March 20, 2013

11 of 65

BOLDER BOULDER

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;
but when I became a man, I put aside childish things.”  1 Corinthians 13:11

The quotation from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians contains much wisdom, even without considering the spiritual context intended by Paul.  As we go through life, things are important to us for a while, and then we outgrow them.  “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary is a beautiful song illustrating that concept.   There are also things in life that outgrow us.  The Bolder Boulder road race might be one.

In Colorado and nearby states, the Bolder Boulder 10k is for many the road race of the year.  Each Memorial Day, tens of thousands of people flock to the streets of Boulder to run or walk the 6.2 mile course or simply to observe the spectacle.  The race was conceived on a smaller scale.  Only some 2700 people participated in the first race in 1979.  As I recall, that race started around noon, or very late morning and was followed by a picnic lunch.  I did not run that year.  In fact, I predicted that it would not be successful.  Why, I asked, would anyone want to run on pavement at noon on Memorial Day.  The heat would  make the whole experience unpleasant.

I missed badly with that prediction.  In the 30+ years that have followed, well over a million athletes of all abilities have participated; and I have done so myself a number of times.  Some years it has been very hot.  Other years I have run through rain and near freezing temperatures.  Often, the weather has been perfect.  Some years, I ran quite slowly; one year I finished ahead of Frank Shorter.

The race has become larger nearly every year.  For the past few years, more than 50,000 people have registered.  With the growing numbers, adaptations have been made.  The course has been changed, and the start now occurs in waves.  The fastest runners, those who are expected to finish in under 38 minutes, begin at 7:00 a.m.  A minute or so later, the runners who expect to take longer than 38 minutes, but less than 41 minutes begin, and so on until the last group starts at about 9:30 a.m.  Thus, 500 to 600 runners or walkers begin at the same time and there is less congestion on the course.

However, having that many people in one place does cause congestion throughout the rest of the town.  Parking is difficult.  It is necessary to arrive at least an hour before your individual start time in order to find a parking place and then walk or jog (it is a good warm up) probably a mile or two to reach the starting area.  After the race ends in Folsom Field, the stadium on the University of Colorado campus, there are crowds of people waiting in line for the post-race refreshments.  That is followed by another mile or two of walking or jogging back to the car.  Some years I enjoyed the spectacle, but as time passed I realized that I was getting too old for all of that.  I decided that I didn’t want to participate any longer.

My son, Michael, is much younger and he continued to run most years.  Cathy and I would always go to watch him – so I didn’t really avoid the congestion; I approached it differently.  In 2006, Michael entered, and because he is fast he was placed in the second wave.  Personally, I avoid eating for at least 12 hours before a race to allow my body to concentrate on running and not on digesting.  Michael has never subscribed to that theory, so he went out to dinner with some friends the night before the race.  Unfortunately, that meal resulted in food poisoning or at least the eating of something that violently disagreed with him.  He was still feeling ill at 5:00 on Memorial Day morning when we needed to leave for the Boulder, and decided that we was not going to run.  I hate to see an entry fee go to waste, so I said, “Let me take your number and I will run for you.”

That is what I did.  I lined up with the second group.  Everyone around me was in his or her 20s or 30s.  All were lean and incredibly fit.  I was 58 years old and a little heavier than I should have been.  It seemed that the others were looking at me and thinking, “What is he doing here?”  I lined up in the very last row of the wave to stay out of everyone’s way.  When the starting gun was fired, I took off as fast as I reasonably dared, knowing that I had 6.2 miles of running ahead of me.  By the time we reached the first kilometer mark, I was next to last of the approximately 500 runners in the wave.  By the end of the first mile, quite a few athletes from the wave behind us had passed me.  People were passing me all through the race as I finished about 10 minutes slower than would be expected of one starting in the second wave.  I enjoyed the experience.  Having the opportunity to sort of compete with such exceptional runners left me feeling like an athlete, even though I was old enough to receive senior discounts in most stores in town.

I haven’t run in the Boulder Bolder since 2006.  These days I prefer smaller races like the Father’s Day 5k that starts at the Apex Recreation Center only a mile from home.  I have run in that event 3 of the past 4 years and finished second in my age group each time.  A different person beat me each year, so I know there are plenty folks my age who are faster than I am.  Who knows; I may even run the Bolder Boulder again one of these years – or that may be a “childish thing” that has put me aside.