The Legendary Boulder. Summary thus far…

My running is still nothing but miles upon miles with 800s mixed in. I guess that’s ultra training! If I have time, I think I’ll get a section on here with Garmin stats. In the meantime, I figured I’d just talk about the Boulder thing after being here for awhile.

I’d guess from my writing that any reader would know I’m not too big on the stuff outside of my own world. I mean, my favorite place to run so far is a small park in Indiana with hilly dirt trails, grass trails, a lake, some wetlands and next to an asphalt trail and indoor/outdoor tracks that I have access to at a college. There’s also incredibly nice, tree-lined rolling hills on asphalt roads behind the park. It’s like the stuff I used to run at home, especially around my parent’s house. A tie for that place is my childhood running loop in Massachusetts up the hills and around the urban lake I grew up on. I’ll be revisiting both spots again this year. :)

I know Boulder is all the rage in the running world. I don’t deny that some (many) runners are drawn to here. We all have our thing. That’s other runners’ thing but I can definitely see the attraction. I came here to just see what all the hype was about and know for sure that I didn’t miss out on anything running-wise for myself. I feel better having experienced it and making an educated decision based on that experience rather than continuing on assumptions I had about it over the years. I’ve kinda found my spots that feel good to run now.

Sporadically throughout about a decade, I had some chances to move to or visit Boulder. I turned it down every time.  First, I have a thing for crazy winters, heavy tree coverage, oceans, big lakes and humidity. So, Boulder always looked pretty dull and barren to me – just my opinion, not forcing it on anybody else. Second, I prefer rolling hills in the shade on soft, beat-up asphalt and Boulder is mostly pretty pancake unless you get out of town or head into the mountains or the college hill a.k.a “The Hill”. So, once again, I never thought it was for me. Third, is its reputation for really intense runners, eating disorders, and generally a large running scene that takes itself too seriously. Not to say that it’s all bad, but it’s here due to the higher level of running. I knew I didn’t want that years ago and getting a taste of it really confirms that I like relaxed running where I just kind of go with the flow. But I’m pretty settled in here and it’s not tense for me, so I get in a lot of relaxed miles.

My boyfriend and I were split between Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Colorado when we were looking to move. I had been back in the Midwest for several years and made a great friend group and love the running scene, so I was OK if we stayed out there. Plus, I sail Hobies, which makes the Great Lakes a sweet spot for me. Massachusetts would have brought me closer to my family and Maryland would have done the same for my boyfriend. Colorado was kind of the exploratory route. We both love snowboarding. Plus, altitude was something I hadn’t tried for running. So, the Colorado option got in there after he spent awhile trying to convince me to give it a shot. Between the two of us, we had job offers in each state but ultimately decided to try out Boulder. It’s the snowboarding that really won us over.

We did a visit a few weeks before moving here and tackled some of the main stuff as my boyfriend was still trying to convince me that it’s a good spot to move. We did the Flatirons, Pearl St., Golden, Magnolia, the Buff’s XC course, etc. We made it super touristy in between looking at townhouses to move into. My boyfriend had only come to Colorado to stay in mountain resorts prior to that. And, of course, I only knew the place because I thought it was a small mountain town with allegedly good running. Our views of the place were rather skewed and outdated. These days, it’s a bit overcrowded. It’s nothing to flee though and we can take advantage of what is here while we’re here. No need to be Debbie Downers and waste several years. We may even decide to stay at some point. Who knows.

We make the best of it by traveling around. Boulder really isn’t the good spot; it’s all the stuff around it that makes it fun for us. Nederland (8000′ woohoo!) was my first trip outside of town after settling in here. It’s pretty close and it’s what I thought Boulder was like before I saw it. It’s quiet with lots of hilly, open trails. Heck, I’d move there in a second. After Nederland, we’ve gone to most of the ski resorts on our season passes and even hit Aspen for a long weekend. I mean, that stuff out there is beautiful. Mountain towns are what we love. Traveling out of town has made the move worth it. We’ve had a ball so far. This weekend, we’re aiming for either a gold mine tour or ghost town.

Right now, Boulder isn’t really definite forever. Our plan to buy real estate went from “Yeah, let’s get that done before Google expands more here and jacks up prices again.” to “Eh, do we really want to spend no less than $400K on a split ranch or condo? Let’s decide after our degrees are finished.” It’s a toss-up between a real estate bubble on it’s way to bursting or property taxes going through the roof with prices getting out of hand overall – not exactly a buyer’s market. Plus, there’s our whole family factor and I guess we’re both starting to miss having them nearby. Both of us have lived away from home for awhile in the Midwest but Colorado is pretty far and inconvenient. Our home states are pretty close to one another, so either one could work. We just know that hopping around to new locations a lot isn’t productive. We both have jobs with tuition reimbursement right now too. So, we’re sticking it out to progress in our careers and education since this is a decent college town. I have a degree but I started in Comp Sci and changed majors as a sheltered kid. I’ve wanted to go back and finish that Comp Sci degree for ages. Plus, there is an engineering school that I’m interested in for my Master’s after the second B.S. if we stay here that long (I may never leave academia again!). This is a sweet place to do the college thing again but beyond that, we’re considering the other factors.

