Every year I try to do an athletic event of some sort that gives me a goal, an objective, a reason to work-out, a reason to bust off the flab. Last year it was the Colorado Marathon. This year, I haven’t really picked one yet despite a near religious fanaticism for the gym… pick two of the following each day: lifting, swimming, running or biking (typically 5days per week plus occasionally something on the weekend). So when I was invited to run BolderBOULDER07 by my sister Kris and her friend Gina (who also happens to be the mom of one of the girls my youngest daughter’s soccer team), I jumped at the chance. I hadn’t run it since 2002 and thought it would be fun. Run each year on Memorial Day, the BolderBOULDER is a world class event and one of the largest 10k races anywhere. This year there were over 50,000 runners and walkers registered. What makes BolderBOULDER somewhat unique is their wave starting system where they put you into groups of roughly 1,000 racers based on your projected finish time. Each group starts a couple minutes apart to give each pack a chance to break-up before the next wave rolls out. This allows you to race with others that will have a similar pace and makes it one of the better mega races to take a shot at an “official” PR.
Gina had never run a BolderBOULDER before and was shocked at its magnitude. It really is an amazing bit of logistics to close off 6mi of Boulder city streets (including major arteries like 30th, 28th, Pearl and Folsom), get 50,000 people lined up in the right spot, staff a half dozen aid stations, line up enough port-a-potties and then get everyone a goody bag and a beer at the end. Plus clean-up the whole thing and get the streets back open by late in the afternoon. Epic. Even though this year was the 29th running of the race and the organizers have had plenty of time to perfect their processes, it’s still a spectacular thing when you realize what it took to pull it off.
Long story made longer, I finished in just over an hour. I’m certain I could have run it much faster in my current state of tune, but this year it really was just for the experience and to enjoy the run with Kris and Gina. Unlike in the past when I pushed much harder and didn’t really observe much of what was going on, I really had fun checking out the bands, belly dancers, yard parties and random folks tempting you to pull off to the side (“LAST BACON STOP BEFORE THE FINISH LINE!!!!!”). All in all, a good time and I highly recommend this race to anyone who wants or needs to do a 10k.
Dave’s BolderBOULDER Race History
(I seem to be setting a trend in the wrong direction.)
| Year | Bib Number | Last Name | First Name | Official Time | Age |
| 2001 | MM518 | Fuller | David | 00:54:25 | 30 |
| 2002 | GG348 | Fuller | David | 00:47:31 | 31 |
| 2007 | HD396 | Fuller | David | 01:03:02 | 36 |
[...] has come and gone in the race’s 30th anniversary addition. I once again competed, but unlike 2007, this year I ran my own race just to see what would happen and achieved a much faster result. In [...]