I just ran the Bolder Boulder—the biggest community-est 10K in the world.

That was tough. And fun.

A year ago I couldn’t run, having “paralyzed” my arm in a surfing accident. My head had snapped back to spine while surfing (badly), and I’d stood up to find the pop-pop was the sound of my neck C5 and C6 nerves getting crushed. Suddenly, my right arm couldn’t lift up.

So after a year off from running the BolderBoulder, just doing PT and getting better slowly, felt good to be back in it! I ran a decent time—though I’m out of shape I just leaned forward, breathed in and out, never walked, and had some fun.

Bonus intermission: Advice from the legend himself:

Back to the article:

Children, veterans, friends, strangers…community. Joy.

A few observations: 1) heavy artillery everywhere this year. Police officers sitting on armored cars with automatic rifles, a Swat Team with a tank. Sad, and a bit scary. Countries with far fewer guns = few shootings.

2) a lot of single-use plastic use among sponsors. Boo! A lot of composting of good-old-fashioned waxed paper cups at the actual race, which are far eco-er—use those!

3) Live music was a little flat this year (except for the bagpipes group, and a band of kids rocking Eye of the Tiger at the top of the hill at Casey, my junior high)—we need more thumping parties to get us through the hard spots! Camaraderie otherwise was great—the traditional beer and lawnchair bbqs, the slip-n-slide, the cheering on the streets—this has gotta be the greatest 10K community event on the planet (not to mention the worldwide pros who come in and race after we the people finish up).

4) hanging with John Tayer at the VIP section, with that view of the Flatirons at the end…epic. Going backward through the race cheering folks on—seeing friends at Goat and Ashleigh Jai Hitchcock & pals and DJ-Brookstar PartyPants doing his amazing thing. So fun.

Thanks to my “sponsors” (I’m no athlete, just noisy on social media): localish Newtons and the BoulderBoulder with the press pass.

Finally, let us honor soldiers forever, and let us honor war no more: Happy Memorial Day!

Did you know? Memorial day used to be explicitly about honoring peace, not war. Warriors—not chickenhawks—know war, and war is hell.

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all Hell.” ~ General Sherman

Bonus. Bonus again. Another.