By Chris McDonald
We are the Boulder Road Runners.
Reflecting on three years serving our members and community as Club President, brings me straight to the four key pillars supporting our Mission.
1) Volunteerism
Our member volunteers are the shoulders on which our local running community stands. We are tireless, require no thanks, accolades, or medals. Our members understand service.
Every year we turn out in force to help produce the BolderBoulder – staffing aid stations, the pro start and finish line, course set up and take down, run errands, pack lunches, whatever it takes to help this iconic local event succeed.
The CU Buffs are our home team. We help produce their track meets, cross country meets, donate equipment, raise money, and support athletes. Our 2022 donation of $23,000 to the program stands as a highlight, perhaps equaled by the number of BRR members that worked four days last May to produce the final Pac12 Conference Championships. I am a tad biased having run collegiately for CU, same for members like Charles Trujilo, Deb Conely, Andy Ames, and others who were my teammates. But I firmly believe a strong Cross Country, Track and Field program at CU is just as important to our community as the BolderBoulder, Boulder Road Runners, and Village Coffee Shop, among other institutions.
Expanding the number of volunteer events we support as a Club over these past three years is a source of pride for us all. People and organizations in our community know they can depend on the BRR to volunteer and get the job done.
2) Club Race Teams
In 2022 we co-hosted the USA National 5K Masters Championships with Team Boulder. Sixty-three of our members competed for the Club in fancy new race kits featuring our Colorado color palette. Our post race team photo still covers our website.
That day was a major turning point for our Club. I’m still so proud of everyone who returned to racing for that day. Stalwarts and heroes of the club like Connie Harmon, Tom Levine, Rich Castro, Doug Bell, Roger Sayre, etc. all turned out. Newly formed teams including our Men’s 40 and 50 teams, and our Women’s 50 team showed how much we have grown. I was most proud that day of the Women’s 60 and 70s teams. They represented with such passion and pride, and continue to be an inspiration for us all.
Our Club, and our members, have a lot of running achievements to be proud of. We’ve won team and individual championships in Club Cross-Country, National Indoor and Outdoor track championships, World Championships in Track, Mountain Running, Road Racing, even Ironman events and podiums in the World Marathon Majors Championships. Of course, Club members’ names consistently show up on the podium in local races, and the BolderBoulder record books. Our Club proudly owns the Hood to Coast Super Masters course record. In a stroke of good fortune, Todd Straka and I even got to represent the Club at the recent Olympic Trials in Eugene. The Club currently holds no less than four American Records.
Around the USA and the World, The Boulder Road Runners name is well known. Our members tirelessly represent the Boulder Road Runners, enabling us to build a remarkable, and much envied brand.
With respect to our many accolades, it’s the camaraderie and many friendships that have been built among us all that mean the most. It’s truly been an honor standing on the start line with so many of you.
3) Community Events
Our famous All-Comer Track series withstood a COVID reboot, venue change during the Potts Field remodel, forest fires and extreme weather these past three years. Despite those challenges, we reached record levels of participation. For the first time, we attracted sponsors to help us keep entry fees lower than any other track event in Colorado.
The promotional video we produced for the series is a personal favorite as it captures so well the spirit of the event, and what it means to serve all ages and abilities. The Steeplechase clinic Olympic Trials finalists Carmen Graves and Joey Berriatua hosted this year stands as another highlight. The Terry Leiker Mile is another. It’s hard to fully explain how much this event means to Terry’s family and so many people in our community.
We also took the Mile High Mile to a new high these past three years. More sponsor support, along with our partnership with the elite running community, through Aspire OTQ and our work with CU, produced the most spectacular elite mile events ever raced at altitude. Another all-time moment was Micaela DeGenero running a Colorado Soil record (4:31.61) at this year’s event.
With forest fires raging around Boulder, it would have been really easy to cancel the Mile High Mile this year. Through close coordination with Joey Berriatua, our elite athlete representative, our race director, CU, and our many volunteers, we found a safe way to produce the event. It turned out to be absolutely epic. The post-race summary article and athlete interviews with MHM Champions Joey Berriatua and Micaela DeGenero are among the best work we have ever done as a Club.
4) Athlete Development
Speaking of Aspire OTQ, we did great work! In 2023, via a survey of members, you overwhelmingly selected “athlete support” as the primary initiative we wanted to focus on. Together we created Aspire OTQ, our athlete support program that built upon the Club’s longtime tradition of helping local elite athletes. We built relationships with ten exceptional athletes, and met our goal of raising $28,000! Our members absolutely delivered on what they said they would do in our survey. When this group resolves to take on an initiative, this group delivers.
That each of the Aspire OTQ athletes gave back to the Club as much as they received in support clearly demonstrates we not only partnered with the right athletes, but that our Boulder running community is one. There are more teams and clubs than ever in Boulder. Yet everyone recognizes the interconnected nature of supporting the sport and our community.
Looking Ahead
These four pillars of our Club will continue to thrive because they are important to our members. They are bigger than any one of us. This collective body of work is what differentiates the Boulder Road Runners in our community. It’s why members of other training clubs are also members of Boulder Road Runners. Membership goes beyond the singlet you wear to race. We have BRR supporters wearing the Team USA uniform. Nike. Adidas. Tinman Elite. Roots Running. Denver Athletics. Team Boulder. Boulder Athletics Boulder Road Runners is a common point of connection across all these important stakeholder groups in our community.
As our membership thinks about who to elect as our next President to keep the momentum going, I encourage you to consider Deb Conley.
Deb for President
Deb lives a deeply devoted spirit of service. Deb’s work with the Special Olympics, as the Champion of our own Olympic Day and Terry Leiker Mile, and her experience serving on the board of other Not-for-Profit organizations gives her a unique point of view that we need. She understands the Boulder Road Runners role as a connection point in our community.
Deb ran for our hometown CU Buffs in college. She works the BolderBoulder every year. She shows up for every Board Meeting. She donates her own time, talent, and treasure to Club initiatives and priorities. She hosts all of us yay-hoos at her house for Club Socials.
Deb has been with the Club since the beginning. She has been instrumental in our reimagining of the Club post-COVID. She is open to all ideas brought forward, while maintaining a keen sense of our mission to make sure we hold ourselves accountable.
A Final Thank You to Deb, Todd Straka, Kate and Flavio De Simone, Becca Evans, Terry Femmer, John Bridges, and Lorraine Green who served on the BRR Board during one of my three terms as President. Thank you to Mike Wien, Board Advisor, and Marcey Cote, Communications. This is a remarkably talented and dedicated group of people. We are fortunate they served the Club as they were able to do so. A final thank you to the many, many volunteers that work our All-Comers Track Series every summer. You are heroes to us all.
Happy training,
Chris McDonald
president@boulderroadrunners.org