Boldon named director of the Drake Relays

DES MOINES – Running sports have taken Osceola native Blake Boldon to places he could’ve only dreamed up as a student in the Clarke Community School District.

Now, he’s returning to his home state to lead one of the most prestigious sporting events in Iowa.

Boldon was named the 12th Franklin ‘Pitch’ Johnson Director of the Drake Relays Wednesday, Oct. 12 at a ceremony held at Drake University’s Shivers Basketball Practice Facility Courtside Club.

Boldon officially starts his role in Des Moines at the end of November after concluding work at his current job as executive director of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in Indiana.

Boldon’s experiences as an athlete and as an event director helped lead him to a job in his home state.

“I don’t know if anybody’s prepared to step into this job and be the 12th director of an event that’s existed for 108 years,” Boldon said. “I don’t know if anyone has the up-to-the-minute preparation. I firmly believe no one is better prepared than I am and I’m excited to take the first step.”

Boldon takes over as Drake Relays director from Brian Brown. Brown, who held the spot for 12 years, left earlier this year for a job at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Boldon looks forward to building on the work Brown did in leading the Drake Relays.

“To have the opportunity and challenge to step into the shoes that Brian Brown has left after his 12 years is exhilarating, scary and the single most thrilling opportunity of my lifetime,” Boldon said. “Brian’s professionalism, his passion for the sport and his vision for this event is unsurpassed.”

Boldon said he plans to reach out to Brown in the future.

“I look forward to working with Brian to fully understand his vision and continue it into the future.”

Returning to Iowa and becoming director of the Drake Relays wasn’t a tangible idea in Boldon’s mind until the position came open this summer.

“It would be akin to saying, ‘Did you grow up wanting to be the king of England or the president of the United States?’ Sure that’s great, but never really a tangible idea until I sat with Sandy (Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield-Clubb), got to know this event and the community that surrounds it over the last several weeks,” Boldon said. “There’s some familiar faces, some new faces here. One thing they have in common with every person is the month of April revolves around what we’re going to be doing together. Every person here believes that at its core it’s one of the best events in all the world. That’s at my core and I’m excited to be here.”

Boldon fit the qualifications Hatfield-Clubb was looking for to fill Brown’s position.

Boldon’s personal connections to the Drake Relays fit one part of the criteria Hatfield-Clubb was looking for.

Boldon’s love of the Drake Relays started as a kid growing up in Osceola when he and his family would come to Des Moines to watch the Relays.

“I remember seeing Carl Lewis run in the snow, Michael Johnson being dropped off in a white limo months after winning double gold medal down in Atlanta,” Boldon said. “It really captured my imagination.”

Boldon knows what it’s like to compete in Drake Stadium as a prep athlete. He won the Class 3A 1,600-meter state championship in 1998. Boldon returned to Drake Stadium and the Drake Relays as a professional several times. As a collegian at Missouri State University, he won the Drake Relays 1,500-meter race in 2003.

In 2007, he became only the third Iowan to run a sub 4-minute mile. He placed second that year to American record holder Alan Webb, who ran a Drake Stadium record time of 3:51.71 that day.

“We were looking for somebody who could tell a personal story of the Drake Relays,” Hatfield-Clubb said. “Every candidate that got down to the final level was somebody who had a personal connection of some level to the the university, the community and the Drake Relays and he hit that out of the park.”

Boldon knows what it’s like to be around elite-level track and field meets and help organize them. Boldon spent two years at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as head cross country coach and track and field distance coach. Through that job, he helped plan and pull off the annual Penn Relays, as well as coordinated the Penn Relays Men’s Olympic Development mile.

Boldon has served as executive director of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon for the past four years.

He’s transformed the marathon from a one-day event to a series of events Indianapolis and the surrounding suburbs have rallied around.

The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and its other races went from the 60th-largest in the country to the 20th. The growth rate was third-largest nationally for a marathon and largest for the half marathon. Boldon created the Monumental Mile race in 2014, held in early June. That event was ranked by Shape Magazine as one of the top 10 1-mile races in the country, along with Des Moines’ Grand Blue Mile race.

Boldon has worked to create wellness programs within the corporate community in Indianapolis. He’s also worked to develop wellness programs promoting running within the Indianapolis public schools and two surrounding townships in Marion County.

“What he’s done in Indianapolis in just four short years is incredibly impressive,” Hatfield-Clubb said. “One of the things Brian and I had been talking about for the last two years is how do we bring the Drake Relays alive outside of one week a year? Blake’s done that with the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis.”

Boldon’s short-term vision is to continue the work Brown did with the Relays.

“What are the visions for the field in 2017 and in the long run – I’m not an architect or a builder, but I know enough that when a job comes open if there’s a blueprint in place and a foundation that’s laid, the blueprint is still the guiding map. We’ll look to 2017, a Rio rematch and continue the tremendous work and the foundation’s that’s in place,” Boldon said.

While April seems like a ways off, Boldon expects it to come quickly.

“If it’s come up fast in the past, it’s going to come up tomorrow,” Boldon said. “There’s more work than what I’m prepared to wrap my mind around.”

Boldon’s long-term vision for the Relays is to move it beyond an event that’s celebrated in Des Moines and Polk County.

“If I was to set a big, hairy, audacious goal for us as a community here in Des Moines, Drake University and the Drake Relays is that it would be to take track and field and the sport of distance running to every workplace, every living room and every classroom in the state of Iowa,” Boldon said. “The Drake Relays afford us all the opportunity to work toward that goal together. I consider myself very fortunate to play a role. I’m looking forward to 2017 and many more years to come.”

Hatfield-Clubb looks forward to seeing what Boldon can do in his new role.

“It’s the beauty of the Drake Relays is people who do this job do it with a high level of passion,” Hatfield-Clubb said. “Brian’s left a legacy here. He wants that to continue and to get better. It’s a beautiful thing.”