A Little Taste of the Bolder Boulder

What a weekend. As many of you know, the Bolder Boulder is a big deal in our family...and last Monday every time I looked at my watch I would think "they just took off," or "here come the elite runners," or "now they are cooking for the bar b que." I was bummed that I missed it but this weekend gave me a little taste of what it would've been like. Erin, Ale (erin's host bro), Amy, and I took off for Santiago on Sat. afternoon. When we got there we went straight to the stadium to pick up our runner packets. The stadium is located in the foothills of the Andes and could easily be confused for Boulder. We got these AWESOME long-sleeved dry fit t-shirts and immediatly tried them on when we got home :). Walking into the tent was like walking into a different country. There were actually ATHLETES there ....with REAL running shoes! SO EXCITING. Anyways, we made our way back to Ale's apartment and headed to the nicest mall I've ever seen to eat shushi....YUM, I tried octopus, pretty sure its my new favorite food. Then we bought Ice cream and cookies and had a relaxing night in the appt. The next AM Erin and I got up super early to get the FULL EXPERIENCE. We got to the stadium and were close to the first runners to arrive. We waited around for about 1.5 hours before AEROBICS got started...yes, aerobics. There was this big stage with these three women leading aerobics for the 1000 runners in their matching t shirts. IT was SO FUN! I laughed the whole time, thinking that this would never happen at home. We finally got ready to start. The starter was talking about the race while we were on the line and all i caught was first we were going to bajar (go down hill) and then subir (go up hill). So we start bajaring and then after about 200 meters get to the first hill. It was a short one, and the trail flattened out pretty quickly. Little did we know, the worst was to come. About 5 min later we were running up the longest hill of my life. At one point we walked because we were able to go faster than running. AFter a while we started down hill and got to cruise the last 3km. Erin and I were 2 and 3 and after crossing the finish line had cameras and mics shoved in our faces ....they soon realized that speaking spanish after a race would be difficult and promptly focused on the next runner coming in. Over all , it was a BLAST and I wish I could do the next 3 (argentina, uraguay, argentina). Hmmm, I guess its a thought. :) I've attached pics below. MARCUS congrats on the graduation! I suppose that's all for now. Time to get back to work. C.

Post race....grrrrrrrr

Start/finish line

Andes mountains

Post race in our SWEET LUTHER-BLUE T SHIRTS