Bolder Boulder 2011 Race Report

I wasn't planning on doing a race report for Bolder Boulder but I was motivated after reading a friend and co-worker's report. Reading Melissa's report reminded me that it was more than just a 10k race, but a unique experience I was fortunate to participate in with around 55,000 other runners.

Before the experience I was very skeptical of how the organizers were going to get that many people through a 6 mile course without it feeling too crowded and like I couldn't set my own pace (not that I was setting any records after an unplanned two week break from training). Well, apparently after putting this race on for 32 years they learned a few things and for the most part everything about the race was a smooth experience.

Registration

The organization and logistics started with the registration process. Like many large races the start is separated into waves based on expected pace.  The first smart thing the race organizers did was require proof of pace - not something I had seen before in a 10k race.  The qualifying race to prove your pace had to be within a year, or, you could qualify for a wave by running on a treadmill at the Bolder Boulder store, a retail storefront that served as a pick up point for race packets and merchandise.

The second cool thing about registration was the option to donate your race t-shirt to charity.  As my wife will attest, I have more race shirts than I can use, so I thought this was a great idea to help benefit charity.

Pre-Race

Boulder is a good size city but there is no way for 55,000 runners and their spectators to park within walking distance to the start or finish. There looked to be a thorough shuttle system going and I saw many people biking to the start (hey this is Boulder after all!). However, I was fortunate to have a friend who live a few miles from race start so I made the not so brilliant decision to park there and run to the start.  The problem was it wasn't the couple of miles I expected, it was 4 miles.

In between the four mile run to the start and the start of the 6 mile race I still had to pick up my race packet (note to self - sign up for pre-race day packet pickup for future races).  It took about 40 minutes in line to get my race packet, leaving me about six minutes to put on my number and timing chip, run to the start before my wave started.  Standing in line for 40 minutes after a four mile warm up made for a rough first mile.

Race Time

The actual race experience was fantastic. It had everything from live music, to belly dancers, to neighborhood residents cranking tunes, to Colorado University students drinking beer (and offering it to any runner who would partake) and the slip 'n slide that seemed to be the hit of the runners! The finish was a CU's Folsom Field, a 53,000 seat stadium for the football team, which was already packed with people when I finished, and only got fuller as more racers finished and made their way to the stands to meet family and friends.

Post Race

After the race I met up with co-workers from TrainingPeaks who had also done the race and took in the spectacle of the experience.  One of most memorable moments was watching a group of Marines come running in formation with the front two holding a US and Marine Corps flag (remember the race was on Memorial Day).

As more and more people saw the tight formation dresssed in green running through the chaos the cheers started building until just before the finish when the Marines stopped and did several pushups, still in formation. At that point the crowd eruped and it gave me the chills.

Thankfully I didn't have to run back to my friends house as they were kind enough to come pick me up and I enjoyed a beer and veggie burger at the afternoon barbcue.  One thing I'll change about next year is to stay to watch the men's and women's pro race (four of the top five men finished in under 30 minutes!), see the military jets fly over at Noon and see the parachutist drop into the stadium.

Oh, and find a way to pick up my race packet before race day.

One Week Down, A Lifetime To Go

It's been a little more than a week since I moved to Colorado and I've thoroughly wiped myself out.  After not having the time to get regular workouts because of work and commuting I've been making up for lost time. In the past week I've done 3 runs, 2 bike rides and 1 swim. I even shot some hoops (which I also haven't done in a long time!) I'm now thoroughly wiped out and it feels great! Unfortunately I had forgotten the fulfillment I get from regular training and ending the weekend completely spent.

The first week of work was spectacular! Peaksware is filled with an incredibly passionate and authentic group of people who all seem to thrive as much as I do on either swimming, biking, running or all three! It's no wonder TrainingPeaks is so successful - I guess that is what happens when you put a bunch of passionate and driven athletes together and get them working on products that help other athletes be their best!

Colorado is everything I thought it might be. It is a beautiful part of the country filled with people who love the outdoors. During a two hour ride on Saturday I must have seen 150 other cyclists, and even more throughout the rest of the day while I was getting errands done throughout the day.

As week 2 starts the lesson I've learned is that I don't need to catch up on my training all in one week! Besides, going from living at sea level to living at 5,400 ft above sea level necessitates that I take several weeks to acclimate!

Stay tuned!

The New Year's Day Run

I don't remember exactly when it started.

On some New Year's Day morning several years ago I woke up and decided to run. The distance happened to be 10 miles, which at the time was a stretch for my athletic endurance.  Since that day, every year, on New Year's Day I'm compelled to run 10 miles.

Some years the 10 miles has felt like 20 while other years (typically when I'm in the midst of training for a marathon or Ironman) the 10 miles was a cakewalk. I tend do some pretty deep thinking when I run (like most runners I suspect), so combining the stillness of a holiday morning plus the mindset of starting a new year - the contemplative thoughts get pretty active.

I've tried to figure out why I'm so compelled to run on New Year's Day, even more than my normal desire to run. I think the reasons have changed over the years as my age brings new perspective and depending on what happens to be going on in my life. However, I think the underlying drive though is a desire to shock the system on a day that has such symbolic meaning for new beginnings.

