BOULDER - Sometimes entrepreneurial success can't be judged by how much money shareholders receive or by the mega-dollar windfall generated for the founders.

Instead it's the intangibles a business delivers to the community, to customers and to employees that show its strength and character.

Mark Plaatjes and Johnny Halberstadt, co-owners of the Boulder Running Company, have created that type of business. Plaatjes and Halberstadt are this year's winners of the Esprit Entrepreneur of the Year award presented by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce.

Founded in 1995, Boulder Running Company is today an institution, synonymous with the city's image as a haven for runners and athletes focused on living a healthy, outdoor lifestyle.

"To win this award with so many amazing entrepreneurial companies in this town, it just blew us away," Plaatjes said. "We still haven't come off of cloud nine."

Boulder is known as a running city around the world, and Halberstadt said the company benefits from that reputation, but the cachet only goes so far.

"We have to uphold our end of the bargain. When somebody comes into our store they'd better be wowed," he said. "We mustn't be like a local mall store they may have back home."

Tim Hoogheem, chief financial officer of Boulder Ventures, said he nominated the pair because the company is "really important to the community and a part of why Boulder is Boulder.

"They're just great human beings," Hoogheem said. "It's a bit of the storybook tale - the American dream. They immigrated to the states, started and built a successful business, raised their families and contributed to society."

Originally from South Africa, each achieved significant milestones in their running careers. In 1993, Plaatjes finished sixth in the Boston Marathon and then won the marathon event at the World Championships the same year. Halberstadt was the 1972 NCAA 10,000-meter champion and went on to become one of the leading innovators in footwear technology.

They could have easily opened a running shoe store as absentee owners, cashing in on their fame in the sport and leaving the daily details to the staff, but that's not their style.

Instead, Hoogheem said, Plaatjes and Halberstadt make each customer feel welcome and comfortable - whether a novice or a pro athlete. Nearly every Saturday for the past 13 years, the pair is at the store all day, working with employees on the floor.

"We're the same as everybody else," Halberstadt said. "We take out the trash, we vacuum. That sets a tone that anybody should be prepared to do anything and that our team is in this together."

Working hard and overcoming obstacles is something each man has endured - in competition and in life. Born under South African apartheid, Plaatjes was barred from the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games due to the international boycott of South Africa and left his hometown of Johannesburg to make a better life for his family in America.

"The U.S. is a country of such opportunity," Plaatjes said. "If you're willing to work hard and stay the course you can really achieve anything you set you mind to in this country, which is a wonderful thing."

Plaatjes said he's learned not to give up at the first sight of adversity, and having a connection with others is critical.

"When you go through the struggles we went through (under apartheid) you learn that people are really the most important factor in all of this. In South Africa, with all of our racial tensions and violence, it really was people's compassion for each other that kept the country going."

Halberstadt said that just as in a race, business success rests on finding a way to win - to solve a problem and execute on the issues that are the most important at that time.

"There are plenty of people with talent, but when it comes down to it some people find a way to win," Halberstadt said. "People may say, 'Don't sweat the small stuff,' but if you don't sweat the small stuff in retail you're gone."

Hoogheem said Boulder Running Company isn't one that his venture capital company would invest in because "it doesn't make a lot of money for a lot of people" but that Plaatjes and Halberstadt's accomplishments should be viewed in a different light. "They haven't limited what they're doing to just a passion for profit."

That passion extends to both the local and global community. Boulder Running Company sponsors several local races every year for organizations such as the Orphans of AIDS Trust Foundation, which helps clothe and feed South African children affected by HIV; and Expand, Boulder's outdoor program for people with disabilities.

Halberstadt said it's all about doing what you love, and although he and Plaatjes "live and breathe" running, helping people solve a problem and enjoying life to the fullest is what drives them.

"That's the whole Boulder philosophy. If you're going to live, enjoy it, and do it the right way." Halberstadt said. "Life's too short not to."