The 40th Bolder Boulder 10K and the Boulder Creek Festival

I have stayed at home as much as possible since last Thursday night - all due to the Memorial Day weekend.  The 31st Annual Boulder Creek Festival began Friday and ran through yesterday afternoon.  The 40th Annual Bolder Boulder 10K road race began yesterday at 6:15 am, starting with the wheelchair racers, then the runners, joggers, and walkers; followed by the elite runners on a smaller, closed course.  More than 50,000 people locomoted past the front of my apartment building yesterday between 6:18 and 10:45.....  At the corner of Mapleton and 28th, there was a rock band playing from 6:30 until 10:30.  The cats did not like the noise.  I had to listen to one song almost all the way through before I recognized what they were singing....  Now, that's a not-very-good band.
  At the Boulder Creek Festival, there are all sorts of things happening - vendors of arts and crafts, food sellers, rides, information booths, and I think there are 6 stages set up, besides the bandshell...  all surrounding Boulder Creek downtown.  Here are a few photos; the first three are from yesterday's race, the others from the Boulder Creek Festival:

Belmont Stakes, Epsom Derby

It's a wet, soggy three-day weekend and I'm at home.  This is the first time in 5 years that I haven't been house-sitting on this weekend; seems strange.  But that's OK - I have plenty to do to get ready to move.  This is also the weekend of the Boulder Creek Festival, and Monday will see the running of the Bolder Boulder 10 K race, right in front of my apartment building.  Brother-in-law Jim is supposed to be running this year, but between the weather and Kathy's illness, I don't know if he'll actually participate or not.
   It's now two weeks to the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown horse races.  This race is run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, over a dirt track with all of the three-year-old entrants carrying 126 pounds for a mile and a half.  For the majority of these horses, this will be the longest race they will ever run in their entire life.  Originally, horse racing consisted of races that were between four and six miles long.  There were so many entrants (as horses didn't begin to race until they were 4 or 5 years old) that the races were run in heats, and the horse that was declared the winner of the race ended up running that distance two or three times in one day.  It was a matter of stamina over the long haul.  Today's horses are bred for their quickness at much shorter distances.  Ah, for the "good old days" of 350 years ago....
  American Pharoah is back at Churchill Downs, and is training there for the Belmont Stakes.   It looks like Frosted will be joining him in the starting gate, as well as previous contestants Carpe Diem, Tale of Verve, Frammento, Keen Ice, Madefromlucky, Materiality, and Mubtaahij. Two new runners look to be Conquest Curlinate and War Story.  I will be very happy if we can celebrate a twelfth Triple Crown Champion this year.  And - if you're interested in the breeding of American Pharoah, check out this article in The Blood Horse, "Hail Hooper, Hyperion":   http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/91940/hail-hooper-hyperion
   At Belmont, it seems that Ziconic, Zenyatta's second foal, has a liking for the flashy Spanish Walk that was his mother's trademark:

And in England, the Epsom Derby will be run on 6 June at Epsom Downs.  There are currently 16 horses entered,, and the early betting favorite, Golden Horn, will have to be a supplemental entry at a cost of 75,000 pounds, if he is to participate.  Another possible supplemental entry could be the filly Found.  These 16 colts, in no particular order, are currently pre-entered: (1) Moheet, (2) Carbon Dating, (3) Best of Times, (4) Storm the Stars, (5) Pour Moi, (6) Epicuris, (7) Prince Gagarin, (8) Great Glen, (9) Elm Park, (10) Giovanni Canaletto, (11) Rogue Runner, (12) Zawraq, (13) Gleneagles, (14) Hans Holbein, (15) Kilimanjaro, and (16) Jack Hobbs.  The Epsom Derby covers 12 furlongs plus 10 yards, or 1.5 miles and 10 yards, The colts are all assigned 9 stone, or 126 pounds.

