Boulder, CO, (May 2013). I met Cliff at Bolder Boulder race
headquarters before lunch and between appointments- it is a busy for the race
director. He is dressed in a white dress shirt and tie. He has been to state
legislature earlier in the morning. He has a full day of planning and meetings
ahead, but still is relaxed and ready to talk Bolder Boulder.
Thomas: Less than a
month to go, (Cliff laughs 25 days as of today-Thomas laughing ) You probably
know the number of hours too..
Cliff: Well 24 days and about 20 hours..
Thomas: It probably seems like it tomorrow based on the way
you are running around. This is the 35th time for the Bolder
Boulder. When you started could you have ever imagined this amazing.
Cliff: I don’t know. When the race first started, I think
the first year’s race we had the race finishing in North Boulder Park in 1979
and there were 2700 people. And at the time when we were promoting it with a
poster and it said race limited to the first 4,000 people. And I remember now…
Thomas: (laughing) Is
that a wave now?
Cliff: Yeah! I remember
at the time I was part of a Boy Scout troop. My troop passed these posters out
door to door. And I saw this guy standing out by his front door reading this
and scoffed a little and said something like, what does a 12 year old kid
know. And I was thinking you know-you
never know-I did not know anything about that statement the race limited to the
first 4,000 people. I just knew my dad was doing it and it was cool and it was
going to work. So the next year the raced moved to Boulder High and it doubled
in size. And then the next year it increased by another 60%. And so I don’t know
there was ever a thought that it could be 50,000 people. I think a lot of the
early thinking was you know the stadium holds 50,000 people and everyone came
with a friend there would be 100,000. So by default we were thinking that maybe
25,000 would be the number of people would come. But I think as we started
doing the wave start in the early 80’s you know the wave start takes 2 and a
half hours. There are people still
signing up to register after people have been done for an hour. And that is
awesome. It spreads the day out more too. So it can really be 50,000 people.
Thomas: It is amazing when you think about a race of 50,000 people
that you would have some runners who probably register the day after the
previous years race is completed. And then you have others who wake up and race
day, see the weather is good, and decide hey let’s go run the Bolder Boulder
today. That has to speak to a number of things like the popularity of the race,
and especially the organization.
Cliff: Thank you!
Thomas: This really is a combination of a lot of things:
sponsors, organization, volunteers, everything. I know you were down at the
legislature even today –this event is really a community outreach.
Cliff: You bet. And that’s how the race got founded. It was initially envisioned a track meet for kids. But
when the advice came back that hey a track meet is going to be a lot of work,
why don’t you put on a road race and my father asked the question, What’s a
road race? And here we get to stand 34 years later we stand on the cusp of running the race for the 35th
time. I guess, good for me he asked the
question what is a road race? I might be doing something different had he not
asked that question.
Thomas: So talk about that. I’ve talked to a number of
runners, joggers and even elite athlete’s
and one of the draws to the race other than the great organization,
highly competitive field, and the number
of runners, is how unique the race is in that you have the stadium finish.
Cliff: You bet!
Thomas: When
folks come into the stadium, and maybe
not in those early waves that start before 7:30 in the morning, but when they
come in in a hour or two hours after the race has started, there are lots of
people in the stadium, it’s noisy, and it really can be an Olympic moment for a
lot of people.
Cliff: Yeah I think
it is. Maybe for some of those earlier people too. The venue is unique. You are
right, probably more like an hour into it where the stadium is full, there is
music, people are excited, you can hear people outside the stadium not just at
mile 6, but then you know there 2 tenths left and that is exactly right the
stadium finish, for a lot of people that is their Olympic moment. That is their
opportunity to think and maybe feel that this must be what it is like to be in
the Olympics. In fact that is what we have heard our pro athlete’s say-there is
nothing quite like this. Outside of the Olympics, where else do we get to have
a stadium finish in front of 50,000 fans?
Thomas: So true. And even for the runners and joggers who aren’t
as competitive as some, the race is still a tremendous draw-there is a lot
history-you have a page on the Bolder Boulder website where people can tell
their story. There are a lot of families
who mark the event as a yearly passage of time-maybe the finish isn’t an
Olympic moment in terms of time, but it is in terms of emotion and family
history. That has to be rewarding as a race director.
Cliff. It is. Last year there were 51,681 that registered. So
we say there are 51,681 stories and it’s one experience. And you are exactly
right. Everyone has a story that’s part of the Bolder Boulder experience. And just
this year we have the stories on facebook. We launched a campaign, I am Bolder.
What’s your story? And we will have the three final videos posted soon where
people can vote on what they think is the best I am Bolder story. The interesting
part is that this is just a snapshot. Two years ago, we had our 1,000,000th
finisher. So there have been more than 1,000,000 people who have connected with
the race.
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