Boulder – The 27th Bolder Boulder Memorial Day 10-kilometer road race comes at a momentous time for American running. Runners can feel the earth moving beneath their feet because recreational numbers are booming even as the country’s elite runners are making encouraging progress on the international scene.
Even as the country wrestles with an obesity epidemic, the popularity of running is surging by any objective measurement. And in the Athens Olympics, the U.S. won two marathon medals for the first time.
The two sides of the sport have always been interdependent, and the Bolder Boulder showcases that synergy better than any other race. Long intrigued by its mystique, running icon Bill Rodgers found it “mind-boggling” and a little humbling when he finally ran in it last year.
“I was stunned how many fit people there are in Boulder, running that race,” Rodgers said. “All these 24-year-old, 28-year-old men and women, just hordes of them.”
Rodgers, then 56, finished in 39 minutes, 24 seconds. He was taken aback to learn a 57-year-old aerospace engineer with no background as an elite runner soundly beat him in 37:13. That would be Dave Dooley of Erie, who didn’t run track in high school or college but took up running in his 30s when Rodgers was one of the world’s top marathoners.
The day before the Bolder Boulder, Dooley went to a Boulder running store to meet Rodgers and get his autograph. After the race, Rodgers wanted to meet Dooley.
“This guy was really good,” Rodgers said. “I’m like, ‘Does anyone know who this guy is?’ This guy is fit, probably fitter than anyone on the pro teams in Denver.”
Road racing is unique among participant sports in the fellowship it creates between the elite athlete and the recreational racer because of the mutual respect and empathy they have for each other. Oxygen debt hurts the same for a world-class 28-minute 10K runner as it does for a middle-aged recreational athlete who runs it in 44 minutes and cherishes every personal record.
“I know I’m never going to be at their level and never was, but I know a lot of people who know how they train, and we do the same sort of workouts,” said Dooley, who works for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder. “We go to the track and do so many intervals in such-and-such (times), exactly what they’re doing, except they do it faster.”
Dedicated recreational racers take inspiration from elite runners, but it goes both ways.
“I think that’s one of the reasons elite runners love road racing so much,” said three-time Bolder Boulder winner Deena Kastor, who had to withdraw this year because of a foot injury. “The Bolder Boulder has probably done the best job of putting that package together. I sit in my hotel room before the race and I watch the citizens race because it’s really heartwarming to see how many thousands of people come to this small town to do what they love.”
Boulder’s Dathan Ritzenhein, a former Colorado Buffs star who is one of the most highly regarded young Americans on the international scene, is concentrating on the track this year because of the world championships in August but hopes to run the Bolder Boulder next year.
“It doesn’t matter your level,” said Ritzenhein, 22, who made the Olympic team last summer in the 10,000 meters. “Everybody has their own individual goals. Some people, it’s finishing the Bolder Boulder, but for them that’s just as hard as me trying to win it. That’s something that’s really special to our sport.”
Growing numbers
Sales of running shoes were up 6 percent in 2003, the fifth consecutive year of growth, and the number of pairs sold (35.9 million) was 32 percent more than in 1993. Circulation of running magazines is surging. The ranks of American marathoners have grown steadily from 236,000 in 1990 to 423,000 in 2004.
Elite U.S. runners still have ground to make up on the Africans who dominate the distance events, but they have made notable progress. In 2000, the U.S. could qualify only one man and one woman for the Olympic marathons, instead of the usual three in each.
In the 2004 Olympic marathons, the U.S. was the only country to win two medals (Kastor took bronze, Meb Keflezighi silver).
“I think we are about to enter a phase of running like we haven’t seen,” said Mary Wittenberg, president and CEO of the New York Road Runners. “We’ve got two monumental shifts going on. One, running has never been more relevant. We’ve known how good running and moving is for you, but now companies know it, governments know it, everybody is saying, ‘You’ve got to get moving to fight obesity, to fight diabetes, to fight depression.’
“At the same moment, we’re the only country with two medals in the marathon in the Olympics. We’ve got Alan Culpepper coming in fourth in Boston … You’ve got Dathan Ritzenhein, Jorge Torres, Lauren Fleshman and a group of younger runners bursting on the scene. The American distance-running scene has not looked better in many years, and it’s right at the same moment when the lifestyle side of the sport is at the highest level of recognition.”
It’s all connected
Some hope the growth in recreational racing can fuel the success of elite athletes. If more people are buying running shoes, shoe companies might invest more in young athletes and training enclaves like Team USA in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where Kastor and Keflezighi train.
Others say the shoe companies have little incentive to increase support for elite athletes because shoe sales surged even without American role models.
The Bolder Boulder tries to help the cause by showcasing elite runners in a unique team competition after the recreational runners have finished, and by working hard to recruit top Americans. Keflezighi and Culpepper helped the U.S. men win last year.
“The attitude has always been to try to do new and better things that not only help runners in general but the American runners in particular, and do it in a way where it has a very acceptable balance,” said race co-founder Frank Shorter. “The race unabashedly chooses to benefit Americans just a little bit more. That’s the race’s choice: to promote the development of American running, at the same time not affecting the actual spirit of the competition.”
Wittenberg, who succeeded Allan Steinberg as president of the New York Road Runners this year, said the Bolder Boulder brings the sport together better than any other race.
“The American athletes see it as the first race that really connected the recreational runner to the elite runner,” Wittenberg said. “That’s why they all feel compelled to run there.”
The New York Road Runners organize the New York City Marathon and other races involving elite athletes. Like the Bolder Boulder, they don’t need to support elite American runners to promote their races, but they do it for the good of the sport.
“We’re looking for the next Tiger Woods,” Wittenberg said. “The more we do to help provide developmental and promotional opportunities for these athletes, the better shot we’re going to have that a Dathan Ritzenhein is going to rise to the level of a Tiger Woods. And if more Americans are successful on the international stage, they can inspire more people to get off the couch, into running shoes and healthy lifestyles.”
Parking
Because of construction on the site of the old Crossroads Mall, some Bolder Boulder runners will lose their favorite race-day parking lots. The south end of the mall near Foley’s remains open and some parking will be available there, but runners may want to consider these alternatives:
* RTD park-n-Ride at Pearl and 47th Street.
* Boulder High School, Arapahoe and 15th Street.
* Calvary Bible Church, 3245 Kalmia Ave.
* Valmont City Park near Valmont and Foothills Parkway.
* Pollard Motors, 30th and Pearl (spots available in exchange for donation to local Boy Scout troops).
* Office building, 2505 Walnut St.
* Marshalls Plaza, west side of 28th Street between Walnut and Canyon.
* Tebo Plaza, west side of 28th Street, north of Coyote Self Serve Car Wash just south of Flowerama.
* 3054 28th St.
* East Williams Village, south side of Baseline, east of 30th Street.
Staff writer John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
