Plain and simple, Bend rocks! I love it down there but I don't particularly enjoy the long drive. Sean told me that it took him 10 hrs to drive from Lynnwood! Yikes! I suppose I shouldn't complain about my measly 7.5 hr drive then. As soon as I got to Sisters though the drudgery of the drive melted away. I am always awed by the beauty and majesty of the landscape and by the wonderful feeling I get from being in the High Desert country (read my early post from the Peterson Ridge Rumble). The area is just so familiar and inviting to me, I absolutely love it. OK, back to my long drive...as usual, I was able to break that into two pieces by staying with my folks in Milwaukie on Friday night. That also gave me the opportunity to see my friends Vawn and Lou and help them celebrate their tenth anniversary with some martinis at our favorite place, Bartini, which is located in the NW district of Portland. It was fun seeing them.
After a nice Saturday morning brunch with my folks, I headed down to Bend. I had to go to the Footzone in downtown Bend to pick-up my race packet and buy a few things. With the race entry I received a 20% coupon for REI (bonus!) but it had to be used by Sunday (huh?) so I picked-up a new pair of much-needed TNF running shorts. My friend Matt Garcia and his wife Debbie were gracious enough to let me stay with them in their new house. Saturday night was spent making/eating burritos, drinking beer and telling stories around a little portable fire pit in their new backyard. It was a nice mellow night with some good laughter, conducive to getting in bed early and being ready to run the next morning. Alas, the dreaded "I can't sleep so I'll toss and turn all night" hit me. I kept waking up thinking that I had overslept my alarm and that the race had started. Crud. It was a long night.
When my alarm went off at 4:30 am I awoke from a fog, looked out the window into the darkness at the clear skies and thought to myself, "this is going to be a beautiful day of running and I am glad to be here". I was feeling re-energized and after a light breakfast of yogurt and a bagel I drove to the Middle School to catch the 6:00 am shuttle bus to the race start in Shevlin Park. For those who've been to Bend you know that it is usually fairly chilly in the morning, even in the middle of summer. Today was no different. I think it was just 50F and as we all hopped around trying to stay warm for another hour (race start was 7:00 am) I found Sean and Kathleen. Sean and I had agreed to run the race together since we run at a similar pace and neither of us wanted to go out too fast and then blow-up. Also, we've both been battling some niggling ankle injuries and didn't want to make those worse. As we chatted with some nice gals from Boulder, CO this lanky guy came wandering by wearing an outfit that wouldn't have been out of place in a bad 70's disco lounge. It was hideous. He was basically flammable, wearing polyester pants, an enormous belt buckle and some goofy Willy Nelson t-shirt along with a scrappy leather jacket and some brown platform shoes. And, to top it all off, he was jamming to Elvis on his iPod while dancing all around. What a sight. I'll come back to him a little later...
Sean with his girlfriend after the race.Finally the starting gun went off and we trundled down a 1/2 mile pavement to the start of the trail. As our legs loosened up we started to warm-up. We soon realized that it was going to be another dry and warm day after all. Also, the first 12 miles of the race is a slow gradual climb along forest service roads to the radio tower so you warm-up quickly as soon as the sun peeks out. What a great way to thin-out the herd, er, I mean pack. Somehow, we ended up basically dead in the middle of everyone...for pretty much the entire race.
The run starts off with a nice smooth and twisty single-track trail (after the pavement) and then after two bridge crossings emerges on a wider trail that eventually turns into a forest service road that just climbs up into the hills. After a few miles of running on the lower trail one of the gals from Boulder, Marcy Servita, caught up with us and asked if she could run with us since our pace was good for her. Even though it's a 12 mile climb, there is only 2,500 ft of total elevation gain on the course which is so gradual that there is only two points where I can remember having a significant climb (and even those weren't tough). On the second climb at about mile 11 - the much longer and steeper of the two - Sean, Marcy and I decided to run it eventually passing a bunch of people on our way up. It was a good call. As we passed one gal who was walking up the hill we got into a conversation with her and learned that her name was Linda Barton and that she was from Everett and that her and her friend had just come from running the Crater Lake Marathon the day before. Yowza! She decided that she'd rather talk and run with us then not talk and walk up that hill alone. Our party of three became four.
At the top of the course, around mile 12 or so, there is a well-placed aid station at the point where you begin the 12 mile descent on one leg of the Mrazek Trail which is a twisty and dusty single-track trail that's used by trail runners, hikers and Mt. bikers. For so much use it was in fairly good shape. Very few rocks or roots to contend with. We all agreed that this was the best part of the race. It felt almost effortless running through the first part of this section as we let gravity pull us along. The RD had done a good job marking the course so we weren't worried at all about taking a wrong turn and getting lost. In fact, the RD was smart about it and had located the aid stations at the intersection points where you could easily take a wrong turn. Smart!
Linda started to push the pace a little and after a few miles left us in her wake. We were back down to three. Also, Marcy was experiencing some stomach cramping and other GI issues so we slowed the pace down and stopped a few times for potty breaks. After some more stops at aid stations, Marcy seemed to get her hydration issues in order and was able to pick the pace back up. I think that we lost about 25 minutes or so in total with all the various stops that we made along the way. Regardless, Sean and I were happy to do it for her. To me, trail running is all about the experience and not necessarily always about your finishing time. By helping Marcy achieve her goal, we felt closer to achieving ours.
