soon as we found one person, we lost another. Cell phone texts were delayed and we couldn’t hear a thing when we tried to call each other. Long story short, we did finally find the kids, my sis, her hubby and we spent a great afternoon at the post-race the Expo.
Mark running a great BB 50:59
The weekend ended with a nice late lunch, early dinner at my favorite restaurant, The Watercourse in Denver. We packed up our stuff and headed back home for laundry and prep for the last two days of school.
Next up: The Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run, June 13, 2010.
I didn’t take any pictures pre race – argh! And unfortunately, in all the mayhem, I failed to get any pictures of us after. Here’s one of the Beans post race.
Julie, me, Kathleen and Rhonda
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