Sunday morning Will and I took off from Albuquerque and made the 7 hour jaunt up to Boulder, Colorado. The drive went by much faster than I had anticipated but Will and I debated the feasibility of living off the grid in a cabin in North Carolina which perked my construction interests. It was so refreshing to be around Will's friends and family versus the people I generally interact with. They were very supportive of Will's quest to become Quentin Cassidy. Generally people would try to poke holes in a scheme such as this but they offered recommendations and assistance. It definitely reminded me of being home with my family.
Once we pulled into Boulder we were off almost immediately. Will's brother in laws parents were in town for the race and wanted to cook dinner for us. We had a great pre-race meal and talked about Will's cabin, Jemez, life and homemade ice cream. Dessert was spectacular homemade hand turned ice cream and well it was delicious.
I was nursing my left foot Sunday as it was a little sensitive from 52 miles on it and I hadn't quite decided if I would actually run the Bolder Boulder 10k or not. By the time we returned to Will's sister house it was already 9 and we bedded down pretty quick. Will and I both awoke at 5:45 to a blazing sun and decided to go find coffee and pick up our race packets. I was still undecided if I would race or not. I was limping pretty bad but walked the 1.5 miles to packet pickup. Once I had the bib in my hand it was game over, muscle memory took over and neatly folded the bib and laced up the timing chip. Will and I had entered the Military wave we moved into our coral 5 minutes before the start of our wave (8:27 race started at 7:30) The Military wave was about 4 waves from dead last...
The start line was a little eventful as Frank Shorter was within spitting distance waving his starting block pistol around. Once they said go Will took off on fresh legs and I grinded out my first mile in 8:10. My foot still hurt but no more than it would walking so I figured the faster I ran the sooner it would be over. The problem was there was about 38000 people in front of me... I dodged, elbowed, darted and scampered through the next 5 miles at what felt like a trot, 7:30 pace. I finished in 47 minutes a very unimpressive 10k time. I was pretty pleased with it despite being 10 minutes off my PR. The race was very interesting they had 3 or 4 slip and slides setup along the course, shots, keg stands, and much more. It felt like the entire city of Boulder was out to watch the race. The finish line comes into the football stadium and you run the last .2 miles on the track around the stadium.
Post finish we went out for breakfast packed up the car and said our goodbyes to Will's sister. Will and I headed out to the Boulder Running Company for a shirt and then to the Denver Airport. I then said goodbye to Will and made the lonely drive back to Oklahoma.
It was a great race and a great weekend. I would highly recommend everyone take a wild running vacation. Hit a couple races along the way and spend every other moment in between laughing and enjoying yourself. After all we all say we got into ultras because of the community, so take a few minutes and enjoy the community. Coming soon should be a couple of rants about a call to returning to our old roots in ultras and proper training progression.
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