Butler gets tuned up by winning Sneak
When Ian Butler won the Cherry Creek Sneak 10-miler on Sunday, his coach wasn’t the least bit surprised. Dave Reese had been predicting it as he waited in the finish area for Butler to arrive.
Butler, a former Western State Colorado University runner who competes now for the Denver Track Club and lives in Lakewood, tuned up for Saturday’s U.S. Half Marathon Championships in Columbus, Ohio, by winning in 55 minutes, 26 seconds. He didn’t go all out because Columbus is the goal, but he’s really fit. On Tuesday, he did a hard track workout with eye-popping splits, going 2 miles three times in 9:48, 9:42 and 9:31.
“And he wanted to do another one,” said Reese. “Next Saturday in the half marathon, he’ll be able to give anybody a go. That’s how fit he is right now. In fact, I’ve known some 2:10 marathoners that couldn’t have done what he did Tuesday night.”
Butler was a good runner
at Western, but his most impressive achievement was graduating. He had two traumatic brain injuries, one at birth and another at age 5 that caused him learning difficulties when he was growing up. When he was in the ninth grade, he seemingly had little chance of getting through high school, let alone college. But after transferring to Green Mountain in the 10th grade, he discovered running and became good enough to get a chance at Western, where he was an All-American.
“Graduating from college, seeing where I came from when I was in middle school, definitely was a bigger accomplishment than my running,” Butler said.
Butler briefly retired last spring, but former Western runner Josh Eberly — a well-known professional runner in Colorado and multiple winner of the Bolder Boulder citizens race — urged him to reconsider.
“Josh Eberly had a hard talk with me and pointed out what my potential was,” said Butler, 24. “I’m definitely glad I came back, because I came back a whole different runner than I was. I came back a lot smarter and a lot more aerobically fit.”
The winner of the men’s 5-miler also came back to the sport. Former University of Colorado runner Joe Bosshard graduated in December 2014 and didn’t race at all last year. Instead, he worked some and traveled the track circuit with his girlfriend, Emma Coburn, a CU grad and 2012 Olympian who is America’s best female steeplechase runner.
“For her, it’s more enjoyable if there’s someone always there with her,” said Bosshard, who finished in 25:32. “Otherwise, it’s six weeks alone away from home at a time. I run with Emma quite a bit. Now I’m trying to focus a little bit on my own running.”
Nell Rojas won the women’s 5-miler for the third consecutive year.
“I was really relaxed,” said Rojas, who finished in 29:39. “I don’t have any expectations for myself. I’m coming back from an injury. I just went into it, ‘All right, this will be fun, good training run.’ So I was happy.”
Yianna Antonopoulos of Denver won the women’s 10-miler in 1:05:43. Bradley Ziegler (16:53) of Lafayette and Alexis Wilbert (17:27) of Colorado Springs won the 5-kilometer races.