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It doesn’t get any better than this. I ran the Boulder Marathon this morning in unbelievably beautiful weather. I can’t say yet how I did but will likely have the results before I publish this. I would guess close to 4 hours. Definitely a little slower than the Denver Marathon 4 weeks ago. But probably not too far off. I ran fairly aggressive the first half, but feel like I slowed down in the second half more so than at Denver. We’ll see soon enough.
It was still dark as I parked around 6:15am. I walked around the place and took a wiz in one of the zero-wait port-a-potties. The gear bag truck wasn’t setup yet so I walked back to the car and waited inside until 6:45. I walked back out ready to go. I didn’t need gloves and discovered that before leaving so wore a pair of shorts without pockets. Actually, it has a rear pocket which I used for my car key. I usually insist on pockets for all my running shorts but I didn’t really need them. I didn’t need gloves and I could keep my wallet in the car since it was so close to everything. I clipped a shuffle to my waist band and listened to my playlist for much of the middle 20 kilometers.
I started off a bit slow but felt like I picked it up to have run a decent 10K. I’m not seeing any splits at this RaceRite results site. I didn’t wear a watch and there were absolutely no splits displayed throughout the run. I couldn’t even find the clock at the end. I don’t need to know my time, if it were critical to me I’d wear a watch. But I did expect splits to be timed for me. The results site seems hosed. I don’t trust it. They show split 1 without saying where it is. You’d guess 10K but it seems like maybe 7 miles. And this shows I took 2nd in my age group but I’m fairly certain I didn’t. So far I’m not very happy with Boulder-based RaceRite for timing. I do trust my final chip time – 3:58. Feels like what I ran.
The first 10K is uphill. No heartbreak hills but consistently a slope up to Nelson Road by the Antennae towers. It follows Nelson for about 2 miles – from 8 to 10. I found my stride here and feel like I ran that second 10K at an 8 minute per mile pace. That’s stupid of course because it’s too fast for me. My legs began to feel heavy right after 13 miles for the second half. I had it in my mind that I would qualify for Boston if I could hold an 8 minute pace. I can’t. Not at altitude. I did however give it a shot.
The race info made a big deal out of this course being fast and relatively flat. I would say that’s true for the half marathon course, but I discovered runners walking the hill at 10 miles. Seems to me you have to make note of any hills that make a number of runners walk. There were other significant hills in the second half – all the way to the end. I found myself walking part of a couple of them in the last 10K. This run has hills.
I did enjoy running too fast for myself the second 10K. My core felt strong but my legs ultimately fatigued. I didn’t really feel my core begin to give until around 20 miles. My stomach might have felt strong until 22 miles, but my upper legs were hurting. The pain made me think I stressed them with weights and leg raises this week. More likely the pain was from running too fast, too early. After the turn-around at 17 miles on Oxford Road, I went from trying to maintain my speed to trying to maintain forward momentum. I walked a couple of times to let my heart rest going up some hills. And also because I noticed my running pace wasn’t catching runners ahead of me whom were walking. Something to always consider when running up a hill.
I can tell you that Oxford Road is hands down one of the prettiest dirt-packed roads ever. I kept expecting to see a covered wooden bridge around every corner. Every road north of the Boulder Res was glorious in its display of vivid colors from the fall foliage. And the little farms and ranches tucked away north of Boulder are idyllic. I had to weed my way through some goats on the road at one point on Oxford. While hillier than I expected, I thoroughly enjoyed this course.
My legs really slowed down the last 3 miles, but seeing the water at the Boulder Res was great inspiration for continuing my forward motion. The hill at 26 miles, while long, is not as tough as I expected. Possibly because I was running so slow. The little hill right in front of the finish line felt tougher. I didn’t run today quite like I had imagined I would but I’m happy with my overall time. I did a great job of drinking electrolytes at the aid stations. This event has outstanding aid stations stocked with both water and Gatorade. And many served GU gels and fruit. Still perplexed as to why they didn’t have pace clocks.
I gorged on oranges and bananas immediately after crossing the finish line. Not the smartest thing as I vomited a couple minutes later. But that actually made my stomach feel much better so I proceeded to the beer line. I sat with a couple of nice women who ran the 5 mile event – Linda and Kathy. I took their pic and then Kathy took some pics of me. I only had the energy for one beer so I went home soon after that beverage.
