[donskiman]

<p>This will be a brief report.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Time - 44:48, 8/291 AG, 1276/22348 men, 1518/49208 OA</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Left the house at 4:30 AM for the 90 mile drive to Boulder. Got there shortly after 6, made our way over the the new starting area, hit the potties before the lines got too long, short easy warmup, chat with a few friends, make our way to our respective starting waves.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When I got to my wave and looked around all I saw were skinny fast people. It was then that I realized I'm now one of those people. Quite a change from when I first did this race 10 years ago and about 30 pounds heavier.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I was in wave AB, the third wave of 92. This is the closest I've ever been to the front. Wave A started promptly at 7:00 AM, AA at 7:01, then my wave at 7:02. The course was changed this year to put the start closer to the finish. Most people park near the finish and walk to the start. It was a bit over 2 miles, now just about a mile. However, because of this the first mile is now slightly uphill instead of slightly downhill, and there are at least 4 additional 90 degree turns.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Since my qualifying time was near the bottom of my wave I started near the back. No biggie though since everyone was close to the same speed after we got moving. First couple miles went by pretty quickly and I was still able to take in most of the sights along the course. The Blues Brothers, Elvis, belly dancers, bands about every half mile, etc. I started to struggle a bit in mile 3 and I knew this wasn't going to be a stellar day. Hung in as best as I could and by mile 5, I started coming back a bit. Too late to salvage the race, but enough to end up with a decent time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was different starting up front because for once I didn't have to spend any time weaving around trying to get past slower runners. I felt like I wasted the opportunity although this did end up being my fastest time in Boulder by over a minute.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After I finished in the stadium, I waited for Vicki and cheered her on as she came into the stadium. Shortly after that it started rainly lightly and we decided to go home instead of waiting to see the pro races and Ryan Hall a few hours later.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If any of you want to see how well organized a race of over 50,000 people came be - come on out. By the time we got home the results were already available online. They have timing mats at every mile to record the splits too. Pretty cool.</p>

 

[em73]

<p>it astounds me that a) 50K people run a 10K, and b) you can use 50K people and well organized in the same sentence.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>congrats on the CR!</p>

 

[SpartyGirl]

<p>The Peachtree could take a few pointers...the minute wave start sounds great (p-tree sent people every 5 I think?).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Course record even though you knew at mile 3 it wasn't your day - shows how valuable your daily runs are that you can still churn out that effort when you're off!  Nicely done.</p>

 

[donskiman]

<p>For many people the Bolder Boulder is more of an event than a race. Once the qualifying waves - the first 25 waves - are done, it becomes more of a rolling party. That's why this race has grown to such large numbers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Each wave has about 500-600 people. The first wave starts at 7:00, the last about 9:30. By the time the last wave started, Vicki and I were already on our way home.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What's cool about this race is that everyone gets chipped timed - fast or slow - and the results are almost immediately available online.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The concept is that the stadium will fill as people finish, then the pro races start with a full crowd. The pros use a different course than the citizen racers, starting and finishing in the stadium and also going through about the halfway mark. When the weather is good this works well, but on days like this year many people opt to leave as they finish. Even so, there was likely still a crowd of 25,000 or so for the pro races.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The difference between a good race for me and what happened in this race is about 15-20 seconds per mile. It just wasn't there, but I could still have a decent run. I think maybe if I had really dug deep I could have pushed myself, but this wasn't a goal race for me.</p>

 

[Boyerdavea]

<p>8 of 291 in your AG sounds pretty darn good to me.  Great job for not having your best performance.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>CONGRATULATIONS!</p>

 

[pcsronbo]

Holy bajebers<br>
8/291? Wowza<br><br>
50000 is an event I will have to try some time!

 

[mrscoby78]

<p> </p>
<p>**my fastest time in Boulder by over a minute.**</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dayum dude!!!</p>

 

[cak73]

<p>Nice work and congrats on the course PR!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sounds like almost as much of a party as Bay to Breakers.</p>

 

[juliemboyle]

<p>How fantastic to be 10 years older and better and faster?   That is not how it is supposed to work, but you just keep getting better and better!!!  Great job!</p>