Boulderthon: Raising Awareness of Colorado's Premier Fall Race Series

Located in the heart of Boulder, Colorado, Boulderthon is a relatively young event, with its first edition held in 2021 with 1600 runners. The race, which serves as the signature Boulder Marathon series, has doubled every year since its inception, making it one of the fastest-growing in the country. However, since adopting a more active approach to their community on Strava, Boulderthon has accelerated its growth even beyond organizers' expectations, with more than 7,000 runners in 2023 from all 50 states and 18 countries, and over 25,000 in attendance. 

Bringing Boulderthon to life

To bring the event to life, Boulderthon decided to switch their course maps to dynamic, interactive Strava routes, which were then embedded onto their website. "In designing Boulderthon, it was a no-brainer to switch to Strava route embeds because I knew from my personal experience that it was the best," explains Phil Dumontet, Boulderthon Founder and Race Director. "Prior to using Strava, we were updating PDF maps with a designer on a weekly basis because of additions to the course, i.e. toilets, aid stations, entertainment. 

"This was hard. It’s now so much easier to update. We don’t have to work with a designer - our marketing team is able to make the changes."

The Boulderthon team took advantage of Strava's updated route and embed tools. These allow participants at the event to understand the course, including viewing the elevation profile, mile markers, aid stations, and entertainment/live music points on the course.

The team also found that their athletes made use of Strava's new flyover functionality. With 30% of competitors coming from outside of Colorado, this feature enabled participants to "have a better experience" as they prepared for the race. 

Building the Boulderthon Community

Needless to say, the team at Boulderthon have fostered a strong Strava community through regular posting around the event, organizing run clubs, and offering exclusive products to their Strava community.

They also worked with Strava's Brand Partnerships team on a locally-targeted challenge "Boulderthon Run 30 Challenge" to drum up interest in the event and build their evergreen club. All athletes who completed the challenge received a discount on their race as well as a limited edition, co-branded Strava x Boulderthon Race Singlet (upon race completion).  

In-race Activations

On race day, Boulderthon incorporated Strava into the actual event. In an innovative move, they created a Strava Segment on the first mile of the Boulderthon courses (including a 5K, 10K, Half, and Full Marathon), which they named the 'Strava Mile'. This was only available on Race Day and encouraged runners to bring their best efforts as they kicked off their opening mile with a stunning backdrop at the foothills of the Rockies.

To support the segment they created on-course signage to let runners know when the 'Strava Mile' was coming up, which made for an exciting and rewarding Start in Downtown Boulder - as well as further promoting their presence on the platform. The community responded very positively with many celebratory participants' posts on the club.