Blake Boldon was named the 12th Franklin ‘Pitch’ Johnson Director of the Drake Relays on Oct. 12, 2016. In addition to leading the Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom, Boldon currently serves as Drake’s Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Operations, including overseeing communications, marketing, broadcasting, and video production for the Bulldogs.
Boldon served as the executive director of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon prior to taking the reins of the Drake Relays presented by Xtream. A native of Osceola, Iowa, he has an extensive background and record of success as a competitive athlete, collegiate coach, and event director.
“As an Iowan and former Relays competitor, I know firsthand the tremendous history and tradition the Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom has in Iowa, the U.S., and the international track and field community,” Boldon said. “With Mediacom’s partnership, the Drake Relays has become one of the premier athletic events in the world. Through my experience growing up as a spectator, competing as an athlete, and coaching, the Drake Relays presented by Xtream has played a significant role in making me who I am today. The opportunity to build upon the incredible foundation of success while we work to continue to elevate the profile of America’s Athletic Classic is truly an honor.”
In his first eight years as director, Boldon has maintained many generations-old traditions, while expanding event offerings and growing the Drake Relays presented by Xtream with more than 50 Drake Relays records set during his tenure.
In his first three years, the Drake Relays became more inclusive through partnerships with the USOPC, Special Olympics Iowa, and Adaptive Sports Iowa. Boldon led the staff successfully through the global pandemic in 2020 by hosting the Blue Oval Showcase in August, one of very few World Athletic Continental Tour competitions of the entire global outdoor track and field season. In 2021, while all comparable events canceled or limited competition, the Drake Relays presented by Xtream featured Olympians preparing for the games in Tokyo, the nation’s top collegians, and the top Iowa high school athletes. In 2022, the Relays were “Back on Track” featuring the strongest university division in decades, including the University of Michigan for the first time since 1956 and North Carolina A&T, the only school in the NCAA to earn both a men’s and women’s trophy at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship. In 2023, the Drake Relays presented by Xtream hosted the inaugural Collegiate Wheelchair 100 Championship and the winning performances at the Grand Blue Mile presented by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield were ratified by World Athletics as the inaugural world records in the discipline. Last year, Relays Week expanded to include a one-of-a-kind team shot put competition in the historic Drake Fieldhouse and the Vault at Jordan Creek Town Center returned for the first time in a decade.
In 2020, Boldon was named to a four-year term on the NCAA Track and Field and Cross Countrey Committee, serving as chairperson in his fourth year. That same year, Blake was elected to serve as chair of the USATF Men’s Long Distance Running, a committee he had served as vice chair for the previous six years. Within USATF he also served as the head men’s manager for Team USA at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships, event manager at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and the 2022 NACA Championships in Freeport, Bahamas, in addition to being the men’s coach for Team USA at the 2023 World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia. In 2024, he became one of just 71 global candidates to earn the World Athletics Competition Director Diploma. Boldin is currently in his second term as a public director on the Iowa Sports Foundation Board of Directors.
Boldon’s experience at Beyond Monumental and the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon (IMM) presented the unique qualifications influential in his selection as the Franklin ‘Pitch’ Johnson Director of the Drake Relays. He transformed the IMM and its associated races within the Beyond Monumental organization into one of the premier road racing events in the nation. Overseeing a budget of nearly $2 million, Boldon propelled the event from the 60th largest marathon in the country to the 20th. That growth rate was the third largest nationally for a marathon and the largest for a half marathon. His leadership resulted in the IMM setting annual revenue records and a 100 percent growth in sponsorships while also making the IMM an agent of change in the Indianapolis community. In addition to strengthening the lineup of events by acquiring the Indianapolis Marathon, Boldon created the Monumental Mile in 2014 that was ranked by Shape Magazine as one of the top 10 1-mile road races in the nation alongside Des Moines’ Grand Blue Mile.
“The Drake Relays serves not only as one of the nation’s most celebrated high school, intercollegiate, and elite track and field events, but also as a university-wide celebration for the Drake community and an important cultural event and economic driver for Des Moines and the Midwest,” said Drake University President Marty Martin. “This legacy as America’s Athletic Classic has been carefully cultivated over more than a century. Under his leadership experience, logistical expertise, and creative vision, Blake Boldon has carried this legacy forward.”
Before leading the Indianapolis Monutmental Marathon, Boldon spent two years at the University of Pennsylvania as the Quakers’ head cross country coach and track and field distance coach. He was also involved in the planning and execution of the Penn Relays and coordinated the Penn Relays Men’s Olympic Development Mile. Boldon also coached at UAB (2009-10) and Iowa State (2005-08), serving as the recruiting and academic coordinator at the latter.
Boldon is familiar with Drake Stadium and the iconic Blue Oval where he won the 1998 Iowa Class 3A state title in the 1,600, running for Clarke High School of Osceola. As a collegian at Missouri State University, he won five Missouri Valley Conference titles and a Drake Relays title in the 1,500 in 2003. Boldon graduated from Missouri State with a degree in education in 2003 and was named MSU’s Outstanding Male Athlete Award winner in addition to being a First Team CoSIDA Academic All-American. He was inducted into the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020.
Boldon competed professionally, returning to Drake Stadium many times. In 2007, he became just the third Iowan to run a sub-four-minute mile during the indoor season and finished fourth at the USATF Indoor Championships. Later that season, he finished second at the Drake Relays to American record holder Alan Webb, who shattered the Drake Stadium record with a 3:51.71 finish in that classic race. Boldon’s professional career also includes four top 10 finishes at USATF Championships.
