|
|
| articles |
TRIPLE-DARE YOU
Triathlon Promoters Put Boulder on the Map Although triathlon’s roots lie in San Diego, somewhere along the way Boulder emerged as a breeding ground for the sport. Elite athletes flocked here for training, perhaps following in the footsteps of 1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter. Six-time Hawaii Ironman champion Dave Scott, a native of Davis, Calif., said he originally came here in the early 1980s to train. Coincidentally, so did the three other members of triathlon’s “Big Four”: Scott Molina, Mark Allen and Scott Tinley. “We kind of collectively made camp here,” says Dave Scott. “The weather was so conducive to training and the topography was fabulous. We had our choice of lots of different trails and roads to train on, with blue sky all the time. It was a great little play arena for everyone.” Boulder’s reputation as a triathlon mecca has been growing ever since. World champions Simon Lessing, Siri Lindley and Tim DeBoom live in Boulder County, as do Olympian Joanna Zeiger and several other top pros. At the grassroots level, the Boulder Triathlon Club is thriving, and the University of Colorado Triathlon Club has won nine national titles. Last fall, Ironman North America, an arm of the World Triathlon Corporation, moved its headquarters to Boulder. Inside Triathlon magazine, one of two major journals of the sport, is based here. And the list goes on. Until a few years ago, Boulder’s racing scene consisted largely of the Boulder Peak Triathlon, an event founded in 1992 by Paul Karlsson and Dave Jensen that eventually grew into one of the nation’s best. It has sold out every year since 1999, when it was designated a qualifier for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. “We decided that Boulder needed a triathlon, and we wanted to raise some money for charity,” Karlsson recalls. “We got 400 people the first year, and it became an internationally known race with a top pro field and amateurs from 40 states.” Boulder Peak got some company in 2001 with the creation of the 5430 Triathlon, a long-distance or “iron-distance” race (unaffiliated with the World Triathlon Corporation) that has since been edited to a half-iron—a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run. The city has had a handful of other events, some not as worthy of their dedicated participants as they should be. The founder of the now infamous Race the Rockies series, Jeff Kline, was jailed in September 2004 for a parole violation and also allegedly bilked race sponsors and participants out of $35,000. The Kline headlines followed a year of other shakeups in the local scene. Karlsson, who was managing 1,650 entrants in Boulder Peak while holding down a full-time job as a teacher, was feeling the strain after 13 years. Beth Spiegel, who founded the 5430 Triathlon as well as the popular Stroke and Stride Series (a Thursday evening swim/run event at Boulder Reservoir), got a job with the Colorado Rockies and relocated to Denver in late 2003. It was the perfect time for Barry Siff to make his move.
Change Is Good Creating the company 5430 Sports (named for the elevation of Boulder), he purchased the Boulder Peak and 5430 races, added a new sprint triathlon and is packaging the three events as the Boulder Triathlon Series, which debuts in June with a $50,000 prize purse, $15,000 of it for age-group competitors. “This is long overdue,” says Scott. “It seems odd that Boulder has not had an identifiable series, given the number of people who live here that are in this sport. We have several national and world champions living here and no one would ever know it. This series will heighten the profile of our sport, and it will be great for the community to have it.” Karlsson, too, thinks the series will be a hit, especially with the addition of a sprint race, which will attract newcomers as well as veterans. So far, locals agree. “The sprint race really suits my available training time now that I have two young kids,” says triathlete Ben Kuster of Longmont. “I train with a lot of people in Boulder who are planning on doing the full series, so I’m really pumped about it this year. I also turned 40 recently, so I’m excited about getting into a new age group, though the competition will be tough in all three races.” Fellow Longmonter Sandy Cranny, who competed in this year’s Ironman Arizona, will use the local series to supplement her training for longer races. “I like the way the races build on one another,” she says. “The shorter distances are perfect for people who are new to the sport, and it’s a great introduction to open-water swims.” Despite Boulder’s market for the series, Siff, a former executive with ConAgra, knows he won’t be getting rich from the endeavor, especially considering the costs of running three safe, quality events—including outlays for permits, police support, medical support, T-shirts, scaffolding, insurance, prize money, food, expos, porta-potties and bib numbers. “If it was such a profitable venture, I would think a lot of people would already have been into it,” says Siff. “I don’t think triathlon capitalized on [its 2000 Olympic debut] by any stretch of the imagination. I thought it would be huge, and sponsors would be knocking down the doors, but it’s just not there.” Still, when Siff puts his mind to something, he gives it his all. That’s been his reputation in everything from Eco-Challenge to Ironman, to camps, clinics and races. His focus is first on the competitors and the experience they will receive, which should go a long way in building the name and success of the 5430 brand. “At $85 [the early entry fee], I think Boulder Peak is one of the best buys in the United States,” Siff says. “I paid $105 to run a marathon this year and all I got was a cotton T-shirt.” With Ironman North America now headquartered in town, locals hope that eventually there will be an official Ironman event in Boulder, but spokesperson Shane Facteau predicts that may be a while down the road, especially with the company’s brand-new event this year in Arizona. “There’s nothing in the works right now, but that’s something we’ll look at,” says Facteau. “Altitude is one of the obvious concerns, but I don’t think that necessarily precludes us from ever doing something here.” Whether the epic Ironman comes to Boulder or not, locals will have plenty to focus on—like training for the new Boulder Triathlon Series, learning secrets from resident multisport pros and celebrating the breathtaking advantages of living at altitude. Jill Redding was formerly senior editor at Inside Triathlon magazine and a sports writer at the Daily Camera. She lives in Boulder. |
| Site by Zone 5 Design |