There are more than a couple of women runners (and plenty of men, too) who know that Rochelle Persson is a tenacious competitor. Like rock star Tom Petty, she won't back down.

So it's not surprising that she won her age group at Monday's Bolder Boulder 10K. She clocked it at 42 minutes, 50 seconds,  and now has one of the top times there for a 48-year-old runner. Averaging 6:53 per mile, she finished 922nd overall, and beat  49,000 other runners. 

She's not particularly fond of Bolder Boulder, which this year included more than 50,000 on a course that snakes through the streets of Boulder.

But put a challenge in front of her .... hey, she once limped with an injury to a third-place age-group finish at the iconic 10K.

Photo: 2011 Pumpkin' Run >

We asked for the story and she delivered. Here it is, in her words.

"Let me set the record straight. Bolder Boulder is not my favorite race. It’s not flat. It’s not downhill. It’s not straight. In fact, it has somewhere around 25 turns. So, unless you run the tangents perfectly, you’re going to run more than 6.2 miles. Running the tangents perfectly is, of course, very difficult, because there are 50,000 people who run the race, so unless you are very elite, you’ll be surrounded by people at all times.  But, I’m a runner and Bolder Boulder is the second largest 10k in the world and it’s only 100 miles away, so our paths are going to cross.

The first time I ran it, in 2004, with a different last name, I got lost on my way to the start.  I am directionally challenged, so, I get lost easily.  GPSs are a Godsend.  But, I didn’t have one then.  So, I had to sprint to the start, but I missed my AA start time and had to start a minute late with the AB group.  Chip timing wasn’t used at Bolder Boulder until 2007, so my time of 41:27 was a minute slower than my real time.  I was fourth in my age but quite disappointed.  After the race, it took me two hours to find my ride home.  Not the best first experience.

In 2015, I decided to try again. I ran the course. I trained. I studied the course map. But I got injured in April. Being the eternal optimist, I showed up for the race and thought my injury wouldn’t act up. No such luck. During the first mile, I got a shooting pain and I limped all the way to the finish line, because that’s where my husband was and I had no way to contact him. My time of 44:45 was good enough for third in my age. Still, it was so painful, I was soured by the whole experience.

Knowing that I could do better and driven by the Top 20 age records of all time, I headed back this year and finally got first in my age.  Bolder Boulder is so big that they don’t celebrate age group winners.  They celebrate age winners.  I also ended up 13th or 14th (there are now two runners with the same time) in the 48-year-old female Bolder Boulder All Time Age Rankings.

Now I’m scheming how to run the race better and faster next year."