Meanwhile, I’m giving this altitude thing a chance to see if it does anything for me. Adjusting was a real blast! (/sarcasm) I did the whole club thing when I had a lot of free time before but as I’ve mentioned in other posts I just don’t think I want it all the time here. Down the line, I kind of want to enjoy more of a “fun run” group for my easy days. My schedule doesn’t permit adhering to a strict training group and I don’t like having to run on other people’s timelines and plans constantly. So, I keep much of my group stuff to climbing, hiking, snowboarding and going out around town for now. I’m researching some Hobie fleets too – and a Hobie16 because I’ve got storage space in the yard and shed and a huge driveway for a trailer (woohoo!). Anyway, I’ve also met some runners on the trails near me recently – ya know, those awkward moments when somebody ends up running nearby or catching up to you and you’re like, “Uhh, Hi” and then get talking. I met two running buddies on the Charles like that when I lived in Boston and I’ve met three here the same way. It seems to happen in crowded running spots where people run at the same time every day. So, us regular early bird runners from my neighborhood meet up on the trail a block away from me sometimes. It’s pretty cool how runners are quickly friends like that. Not bad at all for this introvert and a lot easier than being the n00b in a huge club!

The one silly thing I thought would be worse in town was having a former coach who is still out of control nearby. It was really a major reason I didn’t want to move here at first. An article sent to me by a reader tells that this person has been publicly intoxicated and under the influence of drugs again too recently for my comfort. For awhile, I worried for my safety due to his violent past and recent issues but, really, it’s been more just like having an Internet bully with too much time on his hands so far. This person found my blog somehow and I get novels longer than my posts including everything from (a) letting me know I made a typo (Thanks, I guess?) to (b) telling me there’s accounts he made with my name used to encourage runners I don’t even know hate me, to (c) telling me he knows where I live with the address included (I’m unlisted so that’s creepy. Thankfully we moved as it was a short term lease to get started here.) to (d) suggesting that I should commit suicide. How miserable do you have to be to wish that on somebody? A coach is supposed to be one of the most positive and supportive types too! So, wth? I’m not the first one to have dealt with this though. Nobody should have to deal with being told to commit suicide.

I guess if I was a high school girl or something, this would bother me and ruin my experience in Colorado but I take just take it as confirmation nothing has improved in that coach’s world. And who the heck has time for this kind of stuff as an adult. I barely have time to finish a blog post in one sitting. But, I feel good having written about past stories in a harmless and vague way and it’s out of my system. Writing really let me process the fact that this is just an angry person who will only have control if given it. If I was mean and angry, I could have used specifics due to some events being public news, but my writing isn’t about anger or personal attacks. It’s about self-help and helping others who have dealt with addicts and maybe encouraging a person to turn life around rather than put so much effort into bringing me down. I’ll be writing more about coming back to running after this post because attention only fuels this coach’s fire. I just thought it needed a mention for those who have dealt with similar things so they know they can get through it.

In the long run (#pun), it doesn’t matter if every reader believes my past stories or even cares. People will think what they want. I have great support from friends and family to get running (and engineering!!!!!!) again. Choosing to hang around with negative people in the past got me nowhere and made me miserable. I see Colorado as a generally happy place now that I’m here so why let a bad apple ruin it for me. I’m not even sure why I’m such a target years after leaving a coach and walking away from elite running. People like that are just bullies who attack others to feel better about themselves. Somebody assign a time-out in the principal’s office :P

And that’s that. Dunzo. Onward to leaving that behind and working out the legs and my brainz.

On a lighter note, we’re pretty settled and set in the right direction here in Boulder now. So, it’s not so bad. I think it’s a good place to lay out some building blocks for long term goals now (one more time….engineering !!!!!! I’m finally back!!!!!). Boulder isn’t as running-centralized as I thought it was either, which is a good thing. I can tune it out and just enjoy running without the pressure to constantly focus on it for now. I get my daily runs out of the way, and I’m on to work and other activities. There’s plenty to keep busy with here and I think that’s pretty important.

Plus, we live in a place friends and family actually want to visit, so that’s pretty awesome. Plenty of room to crash. My boyfriend’s brother finally fit in a visit during his college spring break (Dude is some kind of genius who already got into research as an undergrad after he came up here on the physical effects of altitude on the brain .) Then, my boyfriend’s mom is coming this summer and probably his aunt and uncle for some snowboarding over the winter. My family doesn’t like to travel much but I’ll get them here with some negotiation tactics when I see them this fall ;) AND, we just set up the UV sails and furniture in our nice fenced-in yard.  We face the Flatirons and get sunset views everyday from every window in our kitchen, office, yard, and the office balcony. Maybe I’ll actually get a tan living closer to the sun!

-Kim