Rather than rest after winning a race, runners seem to celebrate their latest accomplishment by running some more.

“Every race effectively is a training race,” explained Bernie Boettcher of Silt Saturday after posting the fastest overall time in the Glenwood Canyon Shuffle half marathon for the third straight year.

Boettcher finished the course in 1 hour, 16.50 minutes.

“I think this is the 46th race I’ve done this year and every one of them has something to offer. I like to race a lot, so it’s a lot of fun.”

Boettcher, who said he plans to run in races every weekend through the end of the year, pulled out to the lead when runner-up Erik Packard began conservatively.

“I wanted to stay behind him today, but he started out slower than usual,” Boettcher said.

“When I got the feeling that he wasn’t feeling good at the beginning, I tried to go fast to break him early and that’s kind of the way it ended up.”

Packard came in at 1:18.46 — almost two minutes behind Boettcher.
The women’s half marathon came down to a sprint in the final mile between 2003 winner Janice Kreuz of Cincinnati, who is 58, and Aspen resident Silke Spang.

“For me it was a real easy run until mile eight. Then I cranked it up,” said Spang, who came in second at 1:40.37 to Kreuz’s time of 1:39.42.

“I run on pavement a lot,” Kreuz said. “We don’t have a lot of trails in Cincinnati. What bothers me is the altitude. I just have to accept the fact that the time I’m going to run here is going to be slower than other half-marathons I run in — you can’t run the same pace. But (this race) is worth it.”

Next Saturday Kreuz will be running in a 200-mile, 12-person team race from Napa to Santa Cruz, Calif. Spang is currently training for next month’s New York City Marathon.

Both 5K race winners also have future running events on their calendars.

Men’s 5K overall winner Mason Lacy, 15, resumes running as a member of Boulder High School’s cross country team after a week off. Andrea Sprung, the women’s 5K champ, is an assistant track coach at Glenwood Springs High.

Lacy, the nephew of Canyon Shuffle race organizer Tom Lacy, clocked in at 19:01, more than a minute up on 5K runner-up Mark Feinsinger. Sprung took fifth overall with a 23:09 mark.