A run like the Bolder Boulder 10K doesn’t just start on Memorial Day on and around 7am. It begins with dinner, and a play, and a spa weekend, Friday night. Don’t judge the sun-damaged skin. Not sure exactly when sunscreen was invented, but I was the last to learn about it.

I hadn’t run the Bolder Boulder in 8 years. That’s a lot of time to let pass by. There are new buildings on the streets and I’m no spring chicken anymore. I found my DC wave and waited for the start.

Worse part of this last week wasn’t that I’d only run a couple of days, it was that I hurt my abdomen. Maybe from moving a washing machine around, hard to say exactly, my Apple Watch and Oura Ring didn’t notify me of any unusual health metrics. They didn’t detect my injury. It hurt like a bad stitch on my left side. Wasn’t 100% confident I’d line up at the start. It hurt.

Karen booked the early part of the weekend at a swanky hotel and we relaxed. We began with dinner at The Rio with good friends and went on to see Carolyn play Rebecca in Our Town at the Dairy Arts Center. Carolyn played a character decades younger and made you believe she was a school girl. In fact, everyone in the play twisted your sense of time and space and left you thinking. Thinking thoughts you haven’t had in a long time. Thinking new thoughts. There is no one on the planet who could go to this play and not feel mentally awoken. Thanks Carolyn, that was a trip.

Make no mistake, Saturday and Sunday were fun, but this is a runner’s blog, so this story is about the 2025 Bolder Boulder. My abdomen hurt less after the 80-minute, CBD, deep tissue massage back at the spa. The weather at the starting line, at 7 in the morning, was typical, cool and wet, but not really raining anymore and just a light wind. Maybe the thick mist was rain. It didn’t feel to be falling, rather, the water droplets just floated in the air. Perfect 10K running weather, like running in the clouds.

Eric and Brit, and Eric’s mom, Julie, all ran in waves after me. I never saw them, but they all had good runs.

I ran about as expected with an 8:35 pace and finished in 53:19.