As the Bolder Boulder gets ready to step off for its 40th year, let’s take a look back at the road that got it there.
1979: Co-founded by Bank of Boulder president Steve Bosley and Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter, attracts 2,700 entrants with a finish at North Boulder Park. The winners are Ric Rojas and Sandy Simmons.
1980: The finish line is moved to the track at Boulder High School to accommodate a doubling of runners with more than 5,200 entrants.
1981: At the suggestion of University of Colorado athletic director Eddie Crowder and president Arnold Weber, the finish line is moved to Folsom Field. There are 9,000 entrants and Shorter wins the race. Ellen Hart is the women’s winner.
1983: To accommodate explosive growth, organizers invent the staggered “wave” start, a rolling sequence of group launches to reduce crowding at the front and help racers run their desired pace without interference. Race attracts 16,550 entrants.
1984: For the first time, organizers hold a separate race for the elite racers following the citizens race so the citizen runners can hang out after their race in Folsom Field and watch the pros finish. There are 17,400 entrants.
1986: Number of entrants surpasses 20,000.
1991: Number of entrants surpasses 30,000.
1995: Number of women participating exceeds men for the first time, and they have outnumbered men ever since (last year was 60 percent female).
1998: Number of entrants surpasses 40,000 and the elite race becomes the International Team Challenge as 26 foreign countries race in a format scored like a cross country race to determine team champions.
1999: Steve Bosley steps down as race director, turning the reins over to one of his sons, Cliff Bosley.
2001: Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., claims the first of three consecutive wins in the International Team Challenge, the first American to win it. Kastor will go on to claim a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympic marathon.
2007: Number of entrants surpasses 50,000.
2009: Runner’s World magazine names Bolder Boulder “America’s all-time best 10K.”
2011: Number of entrants is a record 54,554.
