Runners to your mark: BolderBoulder is on again

After counting on 50,000 participants who made the BolderBoulder part of their Memorial Day, Cliff Bosley and his staff now find themselves marketing the annual 10K race as if it was a local Hot Dog Hump (or whatever you’d call a small holiday race). 

“We still notice a slight hesitancy, but I take the perspective of people needing to be reminded of the habit,” said Bosley, the longtime race director, in a phone interview. “They need to be reminded of how awesome the race is.” 

It was, unfortunately, all too easy for the experience of running a 10K with tens of thousands of others to fade from our minds, as the pandemic wiped out two years of the annual event, at least in person. The BolderBoulder did what it could, offering virtual challenges that first year and a quasi event last Memorial Day staged in six venues, but there’s no doubt it wasn’t the same. There were no Blues Brothers, no belly dancers and no bacon givers, even when the race was able to host Fortitude, its much newer Labor Day race in Fort Collins, last year. 

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“We’ve missed our participants and our spectators,” Bosley said in a news release, “and we know they’ve missed us.” 

But Bosley sees signs that the race will return to its former glory, even if, as of mid-April, numbers are down by as much as 25% compared to 2019 (the last time the race took place in person). 

“As COVID is in the rear-view mirror and people are doing more and more normal things, we are seeing more and more register, faster than what we might normally see around this time,” Bosley said. “We anticipate a real groundswell.” 

The race didn’t even open for registration until January, as Bosley wanted to let the pandemic play out, but he continues to be encouraged. 

“How many T-shirts do you order?” Bosley said. “We are having that conversation every day.” 

The race even changed its qualification system to encourage runners to shoot for the faster waves. In the past, runners had to run a certified race and turn in proof of that time. The rules were fairly liberal, as most races qualified, but it still had to be an official race. Now the BolderBoulder will allow a Strava time, meaning you could go, say, run a 5K on a track, or during a tempo run, and qualify for a wave, as long as you bring your Garmin and record it on Strava. 

“Just link to it,” Bosley said. “That way, if you have a great workout, it’s not been lost.”

Bosley said the race hasn’t been too strict on when a runner sets that time either, so it’s possible your July 4 5K or Turkey Trot would work. 

“This is really more about getting people back,” Bosley said. “Honestly we just think it’s important to get people running more than anything else.” 

The BolderBoulder was able to honor registrations from 2020 — the race sent out 11,000 codes for “free” registrations this year in January — and Bosley encourages those who did enter in 2020 and deferred to run the race this year. 

“We really would like people to use that deferment this year if they can,” he said. 

Indeed, Bosley wants to push the numbers as much as he can, as he knows part of the experience of the BolderBoulder is just the magnitude of the event itself. But as he said, he wants to see people running (or walking) and challenging themselves. And he’s seeing signs that people are doing that. 

“This isn’t scientific,” he said, “but I’m seeing a lot more people out on the trails.”

Healthy people generally did better with COVID-19 than those who weren’t, Bosley said, and as he looks to the future, he wants to see more than his race thrive. 

“Ours is a long-term answer to COVID,” he said, “but it is an answer.” 

To go

The 42nd running of the BolderBoulder takes place in person on Memorial Day (May 30) in Boulder. More than 80 waves of competitors will toe the line, with local resident and Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter as the official starter. Those waves start in staggered times beginning at 7 a.m. To register, go to www.bolderboulder.com.