Bolder Howard

Two days after cycling a 186-mile brevet, Howard ran in the Bolder Boulder 10K running race. And he did fine, thank you. Although official results haven't been confirmed yet, Howard's heat started at 8:04 a.m. and ended somewhere around 8:58 a.m. -- about 54 minutes -- faster than some, not so fast as others. But who's comparing? (Okay, okay, he finished 8,556 among 43,571 finishers.) Though Howard qualified for a 7 a.m. heat, he's glad he started a bit later. If he'd tried running faster, his quads woulda fallen off, particularly because of the 186-mile cycling brevet. Instead, they're just screaming bloody murder. And have appeared to gone temporarily non-functional.

Here's a video shot by his best girl of the big finish at CU's Folsom Field. Howard's hard to see, but look for the tallest guy wearing his dark blue BikeJournal jersey and dark blue shorts, running on the outside of the track and waving at the camera ten seconds into the shot.



Running 6.2 miles in 54 minutes equals approximately eight-minutes forty-five seconds per mile, which is better than Howard was hoping for after completing the brevet just days before. His goal was to finish the Bolder Boulder in under one hour. This was double the longest distance Howard has EVER ran, including training (which he didn't do), and the first run where Howard tried to grab and drink water or Gatorade on the move. Also, he had to stop and tie his shoes after about two miles. His sons couldn't get over the fact that dad didn't double-knot like he taught them to do in baseball!

The Bolder Boulder organizers almost got Howard at the six-mile mark with a group of wailing bagpipes. Bagpipes always remind Howard of his blind grandmother, and after being drained from all the running, with only emotion left, Howard's eyes welled up and he almost started weeping uncontrollably as he approached Folsom Field. Seriously, it could have gone either way, he was THAT close to losing it!

On Memorial Day 2007, nearly 23 years after you passed away, I still miss you grandma as if it was yesterday.

Update: Here it is Wednesday evening, and Howard still can't get his split times and final time from www.bolderboulder.com. Software problems compounded by server problems exponentially worsened by brainstem problems have confounded all. Drat. Would be nice to know. Legs are finally a bit better. Went on a 40.6-mile ride early today. Finished in two hours twenty-two seconds. Yeah, I'm a faster cyclist than a runner.

Updated Update: Got 'em. Final time was a bit more that I measured on my own, but what the heck. I'm 47 years old and have never ran more than 5K in my life! Started out feeling good and running faster than I was planning on going. But slow people kept getting in my way. Hahaha. Between mile 2 & 3, I had to stop to tie my left shoe. Between mile 3 & 4, I started feeling tired so consciously made the decision to take it easy and breath deeply. After passing mile 4, I was feeling really good and enjoying the run and belly dancers, so picked up the pace. The rest was just plain fun! Except for those darned bagpipes...