BOULDER — This year’s Bolder Boulder Memorial Day road race will mark a pair of significant milestones. It will be the 30th running of Colorado’s most popular recreational event, and the 10th since Cliff Bosley took over as race director.
“It’s very humbling to be able to do it,” said Bosley, whose father, Steve, founded the race in 1979. “For sure I am grateful for the opportunity.”
The race continues to grow, having seen a record 50,816 runners and walkers register last year. It also continues to evolve, with two notable changes this year.
One involves television. For the first time since 1982, Channel 4 will not air the race live. Instead, FSN will televise a two-hour highlights show the night of the race.
The other major change involves the International Team Challenge (elite) races and their timing with respect to the Memorial Day observances in Folsom Field.
In recent years the elite races began in the stadium after the Memorial Day ceremonies, one after the other. That made for a long afternoon — and a half-full stadium by the end of the second elite race.
This year, instead of starting at the stadium, the elite runners will use the same starting line in north Boulder as the recreational runners. The elite men will start at 11:25 a.m. — five minutes before the Memorial Day observances begin in the stadium — and the women will start about seven minutes later.
That way the citizen runners who fill Folsom Field for the Memorial Day observances — the largest Memorial Day gathering in the United States — will then get to see the last five minutes of the men’s elite race on the stadium video screen and welcome the winner to the finish line. A few minutes later, the women’s winner will arrive.
“We think maybe the spectators who really like the Bolder Boulder, who enjoy their experience and like the Memorial Day (observances) now will be able to see a highlight version of the pro race,” Bosley said. “They’ll be able to view the last five minutes, see the men finish, then stay seated for another five minutes and watch the women finish. It compresses the day a little bit, but without really taking much away. In fact, maybe taking nothing away. It might add to the experience.”
Channel 4’s live telecasts helped establish the Bolder Boulder as a major event on the Colorado sports calendar, but they were expensive to produce. And if you were running in the race, you weren’t home to watch it on TV.
“I think there are elements of live TV that are fabulous,” Bosley said. “I think there are elements of a packaged television program that could be excellent. What we’ve been able to perfect on the live side, hopefully we’ll be able to translate and do equally well (on FSN).”
Bosley still winces at the thought of last year’s race, when problems with a new timing chip system infuriated some runners by delaying results. The problem wasn’t that the chips didn’t work, but that they worked too well, overloading computers with too much information by detecting the same runner several times a second at the various checkpoints.
With the introduction of filtering software and a new company to “score” the results, Bosley believes this year’s race will avoid the problems it experienced last year.
“Those are two dynamics we didn’t have in play last year, which I think will allow us to not be in a position where we’re overpromising and underdelivering — which was embarrassing,” Bosley said.
After 10 years in charge of one of the most respected races in America, Bosley feels “blessed” to serve the Front Range running community in such a crucial capacity. Bosley ran in the first Bolder Boulder when he was 12 years old, and he’s keenly aware of the importance running plays in the lives of so many people here.
“You can get philosophical with running really fast — running to solve problems, running to accomplish things, running to accomplish goals, running to overcome things,” Bosley said. “We all have a race to run. Putting on the race, that’s the race we’re running.”
Free lectures before the big race
The Bolder Boulder is sponsoring a series of lectures leading up to this year’s race. All are free and open to the public.
Running injury-free, Wednesday, 7:15 p.m., with physical therapist and 1993 world marathon champion Mark Plaatjes; Boulder Running Co., 2775 Pearl St., Boulder.
Nourishment for runners, April 30, 7:15 p.m., with registered dietitian and nutrition therapist Esther Cohen; Boulder Running Co., 2775 Pearl St., Boulder. Another lecture on the same topic is scheduled for May 7, 7:15 p.m., with Esther Cohen; Runner’s Roost, 1685 S. Colorado Blvd., Denver.
What to look for in the Olympic Games, May 19, 7 p.m., with Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist; Chautauqua Park, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. A $5 donation will be requested upon entry to help fund future Chautauqua events.
Race motivation, May 21, 7 p.m., with three-time Bolder Boulder winner Melody Fairchild; 29th Street Mall Community Room, Boulder.
John Meyer, The Denver Post
