Bolder-Boulder 10K


Three Boulder Wave Athletes on Colorado Teams for Bolder-Boulder 10K

Team Colorado men after absorbing all the info at this morning's Bolder-Boulder technical meeting: (l to r) Kenyon Neuman, Jeremy Freed, Patrick Rizzo

Three Boulder Wave athletes are set to race tomorrow’s Bolder-Boulder 10K International Team Challenge as members of the men’s and women’s Colorado teams. Patrick Rizzo (Mizuno) and Kenyon Neuman (Nike) will be joined by 2011 Bolder Boulder citizens’ champ Jeremy Freed on the men’s Team Colorado. Last Sunday, Patrick set a course record at the Colfax Half-Marathon and last month he was the pacemaker for the men’s 2:11 group at the Virgin London Marathon, and says he and his teammates are ready to move Team Colorado up a place from last year’s 3rd place team finish behind Team USA. Kenyon is focusing on his track running this Spring, and will go after the 13:33.00 US National Championships “A” qualifying standard at the Portland Track Festival on June 9th.

Adriana Nelson racing at the 2011 Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon (Photo courtesy of PhotoRun, Inc. All rights reserved)

On the women’s side, Adriana Nelson (ASICS) will be joined on the women’s Team Colorado by 2006 Bolder Boulder champion Sara Slattery and Wendy Thomas. As is Kenyon, Adriana is focusing on qualifying for the USA national track championships. At the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational last month, Adriana ran a new 10,000m PB, and just missed the 10,000m automatic “A” qualifying standard of 32:45.00 by three seconds. She will be running the 10,000m at the Portland meet on June 9th.

Patrick, Kenyon, and Adriana are all coached by Brad Hudson.

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Team Japan Women Ready to Challenge for Top 3 at Bolder-Boulder 10K

Team Japan at today's Bolder-Boulder welcome luncheon at the Millennium Hotel in Boulder: (l to r) Eri Okubo, Yuko Watanabe, Kayoko Fukushi

With most attention in the International Team Challenge women’s race at Monday Bolder-Boulder 10K focused on an expected battle among the USA, Ethiopian, and Kenyan teams, the Japanese women are looking to put themsleves in the mix and make it to the Top 3 podium. Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal/adidas) heads up the team, with a stellar resume that includes the Asian record in the half-marathon (67:26), the Japanese record at 5,000m (14:53.22), a 30:51.81 PB for 10,000m, and a 3rd place finish at last year’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon (2:24:38). Kayoko will be doubling at the 5/10 in next months’ Japan national championships/Olympic Trials. Eri Okubo (Second Wind AC/Mizuno) has been rocketing up the charts the past 12 months – at the 2011 Berlin Marathon in September she improved her marathon PB from 2:35:24 to 2:28:49 for 9th place, and then in February jumped another big step with 2:26:08 for 4th place at the Tokyo Marathon. Last weekend Eri was 3rd at the Gifu Seiryu Half-Marathon, a race won by Boulder Wave athlete Rene Kalmer (Nedbank/adidas). The third member on Team Japan is Yuko Watanabe, who finished 11th at last year’s Bolder-Boulder, followed a month later by a 32:27.89 PB.

At Bolder-Boulder, the big prize money is in the Team Challenge. While money extends to the top 10 finishers, including $3,000 for the victory, the team prizes begin at $15,000 for 1st, $10,000 for 2nd, and $7,000 for 3rd.

The International Team Challenge women’s start is at 11:00 a.m. Monday, with the men going off 11 monutes later. The race winds through Boulder’s streets before finishing at the University of Colorado’s Folsom Field, where many of the estimated 54,000 runners from the citizens’ race will be on hand for the elite finish and the day’s Memorial Day services.

Eri Okubo and Kayoko Fukushi are represented by Boulder Wave. There other athletes rerpesented by Boulder Wave … Adriana Nelson (ASICS), Patrick Rizzo (Mizuno), Kenyon Neuman… will run for the Colorado teams (article tomorrow). Also Nuta Olaru (ASICS) and Lidia Simon (ASICS) will run in the citizens’ race, which begins at 7:00 a.m.

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