Mary's Peak

A good crew ran Mary's Peak yesterday. Gaby, Linda, Will, Mike, John, Ken and Clem. Gaby and Linda and I started early and ran the lower piece of the Northridge trail ... haven't done that part before ... about 8K I figure. Nice and easy. Then we met with the others for the climb. It was a gorgeous day. A good steady pace up the Northridge, across the Tie, then to the top, a loop around the top piece (don't know what its called), then to the summit. Gaby took off near the top. I tried to keep up ... not a good idea ... burned out the quads trying. Beautiful views. Then an easy pace back down the Northridge. Some HUGE trees blown down across the trail ... like 5 or 6' in diameter. I think we were on our feet a good four, five hours. About 19 miles. Had a good snooze when I got home. Let the training begin...

Beaver Classic and Mac 15K

Two races this past weekend:

Saturday was the Beaver Classic. This is a college level cross country meet. It took place at Avery Park; an 8K ... 4 laps of a 2K course, 3 laps for the ladies. Guys and gals ran separately. It was fun to watch the ladies ... Penny ran and did great, finishing 2nd. Dave Bateham was running this too ... there were just a handful of us older dudes. Gaby, Guy and Todd were there to cheer us on, which was much appreciated. I was way out of my league here ... the only goal was not to get lapped ... I made a wager with Gaby, who was holding my keys, that she could have my car if I got lapped. No pressure. I went out as fast as I could but most of the kids left me in the dust in short order. The course was flat ... just one small rise. All on grass. I was working hard. My lungs still not 100% from a cold I was just getting over. As I finished the third lap I heard Guy holler "You're safe!", meaning that I hadn't been lapped and now couldn't be, which felt good. Really struggled with the forth lap. Managed to reel in a couple of lads at the finish. I finished in 30:12, 127 out of 149 :) Dave finished well too, also not getting lapped. It's a good thing it wasn't a 10K, otherwise we'd both have been lapped for sure. The best time was 24+, which means the front runner almost caught us before we finished our third lap. Todd posted some pics. Results are here.

The Mac 15K was Sunday. Good crowd for this. Guy, Dave, Todd, Gaby were all racing. Dave Zahler and Mike Rosling were there, but Will Swint wasn't ... thought he would be. Had a chance to talk to Linda about her getting into WS. Penny wasn't racing but seemed to appear all over the race course once things started ... don't know how she did that. I struggled for all of this one. Legs were heavy from the get go. Guy, Dave, Gaby and I ran together for a piece, then gradually parted company. The uphills were tough. Penny paced me for about a click ... I really appreciated that, needing all the help I could get. I had hoped to run all the hills, but had to walk a bit here and there. With a couple of clicks to go Todd fired past me on a downhill like a bullet, then Gaby passed too. I kept them in my sights all the way to the end, but didn't have the juice to reel them in. We finished in about 1:09+, Dave shortly after. Unfortunately, Guy suffered a foot injury and had to pull out ... bummer. My time was my worst ever for this race ... the price paid for racing Saturday ... but I had a blast.

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.

Northwest Mountain Running Championship

Ran in the Northwest Mountain Running Championship on Mount Hood yesterday. Went there with Guy. Will and Mike were there too. Jason was too, but he wasn't racing. The race started at Timberline Lodge (6,000'). It was a cold, cloudy, misty morning. The race trail took us down the mountain to about 5,500' in elevation, before climbing up to about 7,000'. The climb was brutal ... I walked most of it, sucking wind the whole way. There was snow at the top. The run down was very technical ... couldn't really open up. I passed Will going up, but he zoomed past me on the downhill. Took about 53 minutes or so. Not sure yet how I placed ... in the top 30 maybe. Quads are feeling it today.

Ole's Astoria Assault

Did Ole's Assault in Astoria yesterday. This is one crazy race. It's about 10K I think, but it took me 1:43 or so. Except for the starting and finishing miles, it was mostly bushwhacking ... following flagging tape. No trail, really. There were some man-made obstacles ... barbed wire to crawl under, log walls to climb over, tunnels, etc... But the toughest part was just running through the bush. Over logs, under logs, down and up gullies, through thorny shrubs. Tripped a lot. Fell down a couple of times. Went over on each ankle once. Got scraped up pretty good. Several times had to take long pauses looking for the next piece of flagging tape. No drinking water on the course, so I was pretty parched by the end. Lost my sunglasses ... again! It makes the Mount Hood Scramble seem like a gentle trail run. A lot fun. Wouldn't want to do it more than once a year though :)

Back at 'er, pitter patter

Good run today with Guy, up Horse Trail, down Dan's Trail. 12K and 1,000' in 1:08. Felt good the whole way. Did some speed work this week too. No long runs though. Almost back to a normal routine at the gym too, but will need another week or two there. Less and less likely I'll do another ultra this year. But really looking forward to the short races of September and October.

Running Again

It's taken longer to recover from Waldo than I figured. It's been two weeks. Did an easy 20K yesterday ... up the ridge and hill twice. Managed a few 12K runs earlier in the week too. Not feeling too badly, but far from normal. Kind of glad I didn't sign up for MacKenzie ... it would have been optimistic ... and courting injury. Still considering that 50 miler in October, but we'll have to see. Looking forward to Ole's assault. Tomorrow the gym re-opens. Cannot wait to get back at it ... feeling like a slug.