I scheduled myself a massage earlier in the week for 2:30pm. Brilliant call. Shannon Dunlap at Massage Envy took care of me by working out the lactic acid. I could actually walk almost normal upon leaving. No injuries from this run. Apparently my right nipple chaffed a bit from the blood I see in the pic, but it didn’t hurt in the shower. Feet and knees feel good. This marks the end of my running season. I finished big with the IPR, Denver Marathon, and now this. My focus will turn to winter maintenance.
A Runner's Story 
Great job Ed! I’m a triathlete/runner in Boulder who is suffering from PF, so I wanted to see if you have any wisdom you can pass along. I’ve taken time off from running, tried an orthotic, etc. but it just keeps coming back whenever I start even a slow ramp up of mileage again. As you know… it’s more than frustrating! Any help would be greatly appreciated…
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PF is so frustrating. I’ve had it maybe 3 or 4 times in my life. About 1.5 years recently. It cleared up this spring after wearing the strassburg sock – which is sort of ridiculous but it worked. 90% of my pain was gone after a week. You can buy it on Amazon, I picked mine up at the Boulder Running Store.
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Thanks. I bought one recently at the Boulder Running Company, but couldn’t stand wearing it at night. I guess I’ll have to drug myself and just get used to sleeping with it!
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Hi Ed, Mark from RaceRite Timing here. Great job on your run at the Boulder Marathon. Noticed your comments on our timing and want to make sure I understand the complaints with the splits and results. Our goal is to be one of the top timing companies in the country, and we take all feedback seriously. Feel free to reply offline to mark@racerite.com. Thanks, and congrats again on your marathon!
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Thanks for reading my blog. From what I recall, I think I had three areas where I was disappointed with the timing. The first was that I couldn’t find the results. I think you did have them available but I didn’t get an email and the race web site didn’t provide an accurate link to your results. This is clearly on the race web site to remedy, but you should prompt them. Second was when I did finally see my results, they were not clear to me. I think partially because they were not fully posted. Once they were, it was more obvious but I didn’t understand the splits immediately. I eventually figured out they are set up around quarterly marks – so the first split was around 7 miles rather than 6.2. Problem with this is I can’t easily compare it to other events that give me a 10K split. It doesn’t follow convention. Last was I never saw a clock – anywhere. Would have been nice.
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Ed, thanks for the feedback. As a racer myself, I know it is definitely frustrating when you can’t find results. As you surmised, race timers (the ones producing the results) almost never have admin access to the race website, so we must rely on the race organizer to post a link to results. Even though we do remind them, this doesn’t always work. Here’s one tip that I’ve found often works — try and find out who timed the race (by looking up prior year results) and check the race timer’s own website.
We did have splits posted live online during the race, but I remember making some on-the-fly tweaks to improve readability at that event. I apologize if the splits were not as clear initially.
Your point about the splits being located at odd points is certainly valid. As the race timers, we put the timing mats where the race director wants them. In this event we had multiple overlapping courses, and the organizer has typically wanted a half marathon turnaround split (the 6.55 mile point) and one additional mat out on the marathon course at the 20-mile point (which also happens to be the 14.2 mile mark on the outbound leg). Ideally, we would have more timing mats, and locate them at standard spots, like 10k, 13.1, and 30k, for example. However, each timing location requires additional staffing and equipment, and therefore cost, and this often doesn’t meet the event’s budget.
Your point about the clock is also valid. We did have a finish line clock; however, it blew a fuse early in the race and we unfortunately had to take it down. Split clocks out on the course are great, but again this is a matter of resources and the event’s budget.
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That all makes perfect sense Mark. Very nice of you to take the time to reply. I think another thing that lead to my confusion is that I ran two previous Boulder Half Marathons that had the finish clock so I didn’t understand why there wasn’t one this time. (no pun intended) But as you say, it blew a fuse. Something I think is nice, the Denver Marathon did this in 2010 but I didn’t notice it in 2012, is to have a clock at 26 miles. That would likely be at the entrance back into the res. I know this is an expense for the race itself as you say. Of course I could simply wear a watch but I actually lost my garmin before the event. Have one on order as a Christmas present. 😉
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