Pretty fun morning. I'm in Medford, Oregon for a week and found a run in Ashland this morning. I wanted to get more then 6 miles today, so I started running down the highway and got 7 miles under my belt before my dad and sister picked me up. I averaged 6:15 for the 8 mile "warm-up." We got to the start of the race with a few minutes to spare, so I ran 1 more mile nice and easy to get familiar with the first part of the course.
The race was......unreal. I've never ran a race that was so tough. These weren't hills--it was like running mini-alps. The first 2 miles were gradual uphill on a wood-chip trail with a stream on the right and a few bridge crossings. I didn't want to get off course, so I just tucked in behind the leader and we clipped along nicely. After 2 miles, we ran up 10-12 flights of stairs in some guys backyard, then continued roaming the hills above Ashland. We dropped down some, then immediatly started climbing again on some switchbacks similar to hiking Angels Landing in Zion NP. I stayed with the leader through 4.5 miles, then we began decending on some switchbacks and the leader took off like he was on rails. He was a straight-up mountain goat and he completely left me in the dust. The last 1.5 miles were straight downhill, with one section twice as steep as decending Veyo hill. Throughout the race, my whole mindset was just "don't roll an ankle or twist a knee! This is just for fun and for an Oregon experience." There were portions of the trail that if one took a step 6 inches to the left, you would fall into a river or 6 inches to the right and one would fall 30 feet straight down. We had to wind around trees and jump over big logs. I was hitting 4:30's the last mile and couldn't close the gap on the leader. Anyway, we left the roads and decended 3 flights of stairs, ran 20 meters on a wood-chip trail and crossed the finishline. My quads are killing me!!!! Not sure of my offical time--I'll post it when the results are posted online.
Anyway, so 2nd place overall in a time of 36:26. The leader was 35:35, so he trounced me. But it's all good. Oregon runs are a whole different ballgame. It's not about speed, but about endurance and who can survive the wild terrain. I visited with the winner after we finished and he said he's never ran a "road" race. All he's ever done was trail runs. To me, that's strange, but if I lived here, I'd be all over these trails. It was like running on a sponge or a mattress and it feels great on the legs/ankles. I got 4 more miles in when I went back up the course and found my dad and sister and ran to the finishline with them. Fun stuff! I was shooting for 20 today, but 18 will have to do. 20 next week? We'll see. Now it's off to Brookings and the Oregon Coast....
Rotterdam (120)
Sinister (105) | 