This was just supposed to be an nice easy long run, which it was. The course was fine, not as pretty as I thought it would be. The altitude bothered me more than expected. I never felt terribly out of breath, but I was planning on running by feel. My nice easy feel was about a 8:30/mile pace, not the 7:50 easy pace I ususally run. I tried to pick it up a couple of different times, and I did get very short of breath when I tried to run my normal pace. So I just settled in, resigned to a slower pace, and tried to enjoy the scenery.

nothing

headed straight for the car


altitude


The race has huge potential Boulder is a fantastic place. However, packet pick up was very unprganized. No one knew who was where, where to pick up everything. The race started about 10 min late, because traffic control and parking were lacking. The race itself was fine. Course was decent, tons of volunteers with good aid stations. The finish line area is my main complaint. They had tables set out covered with medals. You grabbed your own. I grabbed a 5mile race finisher medal at first. THey had 1 tent set up with bananas, orage slices, and coolers full of water and gatorade with cups. No bottles, so I stood there and poured myself several cups and left. They had a big post-race area with all of the sponsors. This area was open to everyone, though, so it was packed. Evol Burritos had their truck there, with a line of at least 50 people waiting to get a burrito. The beer tent had a longer line to get anything. Rudi's Bakery was giving away bagels, a quarter of one at a time. I was able to finally get 2 quarters of a bagel, a cup of water, and went to the car and figured I would get something as soon as I got on the road. I only thought parking and traffic was bad at the start, b/c it took almost 25 min to get out of the parking area.

The race itself was nice, but the logistics of everything both pre and post-race were pretty poor.