Bolder Boulder

JD and I, along with our friends Jeff and Rebecca ran the Bolder Boulder 10K in Boulder, Colorado.  This is a race that my friends and I have been doing each year since 2004.  When I met JD, he started running it with me.  We try to do it every year.  This year,  JD missed his goal time by 9 seconds!  Me... well, I finished... and didn't throw up...

We usually run in the KBCO wave, which has joggers that run at about our pace. Each wave has about 300 people in it or so.  I don't know how many waves there are, but 55,000 people run it every year.  Each wave gets their own start time -- about a minute or two from the previous wave -- that way 55,000 people aren't stampeding all at once. That would be scary.  The biggest stress of the day?  Parking.

After running through Folsom Field (at the Univ. of Colorado) and around the track to the finish line, we get to watch the Memorial Day Festivities in the stadium.  They always recognize the different branches of the military by having soldiers jump out of a plane and parachute down into the field holding the flag of that branch of the military while their military song plays.  It is always exciting!  However, this time around, it was too windy and they suspended the jumps.  Several years ago, the wind was really blowing and against their better judgement, decided to jump anyway with the hopes of landing in the middle of the stadium.  I was there.... the parachuters were landing in trees, torpedoing into the crowd, landing anywhere but where they were suppose to.  However, one parachuter made it into the middle of the field and the crowd went CRAZY.  After that experience, I think they learned their lesson... No jumping on windy days...  Too bad, because it was pretty exciting.

Below, here we are running along the course. JD's in the red shirt below.  I can't describe the amount of people you see at the starting line, all along the course, and at the finish line.  It is pretty awesome.