By Tim Bergsten
PikesPeakSports.us site manager/editor
Alisha Williams says she has learned her lesson about the
Bolder Boulder 10K.
A year ago, the Manitou Springs resident was one of three runners on the U.S.
women’s elite team.
But things went wrong from the get-go.
“I just started out too hard,” said Williams, who runs for the Boulder Running Company/Adidas team. “We were just over a five-minute mile pace. It was downhill and I got carried away.”
Williams finished in 36 minutes, 16 seconds, 3:28 off the winning pace.
“This year, I’m going to go out slower and try to reel people in,” she said.
Williams - the only Colorado Springs runner invited to compete in the Bolder Boulder elite field - is racing as part of the Colorado Women's team in this year's International Team competition. She'll be joined by Laura Bennett of Boulder and Kristen Fryburg-Zaitz of Broomfield.
There are 50,000-plus entered to run, walk or navigate the course by wheelchair. The crazy day begins at 7 a.m. with the first of 89 citizen waves. Williams and the elite women start at 11 a.m. The elite men go at 11:11.
If Williams' recent race times are any indication, she might surprise herself and others. This spring she set a personal-best time of 15:45 in the 5K at the Mount SAC Relays at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif.
Then she lowered her 10K best to 33:19 at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University.
“I’m definitely fit,” Williams said. “I’ve been training more for the 5K than the 10K, but I think I’ll do well.”
At Boulder’s 5,200 foot altitude, elite runners typically lose 48 seconds off their sea-level 10K times. A personal best may be too much to hope for. But Williams has her goals. She’ll toe the starting line at 11 a.m. to race a super-talented field, including last year’s winner Mamita Daska of Ethiopia, who won with a time of 32:48.
“I’d like to place Top 10,” she said. “We’ll see what
happens, but I think I can do it.”
She would also like to break 34 minutes. A sub-34 in 2009
would have been good for fourth place.
And Bolder Boulder is something of a homecoming for the 28-year-old Williams. She grew up in tiny Frederick, Colo., a few miles from Boulder, where she was a state champion in the 1,600-meter run as a senior. She learned about Bolder Boulder while running the race with her high school gym class. Things have changed for her since then.
“It means a lot to be close to my hometown, racing the best runners in the world,” she said.
One thing is for sure, the atmosphere at Bolder Boulder, where more than 50,000 have entered to run, is unmatched. Runner’s World magazine has named Bolder Boulder the all-time best 10K in the country. It is the second largest road race in the U.S. And among the world’s biggest races, Bolder Boulder ranks No. 4. It is also the largest Memorial Day gathering in the U.S.
All the runners finish at the University of Colorado’s
Folsom Field, which is filled with cheering spectators. And Boulders citizens line the race course with their own kind of enthusiasm – or, insanity.
But more than anything, when she runs through the street of Boulder, and then enters the stadium, Williams feels a sense of pride in the good ol’ USA. It is a Memorial Day celebration, after all.
“When you enter the stadium, the crowd is roaring,” she
said. “There are flags and it’s very patriotic.”
She’ll be the only Boulder Running Company/Adidas runner in an elite race. There will be several running in the citizen’s class, including Tommy Neal of Colorado Springs, plus many other top runners from the area.
Neal, a transplant from Missouri who has trained in Colorado Springs for two years, said the citizen races can be as competitive as the elite class.
He has had a rough year, battling sickness. When his training times plateaued, he took a week off.
“I’m feeling better now,” he said. “I think I’m ready to go.”
Neal has had two 100-mile training weeks recently.
He hopes to break 31 minutes at Bolder Boulder. Then he’ll race in the Sailing Shoes Run For Fun
in downtown Colorado Springs on June 19 and the Hellacious Trail Challenge in Palmer Park on June 27.
His big goal is the U.S. 10K Championships, July 4 in Atlanta.
More about Bolder Boulder
There are 89 waves of runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes in the citizen race. The first begins at 7 a.m. Monday.
The Women’s International Team race begins at 11 a.m.
The Men’s International Team race starts at 11:11 a.m.
TV Time: KMGH (7News) will broadcast a one-hour Bolder
Boulder special beginning at 11 a.m. Fox
Sports Rocky Mountain will produce a one-hour highlight show slated to air June 6 at 5:30 p.m.
Read more about Bolder Boulder.