Sheri and I have run every Bolder Boulder since 1993. Today was our 21st running. It was the 12th year in a row that I've run under my age. It was the 11th year in a row for Danny and Derek. Danny ran in the BB wave with a goal of running 8 minutes/mile and breaking 50 minutes. Sheri ran with Derek and their goal at the start was to break 50 minutes as well, but Derek quickly decided that his legs were dead and they switched to an 8:15 pace.
It was perfect weather, but already getting pretty warm. I warmed up a couple of miles, seeing a number of friends including Noelle Green, Ellen Hart (former BB winner), and Jeff Valliere. I was in the AA wave for some reason, but my qualifying times only merited inclusion in the AB wave. It didn't affect me, as I was sticking to my plan of 7 minutes/mile. I got passed by some fast AB runners by the first mile! In fact, I got passed most of the race, but I stuck to my plan.
My Garmin 310XT watch told me I was sticking very close to my goal pace, and even a bit under it, but the Bolder Boulder timing did not agree. This has happened to be before and I should have been going more on my time at the BB mile marks, but was hoping that my watch was correct. Here are the differences in the splits:
Mile Split Garmin Watch BB Timing
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1 6:54 6:48
2 6:59 7:08
3 7:00 7:12
4 7:02 7:07
5 6:50 6:56
6 6:55 7:08
The difference in the first mile was probably due to me starting my watch at the gun and then having to walk for at least ten seconds before reaching the starting line and starting to run. My watch consistently beeped out the mile mark well before the marked-mile on the course. Disappointing the difference, but it is what it is. I uploaded my GPS track to Strava and it also gave me faster mile splits.
My official time was 43:49 (Strava measured my 10K at 43:10), which gives me an average pace of 7:06 (6:58 according to Strava). My goal was 7 minutes/mile, so I didn't achieve the goal, but, as I said, I did really no speed work, and hence didn't deserve to whine about my lack of speed. The last hills up to and into the CU Stadium were killer. I had nothing left and could not even muster any kick at all. I thought I was being wimpy until I glanced at my watch and saw my heart was beating at 176 bpm. That's all I've got, so in effect, I was already kicking despite the slow pace.
I saw ex-Tendril CTO Kent Dickson at the finish and he joined us in the stands, where we all regroup. I hung out down at the finish, trying to dodge the officials moving people out of there, until Danny finished. He ran incredible well - very evenly paced - and finished in 49:29! Sheri and Derek finished in 50:51 and were both pleased with the time. Sheri could have run faster on her own, but not fast enough to satisfy her, so he had a lot more fun running with Derek.
We hung out in the stands for a bit and regrouped with Kraig (brother in-law) and Samantha (niece). They ran together and Sammy ran 49:27. Nice. Kate and Craig came by to say hi as well. Then we packed up our "Runches" (bag lunches we got after finishing...at 8 a.m.). I jogged back to the car, tacking on a bit extra to get two miles of cool-down. We got some Starbucks and Moe's Bagels for extra replenishment and headed home to watch the French Open.
1 comment:
Nice work Bill, You still and probably always will have me beat in the 10k, despite our age difference. Maybe this here new dad could keep up with you in the Pearl St Mile this year... will have to look into when that is.
-Tony Bubb
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