An encouraging turn of events for organizers of the Bolder Boulder might nonetheless be a source of frustration to those struck by last-minute inspiration.
With the 46th Memorial Day Bolder Boulder 10K less than two weeks away, organizers announced that registration for the 2026 edition of the race May 25 will be cut off before Memorial Day weekend due to the high number of entrants that is getting the event close to capacity.
Typically, the Bolder Boulder has offered registration even on the morning of the race. That won’t be the case this year.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the Bolder Boulder sent out a news release that read:
“Historically, we have provided participants with the opportunity to register during race weekend and on race morning. With participation trending significantly higher this year and the event nearing operational capacity, we encourage anyone planning to participate to register as soon as possible.”
Race director Cliff Bosley said the Bolder Boulder registrations are trending 10% ahead of last year’s pace at the identical number of days before the race.
“This one of those good news-bad news things,” Bosley said. “It does eliminate some of the coordination and the work we do until the last wave goes off. The hard part for me and our team is we’ve never been in a position where we have to turn people away. We as a team don’t like telling people they can’t just show up and run.
“We’re hoping that pushing this (information) out sooner than later, they’ll still run, but they’ll register today, tomorrow, over the course of the next week, and they’ll still be able to join us.”
Bosley said the Bolder Boulder typically accepts around 1,000 registrations on the morning of the race.
Last year’s Bolder Boulder drew 52,185 entrants — by far the eventap highest total since the 2020 and 2021 races were canceled due to the COVID pandemic. After that hiatus, the Bolder Boulder has gradually witnessed a return to pre-pandemic participation numbers, going from 28,068 in the return year of 2022 to 35,996 in 2023 and 48,318 in 2024.
The Bolder Boulder posted an all-time high number of entrants in 2011 with 54,554, which was part of a run of at least 50,000 entrants in 10 of 12 years. Last year’s entry total was the fifth-highest in the race’s history and the highest since 2012 (51,681).
Bosley said the combination of the post-pandemic momentum and the mild winter along the Front Range have bolstered the registration numbers.
“We’ve been observing for about six or eight weeks, wondering if this might happen,” Bosley said. “We could get into next week and have back-to-back-to-back rain days and (registration) slows, but we’ll be forthright on the messaging.”