Lots of Things

There were 8 tornadoes reported in the Denver area yesterday afternoon and evening, not just 5; and there was a lot of wind and hail damage in the metropolitan area.  We had rain and hail fall in Boulder multiple times during the evening and over night.  It started a little after 5 p.m. and lasted until about 3 this morning - thunder, lightning, wind, rain, and hail.  Luckily, the hail I saw here was the size of, and smaller than, green peas, so it didn't do too much damage.  - In some areas of Denver, between the wind and the hail, some of the soft sidings of buildings looked as though they'd been subjected to gunfire. - I had to close my patio window and door, because the wind was blowing from the east, and the hail was hitting the concrete patio pad, and then ricocheting up to the door and window.  It was an interesting experience.
   There was a slight to-do after the Preakness was won by California Chrome, before he shipped up to Elmont, New York for the Belmont Stakes.  Having won the first two races of the Triple Crown, Art Sherman, the trainer made a comment about racing in the NYRA area.  -  Humans have been wearing "Breathe Right" nasal strips for many years now.  They keep your nasal passages open, so you aren't deprived of oxygen while sleeping or exercising.  Human athletes have been wearing nasal strips almost since the day they were introduced... - The New York Racing Association did not approve of the use of nasal strips on racing thoroughbreds when they were first introduced, saying that there had not been enough study to decide whether the nasal strips were an assistance "offering unfair advantage" to the wearer or not.  Up until Monday, NYRA had declared nasal strips illegal in racing in their state.  California Chrome wears a nasal strip.  He has used a nasal strip in his last six races, and has been undefeated in all of those races.  He has also been ridden in each of those six races by Victor Espinoza.  Any horse, at any race track in the US can (now, with the NYRA's ruling) wear a nasal strip.  Some trainers like them, some don't. In a Sports Illustrated article, a writer stated that since the NYRA has allowed nasal strips, "all of thoroughbred racing suffers from the decision."  He never wrote why, or how, thoroughbred racing suffers from the decision; nasal strips were allowed at all US tracks except in the state of New York prior to the ruling.  Is he stating that New York racing is better than any other states?  Yes, Art Sherman did hint that one of the horse's owners wouldn't be happy if they couldn't use the nasal strip.  But I don't think that would have actually stopped California Chrome's connections from trying to be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 (Florida-bred Affirmed).  Another way to look at the nasal strip "controversy" is to realize that while the nasal strip may help hold the upper nostril passages stay wide open, all the air the horse breathes must then pass through the 'bottle neck' of the horse's trachea, leading to the lungs...  I do not believe that a nasal strip gives a horse an unusual advantage.
   We are heading for Memorial Day Weekend here in Boulder (and, yes, everywhere else in the United States)... In Boulder that means it is time for the Boulder Creek Festival and the running of the Bolder Boulder 10K road race.  Information about the Boulder Creek Festival may be found at:  http://www.bceproductions.com/boulder-creek-festival/    Festivities begin at 6 p.m. on Friday night, 24 May, with a free concert at the Central Park band shell, and will continue until after dark on Monday, 26 May.  On Monday, the Boulder street system, and a lot of the mass transit system, will be shut down for the 10K Bolder Boulder for the morning and part of the early afternoon - beware!  A map of the race course may be found at:  http://media.bolderboulder.com/BBCourseMap.pdf

 

Memorial Day Weekend Is Here!

The annual Boulder Creek Festival starts today at 10 a.m. and runs through Monday.  The hours are, Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Monday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  The Festival is free to the public and features something for everyone: 9 separate event areas with 500 vendors showcase everything from community arts and crafts to health alternatives and technology while 4 performance stages feature a spectrum of music and dance. The Festival also features carnival rides, food and beverage vendors, and the signature event: a rubber duck race down the creek! Join us over Memorial Day weekend 2013 for the 26th Annual Boulder Creek Festival®, the best event in Boulder!  The Festival sprawls along the Boulder Creek Pathway, from 6th to 13th Street (the Boulder Public Library is closed until Tuesday).  And one of the big draws will be the Bolder Boulder Road Race, which begins about 7 a.m. on Monday.  
   Estes Park will be hosting an Art Market at Bond Park this weekend, as well as a Western Heritage Antique Show at the Fairgrounds, Barn W.  And the national Park Service was able to get Trail Ridge Road cleared for it's annual opening - but temperatures up above 8,000 feet are expected to be in the 40s and low 50s this weekend, and there is a lot of snow piled up alongside the roadways.  (Trail Ridge Road climbs a bit above 12,000 feet at its' apex.)
   Parking spaces at the beach on Assateague are available and open this weekend, via the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  The National Seashore has gone back to using ground clam shells for the parking area surface, so there shouldn't be chunks of asphalt floating around after the next big storm.  And, after reading the 1 p.m. Friday headline that traffic was backed up for 20 miles, waiting to cross the east-bound section of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, I was happy to be in Boulder.  (I'd rather be on Chincoteague itself, but at least I wasn't trying to drive there from the west side of the Bay!)

