Bolder Boulder 2016-Race Day!

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Our day started early, with the little guys at my parent’s house for the night, we were up early to get ready for the 2016 Bolder Boulder. I think this was my 4^th running of it, but there was a 20 year gap between the 2^nd and 3^rd times. Today would be Leighton’s 2^nd running and Clint’s first.

We actually found our parking spot pretty easily thanks to the parking pass that I got as a bonus for being an official blogger this year. It was still a good 1.5 mile walk to the start, but we took it easy. As we passed by the turn off to the stadium on our walk to the start we could see many of the B and C wave starters finishing.

We finally made it to the starting area and I decided I should practice my ninja moves/poses since we were dressed like ninjas and had decided that as we passed each mile marker or we would make ninja poses. I also found Alec who is one of the techs that I work with at the hospital decked out in his full fire fighting gear and we posed to take a photo with him. A family selfie later and then we were off.

Leighton and I hadn’t been on as many training runs this year as we had done last year, but he has also been busy with gymnastics and ninja zone, and is active from sun up to sun down usually. I knew from the runs that we had done together that he was definitely much stronger this year than he had been last year. Part of it is being a year older too. I was super impressed with his running and he walked way less this year. He kept his eyes out for his favoriate station, right before mile 2 there is a dermatology clinic that hands out marshmallows and sprays people down with sunscreen. He asked me a few weeks ago if I thought that the marshmallow people would be there again and he was super excited when he saw them. There was another marshmallow spot a couple of miles down the road, but they were mostly throwing marshmallows and spraying water which pretty much just made a sticky mess all over the ground….we didn’t eat any of those. There was plenty of entertainment along the route, and even in watching the costumes of our fellow runners.

Before I knew it we were approaching the final mile. Leighton was definitely getting tired and I think Clint just kept shaking his head at the craziness that goes on with the Bolder Boulder. We hit a wall on that last mile…not us physically but we got stuck behind everyone walking. We had to employ our dodging and swerving ninja moves to get through and around people. And finally we were entering the big stadium and racing towards the finish line. Leighton was clearly beat, but he finished 22 minutes faster than last year (to be 6 years old again and be able to shave nearly 4 minutes a mile off your prior PR…wouldn’t I love to be able to do that again). We found out later he finished 21^st out of 85 for his age group which is pretty cool.

After the finish I handed my bag tag to Clint and took off after grabbing a bottle of water to head to the start of the pro-race. As part of the blogger program I got a press pass and the opportunity to ride on the press truck in front of one of the pro-races. I was a little worried leaving Clint and Leighton, but Clint texted me and told me that after getting chocolate milk in the finish area Leighton was refueled and feeling great. I chose to ride in front of the women’s race. It was a really cool experience. I was one of the only ones on the press truck without a big fancy camera, I just had my phone that was stashed in my running belt, but despite that I still took a ton of photos. I also realized part way through that I still had my ninja headband on…oh well. The women were running less than 5 ½ minute miles which I just stand in awe of….I’m pleased when I break 9 minutes and even more excited if I can break 8 minutes. They made it look easy. I did get whacked in the back of the head by a large tree branch as we were driving down the road, but no big deal, just made me laugh. Right as the first runner was getting close to the end, the truck sped up and dropped us off at the finish and we all raced inside and stood at the finish line to watch the first runner finish. I took a number of shots of the women and then a few minutes later the men cross the line. I thought about sticking around and taking more photos of the pros, but I was missing my family and so took off and headed to the stands where they were watching and waiting.

From the stands we watched and remembered those honored during the Memorial Day salute. It was a good reminder that we have so much because so many gave everything. And then it was all over and we were headed back to our van. It was a great great, great race, and I truly am thankful for the opportunity to be a blogger for the Bolder Boulder 2016, and we are already planning our run for next year.