Bathroom line

Barefoot Bolder Boulder 2010

by Alan on May 31, 2010

2010 was the second year I have ran the Bolder Boulder. In 2009, my two oldest daughters became interested in running the race due to one of the teachers at their school and decided to enter. Lori and I entered as well and had so much fun that it has turned out to be kind of a family tradition now. I was in the Middle School challenge wave (wave MB) that year and ran in my racing flats, passing about 1000 people to finish in 49:22. This year, I was able to get into a qualifying wave (wave B) using my time at the 2009 Sombrero Trail Run , and I decided that this year I would make it interesting and run it entirely barefoot. My longest (and only) barefoot race prior to this was the 2009 Running of the Bulls 6K, so I expected that this race would push the limits of my barefoot running ability.

My wave started at 7:03am so I left the house in Estes around 5:20 and easily found parking at the big church about 1/2 mile north of the start. After arriving in the area of the start, I went looking for a place to go to the bathroom and ended up finding a parking lot off to the east with LOTS of porta-pots and got right in. Apparently I had arrived there just at the right time judging by the lines in the picture above that I took right after I got out.

From there, I went to my assigned wave position and after a few minutes I spotted Mike Priddy up ahead of me in the AB wave. I went up and said hi and he introduced my to his charming friend Cassie who was running in that wave. After a few minutes of conversation, it was almost time for her to run so Mike and I went back and took our places in the B wave. Here is a shot of my feet while I was waiting to start, showing the chip strapped around my ankle:

Finally the time arrived and I started running. The pavement was fairly worn from heavy traffic and easy on the feet, and I made the first mile in 7 minutes flat. Not as good as I had hoped, but I was off that day and just couldn’t push it as hard as I wanted to. The mat didn’t pick up my chip at miles 2 and 3 so I don’t know the exact time, but I’m pretty sure they were around 7:20 pace. Mile 4 was the toughest for me, with a pace of 7:36. From that point on, I started loosening up and was getting faster as I went on. Mile 5 went by in 7:25 and I could feel the pull of the finish line. Mile 6 went by in 7:17 despite the fact that I was starting to feel a bit sensitive on some of my little toes. The last quarter mile or so of the race is uphill, but I was so pumped from being close to the end I was probably running sub-7 and was passing people all the way up the hill and into the stadium. I used up most of my energy going up the hill into the stadium and had to back off just a bit going around the track, finishing in 45:54, an average pace of 7:23. Here is a picture of one of my feet right after I sat down in the bleachers to wait for the rest of the family:

After everyone finished and we met back up, we all walked to the Chipotle Mexican Grill in the 29th street mall for an excellent after race dinner.

I wasn’t terribly happy with the time I ran, but I was having an off day and felt satisfied that I had done all that my body was capable of that particular day. Here’s a picture of the toe damage taken that evening. Both feet had pretty much identical damage.

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