This May brought me my first Ragnar Trail Relay and my fourth BolderBoulder. You can read Part 1 about the Ragnar here, but now I’ll tell you about America’s best 10k in 2017.

The first time I was not in shape at all. I had it in my head that I couldn’t possibly be a “runner”, so I walked a lot. It was still fun. I did it with my hubby, and we smiled a lot along the course. I totally could have pushed myself harder, but that’s the past. The second time I did it, I wasn’t in much better shape, but I was super sick, with a crazy cough, so we walked the whole thing. Nathaniel and his friend wore tutus, and I wore a flowy ballet-esque skirt.

BB10k 2015 - Probably the leanest I've ever been

The third time I ran is still my PR, and I even qualified for a wave because of it! [The slowest qualified wave, but still!] I probably could beat that time by a tiny bit if I really set my mind to it, but I think that was the best physical/mental shape I’ve been in. It was also after I lost a bunch of weight and had a treadmill at my disposal so I could pace myself better. I do struggle with that on roads and trails.

This year I ran with my best friend. We decided to run for fun rather than run for speed, but we still finished in about an hour and 15 minutes, with a handful of beer breaks (and therefore beer in our bellies). One of the big sponsors for the BolderBoulder is Oskar Blues, so there are a ton of tents set up on the side of the course where they have beer. The course goes through neighborhoods too, so sometimes people are handing out their own drinks, food, jello shots… or are shooting you with hoses or water guns and have slip-n-slides set up. I typically skip the slip-n-slides because I’m a major klutz, but they’re fun to watch! This year there were dancing Chick-fil-a cows, and we got countless high fives. And even though we weren’t running at breakneck speeds, because we were having fun together, the time passed quickly. Another great thing about the BolderBoulder is that they let you have your race photos for free. Anyway, long story short, I’ll take it 😉 We had a great time and I’d totally do it the same exact way over again.