And the aftermath

It’s been a couple days since I ran the Bolder Boulder. My legs are still sore, and I certainly won’t be picking the running flag back up for at least another week. But man, it was worth it.

Prior to this endeavor, I could not run one mile without becoming winded beyond recovery. Now I was able to do the six miles that was required, but it became increasingly obvious that my next focus needed to be strength training, as my muscles were just not able to keep up with my breathing and heartrate.

Word to the wise: It’s easy to fall out of shape. It’s not so easy to fall back into shape.

The highlights of the race:

• The Elvis Impersonator at mile 1. Thumbs up, good sir!
• The “Temptation row.” Marshmallows? Cotton Candy? BACON? The hell are you people trying to do to us? D:
• All the homeowners who set up shop in their front yards and cheered the group on.
• RTD setting up buses that took you where you needed to go, without fighting traffic.

The lowlights of the race:

• The sheer volume of people. Half the time I was running, half the time I was dodging runners in front of me. It’s just about to the point there needs to be two lanes of traffic – one for walkers, one for runners.
• Sorry, but smoking along the race lines really does the runners a dis-service. A lot of us are already choking for oxygen. And this coming from an occasional smoker.

Although my showing was abysmal, I had fun. My goal would be to get my 10K time under an hour at this point. But, really, the goal I set for myself at the outset was accomplished. I’ve picked up some habits that make for a more healthy lifestyle, and I’ve lost close to 20 pounds at this point.

Mission accomplished, indeed.