Entertainment a staple at Bolder Boulder

At age 12 and with just four years of guitar-playing experience, Elliot Anderson said he’s excited to perform for his biggest audience ever on Monday when as many as 53,000 runners and walkers pass by his “School of Rock” stand near the fourth mile marker of the Bolder Boulder course.

“I have walked the Bolder Boulder a couple of times, and the last time my favorite was the Blues Brothers that were playing,” Elliot said. “So this is going to be pretty fun.”

Elliot and his fellow band members — who are students in the Denver-based School of Rock musical education program — said they don’t even mind waking up before 6 a.m. to get to the course in time to start jamming when the first wave of runners takes off at 7 a.m.

“It’s just cool that we will be playing for like 55,000 people who will hear like 50 seconds of our songs,” said Elliot, whose favorite tunes to perform include “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden and “With a little help from my friends” — the Joe Cocker version.

The School of Rock, in its first year at the Bolder Boulder, is among 35 acts that will sing, dance or jam along the 10K course. The 35 entertainers marks the most in recent Bolder Boulder history, making this year one of the most entertainment-packed events in the race’s 32-year history, said Ron Bostwick, entertainment director for the race.

All the usual suspects will be in their designated places. The Blues Brothers will be playing “Soul Man” and other famous hits near 30th and Pearl streets, belly dancers will be shaking and swaying just before the 7-Eleven on Folsom Street, and Elvis will be in the house just down the road.

The Centennial Pipe Band will welcome runners and walkers into Folsom Field at the end of the race, near the statue of Olympian and long-time Boulder resident Frank Shorter, Bostwick said.

“(The pipe band) always brings a kilt and hat and puts them on Frank,” he said.

It’s important to create some tradition in the entertainment department for repeat Bolder Boulder runners, Bostwick said, pointing to the annual course-side staples. But, he said, the middle of the course typically offers some fresh faces in the form of up-and-coming bands and solo acts.

“We try to get as wide a variety as possible,” he said, “bluegrass and folk and rock and a little bit of everything.”

For the past seven years, the Bolder Boulder has created a bootleg CD of the musical acts on the course and distributed them for free at numerous locations from Cheyenne to Colorado Springs. This year, the race is printing 13,000 copies to be distributed at 70 locations.

Bostwick said he views the CD as a way to provide good listening to Front Range residents while giving small bands some exposure. The first band on the first-ever Bolder Boulder bootleg CD in 2004, for example, was The Fray — a four-person rock band out of Denver that has since achieved mainstream success with hits like “Over My Head” and “How To Save A Life.”

“Instead of reaching out to bands that have already made it big, we want to start with ones we know are on their way there,” Bostwick said.

While it might seem that the acts are dispersed across the course at random, Bostwick said, he puts a lot of thought it where each entertainer should go — depending, for instance, on how many residential homes are around.

“So the rock bands I try to put in a place where no one is living, or only a few people are living,” he said, adding that some intentional placement of music can help runners keep their pace.

“Those people who don’t have a music player on their head, especially at mile four, it helps them get over the hill,” Bostwick said. “Not only does it make the run more enjoyable, it does motivate them.”

DeAnn Dickinson, musical director and keyboardist for Zyzzyx Road, said her band was stationed last year — and will be again this year– just before the 13th Street hill by Casey Middle School. She has seen their music encourage tired runners.

“The runners are really, really appreciative when they run by,” Dickinson said. “We say, ‘We are here to rock you up this hill.'”

Dickinson, who ran the Bolder Boulder for 16 years before playing in it as an entertainer, said she had to convince some of her doubtful fellow band members last year to wake up early to play in a road race.

“But once they did it, they said it was the most fun gig we had ever done,” she said. “The whole race is a party atmosphere. It’s the most fun day of the year, and I love being a part of it as much as I loved running it.”

So does Marian Clark, who said she’s glad her act — one of two belly dancing groups along the route — is part of an annual tradition that demands repeat performances.

“It’s pretty contagious,” said Clark, founder and director of Beledi Dance Caravan, who has seen her group grow to 14 roadside dancers for the event. “But it’s tiring.”

The fully costumed caravan — including dancers ages 15 to 70 — is at its post from 6 to 11:30 a.m., dancing most of the time. Clark said she makes them take rests, re-hydrate and fuel up on Bolder Boulder snacks.

“One of our girls used to run it and came to dance it one year,” Clark said. “She said it was so much work that she decided to run it the next year.”

Still, Clark said, the exhausting work is worth the reward.

“Last year, one guy ran by and said, ‘You’re the reason we run this,'” she said. “That was really neat.”