Race Preview: Boulder Spring Half

Last year I traveled to Colorado with Coach Jerry (who is my bro-in-law) for a long weekend of running which also included the Boulder Spring Half.  It was the first year of the Boulder Spring Half and Jerry and I decided that is was so much fun that we would make plans again this year to run it.

First, I must make a point of saying that if wife, job, family and friends weren’t part of my decision making process I would pick up and move to Boulder.  I absolutely loved my time in Colorado last year; the quality of life, the emphasis on being outdoors, the relatively cheaper cost of living to NYC, all of it made me fall in love with the area.  I have been trying to find excuses to visit or even move there.

With that being said I am very excited to go back and spend a long weekend there.

The Race: This is the second year of the Spring Boulder Half (10 mile and 10k as well) which is run on the same backroads course as the Fall Full and Half Marathon .  The Backroads. popular with local runners since the 70′s, are the perfect running surfaces for the body as well as for your time since they are fast.  Start time is 8 am this Sunday and course is out and back. The first half is a consistent uphill but the 2nd half is just the opposite, a nice decline until the finish.  It is challenging on the legs but even more on the lungs as sea level runners need to battle the higher altitude. The race will be chip timed with splits and all finishers will receive a medal and a tech shirt.

My Expectations/Goals: I am not kidding, I absolutely love Boulder and Colorado.  Jerry and I had such a fun time last year that I am kinda nervous about how the trip this year will hold up.  Friday and Saturday we plan on running some local trails and start acclimating to the higher altitude.  Last year this was my biggest hurdle, but it made me a stronger runner when I came back down to sea level.  I’ve experienced some hip flexor issues over the past few months so training for this race consisted of 3 weeks of long runs of 10,11 and 12 miles with spin classes and some speed workout on the treadmill.  I felt great last week during my 12 miler, but I definitely am not in my best race shape.

So, my goal for the weekend is to have a hell of a time.  I plan to thoroughly enjoy being out of Manhattan.  I am excited to meet and run with Jerry’s friend form University of Kansas- 1,500m Olympian Charlie Gruber. I hope to get some tips and maybe some interesting content for a future blog post.

As for the race, my goal is to run a consistent race and have fun.  I have no plans to set a PR at altitude.  Beating last year’s time would be nice but not my main goal. The weather looks like it will be windy and possibly rainy, but I won’t let the elements distract from running a beautiful course.

Very excited to get back to Colorado!

Can you recommend places I should visit while in Colorado? Have you ever run at high altitude? Have you ever run in Colorado? Do you have any destination races on your calendar?