What I'll Be Doing On Memorial Day
With Update Below...
Every year for the past two years, I've ran the BolderBoulder on Memorial Day with about 50,000 of my best friends. This year is no different, except that based on my qualifying time of 49:23 last year, I'll be starting in the eighth wave of the race -- in the CA heat starting at 7:07 a.m.
My goal this year is to finish in under 49 minutes -- less than my age -- because, other than recognizing the top finishers in each division, the only other awards given out to citizen racers are to those who can run the course faster in minutes than their age.
The past two years, as I approached Folsom Field and the finish line, I've thought of my grandma and gotten a bit emotional. 10 fast-paced kilometers will do that to a person. In 2007, they had bagpipes playing at the final turns into Folsom, which always reminded me of my grandma, and I nearly lost it. Last year, no bagpipes, but I still thought of her.
Now here's a wonderful video of the course, narrated by Frank Shorter, and when he got to that same point in the course, yup, I kinda welled up again.
Anyway, here's what I'll be doing on Memorial Day.
Frank Shorter narrates the Bolder Boulder Course from Ryan Van Duzer on Vimeo.
And another video made by Ryan Van Duzer, who seems to be at every fun athletic event in Colorado...
Update: I beat my personal best time by 30 seconds AND MY AGE by 6 seconds! In the final mile a father was encouraging and coaching his young son and I took his words to heart -- "finish strong", "leave it all out here by the time we reach the finish line", and "push, don't let up, we're almost there." I finished with 6 seconds to spare, and wouldn't have done it without that dad. I couldn't find him afterward to thank him, though I did grab a bit of his jersey trying to get an assist as he passed me as we entered Folsom Field, saying, "I hope you don't mind." He smiled... and then took off.