Even if I'm not in a place where I feel like I need to have a "new beginning", I find value in pushing my body out of it's comfort zone for a while. Over the year's I've had moments of such clarity while running that I've come to expect that if I head out for a run with some problem or challenge on my mind, that by the end of the run a solution will have made itself clear to me.

I've read or heard two people I admire very much tell stories of how a run, outside of their comfort zone, brought clarity to their lives in an otherwise challenging time. One was Tony Robbins at an event I heard him speak at, and the other was Dean Karnazes in his book Ultramarathon Man. Early on, this brought some validation to pushing myself on a New Year's Day run. Now, it's so ingrained in my annual routine that I don't give it a second thought no matter what shape I'm in.

By running on New Year's Day, maybe I'm expecting (or hoping) for that clarity of thought that Tony and Dean experienced as I contemplate how I want to craft the upcoming year of my life. Whatever the reason, I always feel better when I get back versus when I left; I've run off any extra calories I might have consumed the night before; and I feel ready to face the new year with optimism.

By the way, this year's run will feel more like 20 miles than a cakewalk.

Catching up

Hanging out the with the Tour de France devil at EurobikeWow! It's been a long time since I got a blog post up. To bring everyone up to speed, here's the short version of why.

After my DNF at Lake Placid last year and with my 40th birthday this year I decided in early 2010 that while I couldn't get back to Ironman to redeem myself just yet, I wanted to do something big.

After doing some research and talking to friends I decided on the Vermont 50 ultramarathon. I had never run longer than a marathon before and in the long term I thought it would help with the mental and physical stamina needed for my next Ironman attempt.

Soon thereafter I landed a dream job as the Marketing Manager for a bike company which meant a trip to Interbike. However, Interbike ended the day before the Vermont 50 which meant no go on the Vermont 50, so, I looked for a different race, and found the Rhode Island 6-hour Ultramarathon in November.

Training was progressing well until the trade show time in September. While it severely limited my training, I felt privileged to be able to go to Eurobike in Friedrichshafen, Germany and Interbike in Las Vegas in September. But, between the travel, jetlag and 12+ hour days at each one week show, I missed several key long runs.

Unfortunately this left me playing catchup on my training. If you've ever tried to play catchup on any endurance sports training you'll soon find out that it just doesn't work that way.  First I injured my achilles and missed 2 long runs. Then on my last 20-miler I was getting severe IT band pain.

So, after consulting with my coach and family I made the decision not to do the ultramarathon. It was a very disappointing decision but it's the way life turned out this year.

And so now I start planning for the next event. Now that I've settled in as the Marketing Manager for Montague Bikes I hope to be able to update this blog on a more frequent basis.

I'm very fortunate to be working in an industry I'm passionate about in a field I'm also passionate about. It's providing me with incredible experiences that I want to share and hope this blog will be the medium that allows me to do that.

Thanks for staying tuned!

My Tipping Point

Photo Credit: Go GratitudeI'm a big fan of Macolm Gladwell's book by the same title as this post in which he described what the tipping point means as they relate to a group's momentum toward something - an idea, trend, etc - until it reaches the "tipping point". Until the momentum in a way becomes self-perpetuating because a critical mass has developed.

Over the course of this spring I'm noticing a lot of similarities with the tipping point in how I was approaching my training. I've been participating in various types of races for a long time and after discovering triathlon have turned up the volume on the amount of training I do each year in preparing for goal races.  For the past several years, even though I'm not a competitive athlete in the sense that I'm trying to make the podium, the idea of beating my best time or moving up the rankings in my age group has been an important motivator to keep training consistently.  I've approached the calendar year like a true competitive athlete by staying fit in the off-season and following a periodization plan in an effort to build, peak, recover and do it all over again for the goal races I establish.

One definitive trend I've noticed from year to year is that my motivation level changed significantly after signing up for a race. Even if I was planning on a race but hadn't yet signed up yet, the act of clicking submit on the race entry seemed to trigger a physiological reaction that brought me right from early spring until the end of the season. This annual process had become so routine that I never put much thought into it until now.

Why now? It's now almost May and I have yet to sign up for race. I have some plans and goals but haven't clicked the submit button on any of them yet.

Despite this I trained all winter, to the point where I over trained and injured myself forcing me to take several weeks off.  I rode the trainer in the basement and got more than my money's worth from my Netflix subscription, I got to the pool to keep my swim stroke consistent and I ran, a lot, always outside. I ran in blizzards, sub-zero temps, freezing rain, you name it.  I hadn't signed up for a race. I hadn't done that kind of off-season training unless there was an Ironman in the near future. Why the disciplined schedule? 

My conclusion after having lots of time to ponder the question during many hours or training over the past several months is that I reached an internal tipping point. Call it a critical mass of experience or a desire to stay fit or even just the joy of exercising. At some point it became more important to me to just experience swimming, biking and running than to use them as a vehicle to reach some destination (finishing the race). Maybe it was my first DNF last year, maybe it's reaching a birthday with a zero in it this year. Frankly, I'm not sure of the reason and maybe it's a combination of several.

I do still have goal races I want to do this year and in the future (and it will be interesting to see how I react after actually signing up for those races), but for now I'm grateful to be in a place where I train to have the experience and not just to get ready to race.