As we came down the trail near mile 21 or so, we began encountering a lot of day hikers and some Mt. bikers making their way back up the trail. Sean, Marcy and I got spread out a little due to the groups we had to pass. Thankfully it didn't get too clogged, just a little annoying more than anything. The further we ran, the more non-runners began appearing on the trail. There was only one point where I got frustrated. There's a longish section of large boulders on some short descending switchbacks that need to be carefully navigated as they're covered in a sandy soil and have some drop-offs. I generally have good foot work and body placement and my 30 years of playing soccer help me move through sections like this fairly easily, but when you have groups of overweight, slow-moving retirees blocking your way as they inch down in awkward positions, well, things can almost get dangerous. I literally had to stop a few times to wait for them to move to the side of the trail (which thankfully they did - slowly - without me even asking) so that I could pass safely without causing them any concern. I looked at it like a challenge and considered them trail obstacles, just like the other features of the trail that needed to be passed and overcome.
Near mile 23 or so things began to level out, things widened a bit and there was more than enough room for everyone to share the trail. We quickly came back onto the twisty single-track that we had run at the beginning of the race, leading us back across the covered bridge, through groves of Ponderosa Pine trees, and eventually to the finish line where we were greeted by a bunch of cheering folks. As in any long-distance race, that finish line seemed like it was taking forever to appear until we actually reached it. I swear that this race was longer than 26.2 miles (my Suunto T6 watch displayed it as a little over 27 miles).
As soon as I crossed the finish line I grabbed my drop-bag and headed to the fast-moving stream which was adjacent to the finish area. Sitting in the frigidly cold water wasn't easy to but it felt so good on my sore muscles. After a 10 minute soak I walked over to the staging area and started to eat some of the food that was provided. I was bummed though. They had two kegs of beer from Cascade Lakes Brewing Company and it was already gone! What gives? Apparently the 360 folks who ran the half-marathon distance (and their friends and family) had descended on the beer like vultures. The poor marathoners were left bereft of beer! I was fairly bummed out about this and decided to go back into the water and soak my troubles away. Another 15 minutes in the cold water (this time with Sean keeping me company) was all I could handle. I had lost most of the feeling in my feet and even though it was 80F and sunny, I was getting really cold!
Me soaking in the cold stream next to the finish line.Back to the guy I mentioned at the beginning of this post who looked like a disco reject working in a scuzzy Chinese lounge. It turns out that his name is Paul Saladino and I'll tell you what, looks can be deceiving! I ran into him while I was waiting to catch the shuttle bus back to my car. He was wearing that same outfit but he looked like he had just run a marathon. We started talking and I eventually learned that this was Paul's first marathon and that he'd actually won it in a blistering time of 3:05:11. Man, he was fast! Paul and I decided to go get lunch together and share our race experiences. We went to Longboard Louies to get their monster honkin' burritos. It turns out that Paul is a 30-year old Virginian who just moved to Bend in July to be a P.A. in the Cardio Lab at St Charles Medical Center. While he's waiting to pass his Oregon Medical Boards, he's been working some odd jobs here and there and running a lot. He told me that this was his first attempt at a marathon. Wow! I'd say that he's off to a good start.
I asked him about his experience and here's what he had to say:
The race itself went just about as well as it could have. I was definitely nervous about all of the logistics; what to eat, when to eat it, how much to drink before and during the race but I guess it all worked out. There were plenty of aid stations, well spaced and most of them had people at them too! So I can't blame my nearly destroyed legs on not refueling properly. I had done a few runs up to 20 miles but I don't think I had run down hill that aggressively ever before. That must have been what did me in because by the time I got to mile 22 or so my legs felt like bombs had gone off within them. The last two miles, its all really just a blur of emotion, pain, and exhaustion. I had no idea where the guys behind me were so I was just trying to run as fast as possible which for the last two miles felt like 15 min pace. I do remember starting to talk to a reporter from the Bend Bulletin after I finished and swerving a little as I tried to find some water. When I went to the river to sit and cool off I fell in because my legs were too weak to lower me slowly into the water. For me the coolest part of the course was the steepish, long hill leading up to the radio towers. That's were I felt my race come alive and first started to think I might have a chance of winning. I had figured that if I got to the turn around with a good lead it would difficult to make up big time on the down hill. Until my legs blew up that it is. After that all bets were off.
What would a trail race in Bend be without a couple of locals running. Sean Meissner (RD for Peterson Ridge Rumble) placed second overall with a time of 3:11:54 and Kami Semick placed third overall and was the first woman across the finish line with a time of 3:13:58. They both ran a good race. I also saw some other Seattle-area runners like Van "Pigtails" Phan who ran a 3:55:06, Kathleen Egan who ran a 4:21:35 and Jessica Mullen who ran a 4:33:55. While neither Sean nor I ran particularly fast (4:52:45 and 4:54:32 respectively), we finished middle of the pack and felt good about our performances given the circumstances. Neither of us got reinjured and we were able to use the race as a long training run under race conditions. Our goals of going slow, building our base endurance and avoiding injury seem to have paid-off.
Overall, this was a great race experience. I plan to run this race again run next year.
