photo: boulderhistory.org

Rich Castro has been a fixture of the Boulder running community for decades. Rich is the founder and president of the Boulder Road Runners has been associated with the BolderBOULDER in which he has coached winners in the citizen’s race, the wheelchair race, and in the elite divisions since 1979. He has also served as distance coach for Ecuador in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, as track coach for the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, as Global Athletics Consultant for Reebok International, and as Road Racing Athletes Consultant for Nike Inc. While he did not become an elite runner, Castro did become a coach of elites and non-elites alike. He coached sprinters at CU and helped start the school’s women’s track and cross country programs, which quickly included middle distance star Mary Decker. As head of the Frank Shorter Racing Team in the mid-1980s, he worked with stars such as Stan Mavis, Herb Lindsay and Steve Flanagan.