This weekend we left the kids with my parents and headed up to my old stomping grounds for the 2012 Boulder Bolder 10K. A group of girls from our old Sunday School class decided to run it this year. For the past few months the girls had been running together on the weekends to get in shape for the race. All of the other guys, except for me, watched the kids while the girls ran. I hadn't run a race in 10 years, nor do a I recall running this long, since the 2002 Bloomsday 12K in Spokane. Like Bloomsday, this year there were approximately 47,000 timed finishers that ran the Boulder Bolder.
On Saturday night the girls got together for some spaghetti and to make their matching tie dye shirts. I was feeling a bit under the weather so I stayed home with Jonathan. The next day we dropped off the kids and took the scenic route to Westminster, where we stayed the night. We all went out to dinner and it was nice to watch (and laugh) at all the other families trying to eat and wrangle their kids at the same time while we enjoyed a nice dinner. We tried not to laugh too hard, because although it was entertaining, we certainly felt their pain.
The runners all piled into a car this morning and were taken to the runner drop off by Dwight, Brittany's husband. We all were going to meet in section 115 in the stadium after the race. I was in an earlier wave then the girls and I wanted to give them their own time, so I left them and walked to the start by myself. I ended up getting to the start with the KBCO (local radio station) wave, and at 8:25 a.m. they fired the gun and we were off and running.
The course was pretty flat and at about 1,500 feet less then where we live, so that definitely helped. However, since we all hadn't run a race in quite some time we weren't able to qualify and spent the entire race looking for our next hole in the pack to get around the kids and joggers. There was great support along the way. People had made snacks and had sprinklers out and a few even had a slip and slide set up for those less then serious participants. I ran slightly faster then I had expected, considering I had only really been running half the distance once or twice during the week as part of my regular fitness routine (read: I didn't bother training). In the end I only finished two and a half minutes slower then when I ran the course 12 years ago in college and had been training for it. My pace today was faster then 10 years ago at Bloomsday. Stacey finished almost exactly where she thought she would.
Aaron
Ran the course in 53 minutes and some change. I averaged 7 miles per hour, or, in other words, ran about 8:39 pace per mile. I finished in the top 15% of all runners. More fun though, I finished seventh for 34 year old males from Colorado Springs.
Stacey
Ran the course in 61 minutes and some change. She averaged slightly over 6 miles per hour, or, in other words, ran about a 9:51 pace per mile. She finished fifth for 35 year old females from Colorado Springs.
Considering we didn't really take this that seriously, we're pretty happy with our results. Neither of us really trained for it nor are we distance runners (yet). Seeing how well we did compared to others makes us want to take it a little more seriously next year. Running is one of those sports where it seems like you can get faster with age, up to a certain point.
After the race we got our goodie bags and free beer, and settled down in the stadium to watch the women's and men's elite race and Memorial Day tribute (including parachuters and a flyby from two F-18s). I went down to the field and got some good footage of Stacey finishing up the race (first video) and to get some footage of others (second video). Stacey's video is a great example how hard it was to dodge the people and kids that sometimes were a little unpredictable. We had a really good time and hope to do it again next year.