Supper, Catnip, and Memorial Day Weekend

I have 63 pages left to red to complete Inferno.  It is very good and keeps up a whirlwind pace with a lot of twists and turns; it's fascinating.  We've been very chilly here, mornings, since the beginning of the week - temperatures have dropped into the 40s every night, and it's not until noon that I really feel warm again.  But we're supposed to be in the 80s for this Memorial Day weekend - and, hopefully, the nights won't feel too chill.  I had supper at Turley's last night - and I say that tongue-in-cheek, because Bea had buttermilk pancakes and I had French toast, with us splitting the bacon and eggs.  But we sat and talked and relaxed and had quite a few good laughs.
  This morning, however, I found a late-night post from her on Facebook, stating the police had knocked on her door in the early hours because there had been a break-in in one of the apartments. So as soon as I walk Rosie, I will rush home, and try to see if I can discover anything.  Bea should be up by ten, so I can call and ask her for particulars, if nothing else...
  I gave Cloudy and Shady some of the organic catnip I purchased the other day - Cloudy has never responded strongly to catnip, but I was somewhat shocked that Shady got so high he fell off the dining room table.  He was not hurt, just embarrassed, but wanted to get back up to imbibing the catnip as soon as possible.  Nedi plays with his catnip-soaked toys very intently for about ten minutes each, while Lovey eats her catnip and then runs around like a nut.
  I hope to take a lot of scenic photos tomorrow, on Magnolia Mountain, in Nederland, along the Peak to Peak Highway, and in Big Thompson Canyon.  It should be a very fun and relaxing day trip - and, hopefully, Bea will take some photos of me, so I'll have a few different ones to share...    Enjoy the up-coming Holiday weekend!   -  And, if you're on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, visit the Native American Powwow in Eastville; in Boulder, visit the Boulder Creek Festival!

Boulder Creek Festival

A scene along Boulder Creek at the 2010 Festival

Faux Renwah performing at the Boulder Creek Festival

Finding a quiet spot along Boulder Creek will be difficult this weekend...

Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday was kind of crazy - when I stepped out in the hall to go grab a fresh bagel, one of my neighbors and I stopped to chat.  As we were about to part ways, we realized there was a pair of legs visible on the landing of the north stairs.  I told the man that I'd check out the person, and we parted.  I paused at the bottom of the north stairs - I could see dirty tube socks and hairy white legs.  I was not sure if the person was alive, dead, drunk, high, or what...  I projected my voice and called out, "Sir?  Sir?   Hey, mister; are you alright?"  His right foot moved, but there was no other response.  I went to the bakery, then returned home.  The legs were still on the landing.  So I called the non-emergency police number, and told them there was a white male that I did not recognize as a tenant, asleep (or possibly passed out) in our stairwell.  The police came and it turned out the man was so drunk he couldn't stand without aid, and he is also homeless.  I felt badly about calling the police, but I like to feel safe in the hallways of the apartment building.
   Speaking of which, a couple was awakened the other morning by the sound of someone wandering around in their house - the footsteps came closer, and the man grabbed his licensed gun from his nightstand.  Before the intruder walked into the bedroom, both husband and wife yelled warnings - that they had a gun, and that they would shoot, if the intruder entered the bedroom.  A woman entered the room, and continued to approach the bed, even though both people were yelling warnings.  The woman was shot in the side, just above her hip.  Turns out, she was dead drunk, and had just graduated from CU last week.  She managed to find the one unlocked screen door in a $2.75 million home, and entered, trying to find her own room.  (She lived two miles away.)  Colorado has a "Make my day" law, under which, if a verbal warning is given, the home owner has the right to protect him or herself with deadly force.  The young lady survived the shooting, and announced that she is "disappointed" that the state and home owners are still going to charge her with felony trespass.....
   My kits are super, but I missed sleeping with them last night.  Instead, I had Dhisana, Lily and Lyra in bed with me, and Tessa on the floor next to the bed.  Before 6:30 this morning, I had fed all the critters, re-filled the bee water dish, watered the organic garden, and watered all the potted and hanging plants that are outside.  When I left to come back to see my kits, the morning newspaper had yet to be delivered.  The Boulder Creek Festival begins today, and since it pretty much encircles the Public Library, the library is closed until Tuesday.  There are arts and crafts exhibits and sales, music, dancing, face painting, tumblers, environmental displays, food tents, ...  just about everything you can think of.  Monday, the 10k Bolder Boulder will be run and walked and wheeled - there are wheelchair races, and both pro and amateur contests for runners and walkers.  Monday will also see the Rubber Duck Race on Boulder Creek, for the Creek Festival.  I'll come see the kits Sunday in both the morning and evening, and then return Monday evening - because the four blocks immediately around my apartment building are closed by roadblocks on Monday from 4 a.m. until 2 p.m. for the Bolder Boulder.
   I hope all of you have a nice Memorial Day weekend!