After the Bolder Boulder disqualified Emad Bashir-Mohammed on Monday for starting with the wrong wave, he posted on Instagram that staff at packet pickup had cleared him to line up with the faster A wave. The race told Marathon Handbook this week that is not what happened.
Bolder Boulder race director Cliff Bosley, responding to Marathon Handbook by email, said registration staff at the pre-race expo specifically told Bashir-Mohammed he could not start in the A wave.
“Our race weekend registration fulfillment team did advise Mr. Bashir-Mohammed that we did not have any remaining A bib numbers when he came on Sunday,” Bosley wrote. “Our team was able to provide him with an AA bib number. We did confirm with our team, and it was communicated to Mr. Bashir-Mohammed that he could not start in the A Wave.”
Bashir-Mohammed crossed the line first in 29:50 on Monday, eight seconds ahead of Nickolas Scudder. About two hours later he was told he had been disqualified for moving up a wave. Scudder, who finished officially in 29:58, was awarded the win and became only the second runner in the citizen’s race’s 46-year history to break 30 minutes.
In his Instagram post that evening, Bashir-Mohammed wrote that he was handed an AA bib because organizers had run out of A bibs, but said staff told him he was “good to run in the A Wave” after he showed proof of his recent times. The race’s account is the opposite.
Bosley also pointed to Elise Cranny.
“Elise Cranny, same as Mr. Bashir-Mohammed, was also given an AA bib number on Sunday afternoon,” he wrote. “She started the race with the AA wave (the wave she was assigned) and she won the women’s race.”
Cranny’s 34:20 from the second wave was the fastest women’s chip time of the day. It pushed Savannah Shaw, who crossed the line first in 34:35 from the A wave, into second place.
The A wave is “coveted” and “fills rapidly,” Bosley wrote. The race projected the increased demand this year and added more A bibs in response. Even so, by the time Bashir-Mohammed arrived at the expo on Sunday, he was told there were no A bibs left.
Five days before race day, the race had started assigning late-registering runners who would have qualified for A to the AA wave instead, to hold back as many A bibs as possible for faster qualified runners who might show up later.
Bashir-Mohammed registered online late on Friday night, May 22, just before registration closed. He picked up his bib on Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the race start. “A very unfortunate set of circumstances, due to the popularity of the A wave, his late registration, and his late arrival at our pre-race expo, precluded our team from being able to accommodate his request,” Bosley wrote.
Beyond the conversation at packet pickup, the race pointed Marathon Handbook to two other places the wave rule shows up on race day. The front of every bib carries the warning: “REMEMBER: Starting in an earlier wave will result in disqualification from the BOLDERBoulder 10K and you will NOT receive a finish time.”
The start-line announcer reads from a script before each wave: “Today we have almost 100 waves launching over the next few hours. Be sure you’re in the wave associated with your bib number. Runners that move up a wave will be disqualified, so be sure to stay in your wave or move back!”
Bashir-Mohammed has not publicly responded to the race’s version. His Monday night Instagram post is still up. It ends: “Better Days Ahead.”
