Bolder Boulder

This is the third time that I've done Bolder Boulder. However, it is the first time that I have run it. I first did Bolder Boulder in 1999 and walked it. I probably could not have run the whole distance if I tried. Last year, I also walked it. I could have run it but walked it with my sister and her kids. This year, it was a training run so no walking.

As usual, a warm-up run was scheduled before the race. This time, the warm-up was four miles, which meant getting to the race early. Other than getting up very early, this worked out well since it was easy to drive to Boulder and find parking. After arriving in Boulder, I ran from the stadium area towards the start line.

I did not feel good during the warm-up. It took about 3 miles to start feeling okay, and even then my running still felt off. I was a bit worried about the sluggishness but tried to be positive. I also recalled Andrea commenting that the warm up before a track workout does not always provide a good indication of how the track workout will go so I hoped the same would apply to this race.

I finished a little early so I walked around the start area and watched other runners warming up. After walking around for about twenty minutes, I found my wave, which was heading towards the start line. Because I wanted to try to start slow, I stayed towards the back of the my wave. I did not want to get caught up in the surge that seems to happen at the start of running races.

For the first mile, I tried to take it easy. The race starts downhill so it is a bit hard to hold back. As I crossed the first mile marker, my time seemed a bit fast. So I tried to ease up a little for the next mile. The course starts to go slightly uphill for the second mile. Easing up seemed to help as I felt good at mile marker 2. The only downside was my split for the second mile was slower than the first mile.

For the third mile, the course continues uphill. This may be the toughest mile on the course, and my split time reflected it as it was the slowest of all of my mile splits. As I passed the 5 km banner, I was still feeling pretty good. Since the race was half over and still feeling good, I decided that I could pick up the effort a little. The increased effort lead to the fastest split of the race at the 4 mile marker. Even better, the course is primarily downhill from mile 4 to 5. This downhill section combined with a little more effort resulted in my fastest split for the entire race at mile 5. Unfortunately, just after mile 5, the course again starts to go uphill.

The unfavorable change in slope lead to a slower last mile. However, the time for this last mile was almost exactly the same as the time for the fourth mile. In fact, it was a little faster. It also meant that I easily negative split the race, which was a goal heading into the race. The icing on the cake was I set a PR for a 10K race with a time of 49:21.

Here are some things that I took away from the race:

1) It was good getting to the race very early. Parking was easy to find, which reduced a lot of stress. I had plenty of time to do a warm-up without feeling rushed.

2) If you are going to run the Bolder Boulder and can do it in less than 62 minutes, then sign up for a qualified wave. Having started in non-qualified waves in the past and seeing how hard it is to get around people, it is much easier running with a group of people who run at about your same speed.

3) I still need to figure out the right level of effort for 10K races. I am not sure whether I can go a little harder at the start and still have enough left at the end to pick up the pace.