Boulder, CO, July 29, 2023 – With electric energy from a roaring crowd, The Mile High Mile delivered plenty of excitement Saturday evening at the Fairview High School track. The unique event, produced by the Boulder Road Runners, features over ten separate heats of the mile for runners of all ages and abilities – from youths to masters to elites, as well as the Teri Leiker Memorial Mile. A record number of athletes took to the track to run or walk four laps in their specific race.
In The Legend of Bagger Vance style, the evening’s final three races were contested under automobile headlights and mobile phone flashlights held by screaming fans when the stadium lights didn’t come on.
The Men’s Elite Mile, sponsored by Colorado Sports Chiropractic, featured the event’s strongest field yet, with six sub-four-minute mile personal best runners, including top U.S. miler and local resident Drew Hunter, who paced the race through 1,000 meters for his Tinman Elite Teammates. Ultimately, 1,500-meter specialist Austen Dalquist powered away from a tight pack over the last 100 meters to win in 4:02. A member of the local Roots Running team, Dalquist’s win comes a week after posting a personal best of 3:37 last week at Sound Running’s Sunset Tour step in Los Angeles.
It (running in the dark) was very disorienting, hard to gauge your pace, yet electric. But come on, this was great, so fun (racing) on home soil. Everybody standing in lane four cheering really brought the energy.
Brian Barraza (4:05), a top 3000 meter steeplechase athlete mixing it up with the milers.
The Elite Women’s Mile, sponsored by High Plains Bank, featured Kaela Edwards, another Boulder County resident and 800-meter ace, who last month earned a spot on the USA Track and Field Team and will be racing at the World Championships in Budapest beginning August 19th. Local standout and 800-meter high school national champion, Madison Shults paced Edwards perfectly through the halfway mark in 2:15, and on target for Emma Coburn’s 4:32.7 Colorado Soil record. Edwards stopped the clock at 4:34, narrowly missing the record by 1.5 seconds. Raucous fans didn’t care, regaling Edwards’s heroic effort, and those of local Marathon pro Maggie Montoya, who ran to a remarkable 4:38 while in the middle of a training block for the Chicago Marathon in October.
Stepping up to the mile is hard (and at altitude). I’m used to hurting for 200 meters. In the mile, you hurt for 600 meters. This is great for building the toughness it takes to get through the qualifying rounds of an event like the World Championships to make an event final.
Kaela Edwards
Race Director and Mile High Mile founder Todd Straka was thrilled with the support from athletes and sponsors.
We have worked hard the past five years to build the Mile High Mile into a ‘home meet’ opportunity for the many local elites that train in Boulder but rarely have an opportunity to race here.
Local sponsors and Boulder Road Runners members have really stepped up providing the financial resources to make this possible with a total prize purse of $4,000, including a unique time bonus structure for runners finishing faster than a set standard. Local elite teams and athletes understand we need their partnership to produce a national-class event in our community. They did their part tonight and then some.
Todd Straka
To read more, click here or visit: https://boulderroadrunners.org