XTERRA Trail Running National Championships

A full day yesterday. Guy and I went to Bend to run in the XTERRA Trail Running National Championships. This is a half marathon on trail along the Deschuttes river. We left Corvallis at about 4:30am. Got to the race start, in the Old Mill District, at about 7:30 or so, plenty of time for the 9:00 start. Dave Bateham was there ... nice to see him again. Lots of high-end runners here for this one, including some I recognized from the Mountain Nationals on Mount Hood last week ... always nice to watch the big guns do their stuff. The start and finish of the course were on paved and gravel road and wide trail. A lot of single track, sandy trail too. Nothing too technical. Not a lot of elevation ... I think about 1,000' in total. I wasn't too fond of the course. Bend offers up much nicer trails, but as one gal put it, they were looking for production values. I went out pretty hard. It wasn't long before I felt fatigue in my quads ... not enough rest since Mount Hood. But I managed pretty well. After the half way point I managed to hold position pretty well ... I was passed by a few, but managed to reel in a few. I had to really focus for the last few clicks, keeping my mind on my breathing, rather than on my tired, aching legs. I finished in 1:29:43, 43rd overall, 5th in age ... not bad, given the level of competition. Guy and Dave both finished strong too. Afterward, we went to Smith rock (cool place) to drop off Dave for some climbing. Guy and I headed to Sisters for lunch at Bronco Billy's. That night, Todd hosted a nice get together for the ultra runners ... M & I didn't stay long. I was toast. Slept well that night. No more racing for a couple of weeks, at least.