By Rich Castro
One of the threads that connects the past with the present for the Boulder Road Runners (BRR) is our enduring relationship with Olympians who train in Boulder. The interest in altitude training to gain running advantages was kick-started by the ’68 Olympics in Mexico City. Then, with Frank Shorter’s victory in the ’72 Olympic marathon the trend became full blown.
International Influx
Initially, it was American athletes who started moving to Boulder, and began realizing the benefits of training here. That further piqued the interest of international athletes such as New Zealander Dick Quax, who had immediate success following his Boulder training stint with a World Record in the 5000m in July of 1977. So began an almost endless stream of endurance athletes seeking to improve their fortunes at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
Stories, Connections, and Racing
Poster for The Run for the Roses 15k, Boulder, 1977. The race, produced by original BRR members, started and finished at Palmer Gardens, a florist at 30th and Walnut St. It was the largest and fastest 15k in the state at the time.
BRR members played host to many of these visiting future Olympians. We welcomed them at our track meets, potlucks, club meetings, and club events. Our experiences were as varied as Sheryl Flanagan running in the first BRR 100 mile relay while pregnant with her daughter (future USA Olympian Shalane Flanagan), to 1980 Boston Marathon Champion and Canadian Olympian Jacqueline Gareau being our Beer Mile Queen. We regularly had time trials at our BRR track meets for the elites training here. Rolando Vera, three-time Olympian from Ecuador, and Steve Spence, USA Olympian in 1992, asked for a 3000m one time, and of course we obliged. There are countless stories about the friendships and connections that were forged by supporting these athletes over the years.
Governor’s Cup
In 1984 there was a unique confluence of events that brought three world-level elites to a race where they represented the BRR. The Colorado Governor’s Cup 10k added a team component to their event, requiring two men and one woman to compete as a team. I entered a BRR team made up of three superstars training in Boulder: Carlos Lopes of Portugal, who was the reigning 1984 Olympic Marathon Champion; Rosa Mota, also from Portugal, who captured the bronze medal in the first women’s Olympic Marathon in L.A.; and Simeon Kigen of Kenya, who had been named to his country’s Olympic team but denied a spot at the last minute due to politics. Kigen had set a world record at 12k earlier that year and smashed the course record for the San Francisco Marathon by over four minutes, in 2:10:14. Mota was already a known quantity in Colorado after winning the first of her five BOLDERBoulder championships that spring. As the Governor’s Cup Team 10k unfolded, Kigen ended up beating Lopes in a hard fought race, and with Mota’s strong performance, the BRR elite team achieved a perfect score of four points!
Post-Race Kid Management
Young Antonio Castro is safe on his father’s shoulders after being “rescued” by L.A. Olympic Marathon Champion Carlos Lopes (middle) after the toddler got lost in a crowd at the 1984 Governor’s Cup in Denver.
A sidebar to that event is the post-race awards ceremony. A not quite 2-year-old Antonio Castro (my son) managed to escape his parents in the dense crowd on the capitol steps and his mom, six months pregnant with his brother Greg, launched a frantic search. After racing, Lopes came to the rescue, found Antonio, and placed him on his father’s shoulders for safekeeping, while the Denver press snapped photos.
History of Support
As we know, Boulder has long been home to talented runners, and the BRR has a long history of supporting these Olympic hopefuls. In the 70s, the early BRR members helped host events to support the Colorado Track Club and its runners. For example, we held the Run for the Roses 15k in September 1977, which featured Quax and the legendary Frank Shorter. We continued helping these types of elites training in Boulder for decades – whether it was hosting them, running with them, or arranging part-time jobs in town to help them make ends meet.
Simeon Kigen, #2, from Kenya, and Carlos Lopes, #3, of Portugal, take the lead while representing BRR on an elite mixed team at the Denver Governor’s Cup 10k in 1984.
More recently, BRR has assisted many high-level local athletes with financial grants, including 2016 Olympic Bronze Medalists Jenny Simpson (1500 meters) and Emma Coburn (Steeplechase), Tokyo Olympian Val Constien (Steeplechase), Marathon Star Nell Rojas, and many other trials qualifiers including Carrie Verdon, Frank Lara, and Dave Goodman.
In 2023, the Club took this tradition of support and formalized it into an official program called Aspire OTQ. Aspire OTQ’s purpose is to provide financial support to elite runners who train in Boulder, are engaged in the community, yet lack full corporate sponsorship.
The BRR is proud that its history of supporting elite athletes now has new momentum, sprouting from its strong roots in the past.