A Cyclists First Time Doing the Boulder Boulder 10K

Have you ever sat back and thought about your firsts? At the time they occurred they were game changers weren’t they? Remember the first time you rode a bicycle without any help or training wheels, or how about your first kiss, the first time you fell in love, the first time your heart was broken, your first dog, the first time someone close to you died…or your first child. Think about the impact these firsts had on your life, how different it was afterward. Did they bring about new ways of being? I know for me, the first time I rode a bicycle my whole life changed, suddenly I had confidence and newfound ambition, this weekend I really got how important firsts are in my life.

I realize this is my first post in a while and I promise I have been up to bikey goodness. Planning, organizing and pulling off a successful fundraising dinner for my bike sharing organization, building business relationships and developing strategic plans for Reasons2Ride has kept this free spirit busy. I’m lucky riding my bicycle is part of my job or I might have gone a bit stir crazy the past three months. Monday the 26^th, however, my fuel for firsts became real clear as I accomplished quite a few. (Fitting it was also #MakeItHappenMonday) I am proud to say I ran and completed the boulderBOULDER 10K. In doing so, here is a rundown of the firsts on that day:

• My first 10K
• My first runners high
• My first time running into a stadium packed with over 40,000 cheering people
• My first blister the size of a silver-dollar pancake on the bottom of my foot
• My first experience of myself as someone who can get stuff done

I set a goal of 1:59:59.99 and my official time was 1:49:22.15. I placed 335 out of 369 for my division, 18,939 out of 20,946 for my gender and 39,585 out of over 54,000 runners. I limped away feeling proud and determined to blow that time out of the water next year. Oh that’s another first for me, I’m planning on running in this again. Maybe now is a good time to fess up that prior to training for this race I only ran if someone was chasing me, I was chasing someone, I was running bases or a coach was demanding me to run. Even during the training I was dreading the event and just going through the motions…ah the magic of that first experience. About the 4K mark it felt like there was a rock in my right shoe. So I stopped, took of my shoe and noting…still every time I stepped it was not cool. At the 6K mark I sat down and really examined my shoe and sock, it was then I noticed the blister. In that moment I was really present to how I’ve let something uncomfortable stop me from getting to where I want to go just once too often and I decided last time for that thought. I put my shoe and sock back on and reengaged with absolute determination.

Today, the day after the race I feel awesome! My foot is really sore, as you can see by the picture, it’s an epic blister, and I am so excited about the week. As I looked at my calendar, rather than seeing a slate full of stuff I don’t know how I’m going to get done, I see opportunities to experience a week full of firsts and with every labored step I take I know nothing will slow me down…now that’s exciting. How about you? Are there some things out there you want to do for the first time? What are they? What holds you back?

A disclaimer, the thought of even thinking about running in the boulderBOULDER would have never came to mind if I hadn’t started Loving the bicycle!

– Joel