Not long after finishing the Bolder Boulder 10K last Monday, U.S. Olympic marathoner Clayton Young talked about what he has planned before racing the 2024 Paris Olympic marathon on Aug. 10.
Next up is the Boston 10K road race, while some of the Americans in the professional race as well as local elites will be focusing on the June 21-30 U.S. Olympic Trials.
If you are not racing the Olympics or Olympic Trials this year (don’t worry, maybe the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?) you can still use the fitness you built up training for the Bolder Boulder in one of the local road or trail races available this summer, ranging from 100 meters through 28 kilometers. A great place to start is the annual Boulder Road Runners Summer Track and Field Series, which is returning to the revamped and very nice Potts Field on the University of Colorado East Campus, beginning Thursday evening.
The four track and field meets (boulderroadrunners.org) set for this summer — June 6, June 20, July 18 and Aug. 1 — are accessible, family-feeling affairs. They are staffed by the Boulder Road Runners, some of whom have been volunteering for decades. The meets are an inexpensive way to get in an all-out effort at a distance you likely do not typically race, while perhaps getting cheered on by one of our local elites, who in past years have come out for a pre-Olympic Trials or U.S. National Championship tune-up.
“All ages and abilities are welcome in all events,” which include races from 100 through 5,000 meters, as well as long, triple and high jumps, the javelin, shot put and hammer throw.
Running a flat track race shorter than the 6.2 miles of the Bolder Boulder is not necessarily easier and requires a different strategy. Racing the two-laps of the 800 meters, for example, will take you out of your comfort zone and put you almost immediately into oxygen debt. You might line up next to one of CU’s recent graduates or a top post-collegian looking to get in a good workout.
If you are brave enough, you can race the steeplechase to get a sense of what CU freshman Kole Mathison went through in leading last month’s Pac 12 championships for six laps before finishing third on the same Potts Field track. Kole clocked 8 minutes, 47 seconds at the NCAA regional meet to qualify for this week’s NCAA Championships.
All of the traditional Boulder summer road races return this year, including the popular downtown Pearl Street Mile on Aug. 3 and the July 4 Four on the Fourth 4K, which features a fast field on a flat course at Avery Brewing’s Gunbarrel headquarters. Both races are organized by Troop Events Athlete Management (teamboco.com), as is the June 23 Sunset Trail Running Festival in Gold Hill. The four trail races offered are co-hosted by the Boulder Watershed Collective and are a fundraiser for Gold Hill and its wildfire prevention efforts.
Your racing at Gold Hill will be rewarded with a post-race party at the Gold Hill Inn Beer Garden.
New to me this year is the June 22 “80s Run” in Louisville. These Saturday evening 5K and 10K runs look like loads of fun, with an 80 kids’ run, costumes, food and music, all from the 1980s (No offense to Beyoncé, but have “Beat It” or “Jump” ever been topped?). A free concert caps the evening (coloradoraceevents.com).
Finally, mark down Aug. 15 on your calendar for the 45th annual Run for the Cure 4-miler in Eldorado Canyon State Park just south of town. This beautiful Thursday evening race is a charity run for the Colorado Cancer Foundation. The post-race party includes Eldorado Springs artesian spring water — said to be some of the purest in the world — and beer from Satire Brewing. Best of all? The Eldorado Springs Pool, fed by the same artesian spring, will be open to all racers. (coloradocancerfoundation.com)
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