Ryan Ford moved to Boulder last fall to join a team rich in Colorado running history from the past few decades.
It probably was only a matter of time before Ford tackled the Bolder Boulder.
That time has arrived for Ford, who is coming off a strong showing at the Boston Marathon in April as he makes his Bolder Boulder debut Monday as part of Team USA.
Ford moved to Boulder when he joined On Athletics Club, the local team helmed by former University of Colorado runner Dathan Ritzenhein that also enlists former Buffaloes runner Laura Thweatt as the club’s marathon coach.
“I’d known about the race for a while, and I personally love training here. It seemed like a great race to do now that I feel like I’m part of the Boulder running community,” Ford said. “I was very excited to participate. It is a little bit of a turnaround. I’m still trying to get my legs back under me a little bit. But I saw what Conner Mantz did last year, and that gave me confidence that it wasn’t too crazy, it wasn’t impossible. I was just glad I could make it work.”
Running the Boston Marathon doesn’t preclude enjoying success at the Bolder Boulder, despite the relatively quick turnaround, and Mantz’s Bolder Boulder success is Exhibit A. Mantz finished fourth at the 2025 Boston Marathon, posting a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 8 seconds that was the second-fastest mark by an American runner on the course. About six weeks later, Mantz became in the Bolder Boulder men’s pro race.
With Mantz still recovering from an injury that kept him out of this year’s Boston Marathon, the door is open for a new men’s champion. There will be a new winner crowned in the women’s pro race as well, as two-time defending champ Gabe Loibach Nawowuna from Kenya also won’t compete this year.
Ford finished 12th at the Boston Marathon last month, finishing with a personal-best mark of 2:05:46. That was 10 seconds better than OAC teammate and former CU standout Joe Klecker, and five seconds behind fellow American and 11th-place finisher Clayton Young.
Young also will compete at the 46th annual Bolder Boulder, helming the men’s USA Red team alongside former BYU standout Casey Clinger and Bolder Boulder veteran Jared Ward. Ford, who began his collegiate career at Tennessee-Martin before transferring to Iowa State, will compete on the USA White team with Graydon Morris and Aidan Reed.
Ford has lived in Boulder less than a year but already he has noted the difference that consistent training at altitude — and working alongside elite teammates — has made in his approach.
“Race-wise, I’ve improved a ton in the half and the full in my year here,” Ford said. “It felt like a bit of a risk, leaving my old training set-up, which was working fairly well for me. But I knew OAC has some of the best runners in the world, and pretty much any time in my career — like transferring in college and stuff like that — when I would go and join a better team, it would kind of motivate me and help me rise to the occasion. I just wanted to just take a risk and see if I could get on the level of some of these guys, and just the great accomplishments that they’ve had over the past several years.”
