Races in Boulder

• Sights
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Activities
• Travel Tips
• Features

Races

Early May finds Boulderites at the Boulder Reservoir for the annual Kinetic Challenge (www.kbco.com/kinetics). The competition requires each team to build a craft that can race over the land, slog through the mud, and not sink in the water. Teams are allowed to provide their own judges and bribe other judges. Speed is not necessarily the determining criterion -- creativity and onboard sculpture count, too.

Memorial Day brings the annual 10-km Bolder Boulder (303/444-7223. www.bolderboulder.com), when top international runners, along with 45,000 other citizens, run the country's fourth-largest race. About 100,000 spectators line the route and fill CU's Folsom Stadium to cheer on the participants. Along the racecourse rock bands, jazz musicians, African drumming groups, Elvis impersonators, belly dancers, and classical quartets spur on the runners. The race ends in Folsom Stadium for a ceremony that includes a flyover by U.S. Air Force fighter jets and skydivers who parachute onto the stadium field.