By Mike Sandrock via Daily Camera
When masters runners from across the country travel to Boulder for the Oct. 22 USA Track & Field Masters 5K Cross Country Championships set for Harlow Platts Community Park in South Boulder, they are coming not only to race, but to immerse themselves in the Boulder running atmosphere and to share in the camaraderie of the brother and sisterhood of masters (over age 40) racing.
“I’ll be taking them for some Colorado beer drinking and running Magnolia Road afterward,” said Chris McDonald, 53, a former University of Colorado steeplechaser and president of the Boulder Road Runners. “Everyone wants to run ‘Mags.’” Coming to Boulder to race and run is comparable to baseball fans going to Arizona or Florida for spring training, McDonald said, because of the many post-collegians, national and world-class runners and Olympians living and training here.
The Boulder Road Runners are the host club for the USATF championships, with Australian Olympian Lee Troop, of TEAM Boulder, as the race director. Troop, along with fellow BRR members John Bridges and Don Janicki, placed a bid to host the meet two years ago, and, after it was approved, have been planning for it ever since.
The weekend includes a pasta dinner 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Millennium Hotel, open to the public, with a full slate of races set for Saturday at Harlow Platts, 1360 Gillaspie Drive. Community races will be in the morning for elementary and middle school students and open runners, with the masters championship races going off at 1 p.m. (women) and 2 p.m. (men). Team titles are awarded in 10-year age increments, individual titles in five-year age increments, with prize money being offered.
“This is a big deal,” said Louisville’s Bruce Kirschner, 69, captain of the BRR Men’s 60-plus team. “Clubs are coming in from all over the region and the rest of the country; everyone is excited about it.”
One of those excited is Jeff Dumas, whose BRR Men’s 70-plus squad will battle the Atlanta Track Club for the 2022 Grand Prix Series win, awarded on the basis of finishes in races throughout the year. “This race will decide the title,” said McDonald. “The rivalry with the ATC is storied.”
Dumas previewed the course in the October club newsletter, writing, “It is important to know this course. It is tricky — and for the unwary, each blind turn can present unexpected obstacles … the terrain is quite variable with short grass, tall grass, sand, tree roots, sidewalks, a wooden bridge, and possible sogginess if over-watered or it has recently rained.”
The top M50 team, West Valley Track Club, will come here from the San Francisco area, as well as top teams Garden State TC, Shore Athletic Club, Dukes Track Club and Team Flagstaff across many age divisions.
I won’t be racing on Oct. 22, but will be there watching and cheering for the Boulder runners, which include BRR founder Rich Castro, 75, and the Athletics Boulder squad, to beat the runners from Atlanta, N.J., California and Flagstaff and to keep some of the national team titles in town. However, the rivalry vanishes when the racing is finished, McDonald said.
“It is a little bit less about getting fired up to beat the other team; now, we get fired up to hang out afterward,” McDonald said, explaining his change in attitude toward his competitors. “We did not do that with Iowa State, Nebraska (during his years racing in the Big 8). Some of us have been housemates (at international races) and teammates on U.S. teams. There is a legitimate connection, a social community aspect among us, that we are still able to do this and get to know all these like-minded folks from around the country.
“There are fewer of us,” he added, “it’s a shrinking universe.”
These masters racers are fast, tough, gritty guys, many of them successful businessmen with full family lives. They fit in their training around and in between busy schedules. And what keeps them going?
“The ability to reset expectations,” said McDonald, a software entrepreneur. “I threw my college record book away and never looked back. We are not chasing ghosts of runners past.” Rather, these older runners are looking to race as well as they can against the best runners in the nation of their age. They’ll get their chance on Oct. 22.
USATF championship details are at usatf.org and the community race details can be found at teamboco.com
Roger Sayre will help lead the Men’s 60+ team to challenge the podium
Vicky Hunter will be on the hunt for top placements in the October race
XC Veterans Carl Mohr and Jeff Dumas will also help lead the 70+ teams to top positions
Photos courtesy of Michael Scott and Dave Albo.
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