colorado

I am happy to report that I successfully completed my first attempt of the 2007 San Juan tour known as the Hardrock 100 endurance race. My time of 46 hours flat was enough to earn me 86th place out of a total of 97 finishers and 134 starters.

The race started and ended in Silverton with 33,124 feet of climb and descent. The later I found particularly difficult after sustaining an IT band injury running the Bighorn 100 last month.

Eldorado Springs to Boulder via Mesa Trail: +1,980/-2,772.  10.64m.  2:20:50.  We have a new office at 1050 Walnut Street in Boulder.  One of my favorite things about it is the run I get to do from my house.  I did it for the first time today - a solid 2:20 on Mesa Trail.  I’m sure I’ll speed this up over time, but in addition to a huge altitude gain / loss I started off with 100 oz of water in my Camelback.  It was a stupendous run – I can’t wait to do it again.

I think it was halfway up Green Mountain, at a point where I could hardly breathe, that someone asked, "Simon, are you training for anything special at the moment?"

"Believe...it...or...not", I gasped, "I'm training for the mile".

Total respect to George and Scott for NOT immediately asking, "Then what the hell are you doing here?" Although I'm sure it crossed their minds.

I've been in Boulder for over 20 years. I've been running since I arrived. In the last few weeks I've done two things that everyone runner in Boulder has probably done before:

1). Run the Mesa trail.
2). Run the Bolder Boulder.

It just struck me as interesting that I hadn't done this before. Regarding the BB, I usualy travel Memorial Day weekend, so that's why.

Anyway, I wonder what other "must do" things I haven't done as a Runner in Boulder!

I did the Bolder Boulder 10K this morning, alongside my youngest daughter (age 9, hence my time of just under 2 hours) and with apparently around 50,000 other runners and walkers. We all had these little chips from Ipico tied to our shoelaces -- the first time that the venerable race has gone digital. (Hurray! It's about time.)

In theory, the system is great: It tracks your overall time and mile splits, and at the end you can send in a text message via your cell phone and (supposedly) within 20 minutes get a message back with your results. Nice.

The guy in the mail shop wanted to talk about David Beckham coming to play soccer in the US (for those of you who live under rocks, DB is the former captain of the England soccer team, has been playing for Real Madrid and is married to "Posh Spice")....

... but all I wanted to find out is -- is Paula Radcliffe coming to Boulder?

Stories in "Hello!" magazine and on BBC news reveal that "Radcliffe and her family plan to move to her training camp in Colorado at the end of February to begin her preparations for the outdoor season."

Colorado? It has to be Boulder, right? I'm excited!

The marathon world record-holder started running -- well, jogging -- again 12 days after giving birth to baby Isla in January. She is gearing up for the World Championships in August in Japan, but has not yet decided whethere she's going for the 10,000 or the marathon.