I'm Still Here

In one piece, slightly the worse for wear but still here and with a shiny new buckle. It turned out to be quite the adventure, quite the adventure indeed and three days later I am already entertaining thoughts of returning. I finished it so I have the option of never returning and now I want to go back. With the most painful parts already forgotten I can honestly say that it was a grand time!

It was a tough 100-mile made even harder by the weather. Like San Francisco the weather in that part of Oregon is supposed to be sunny in September and it was, just not during the race. It rained Friday, Saturday and the first half of Sunday - pretty much the entire event. We were soaked and it got cold during the night with the wind, fog and rain. The peaks which were supposed to give us all these great views where the places where we got a double dose of the elements.

I finished 26:27:11 for 31st out of 72 finishers and I heard there were 130+ starters out of 160+ that signed up. It won't go down as a good performance but one I feel quite blessed to have survived. I was fine overall and I have no complaints. In retrospect I started out a bit fast and it came back to get me in the end. I fell apart the last 12 miles, more so than I should have. Still no complaints, just happy to have made it to the finish line. I feel like I can do better and would like to give this race another shot in the future.

I will have a more comprehensive race report later but before I go I would like to say that part of the reason it was such a great experience was because of the company. I carpooled and shared hotel expenses with Brett Rivers, Larissa Polischuk and David Wronski who were fun, great people. Kathleen Egan, who flew in from Seattle to pace Larissa, paced me when Larissa dropped and she made my night. Kathleen was way positive, extremely helpful and knew when to talk and when to run - she got that rhythm down. The volunteers were great as they usually are at these events and I felt that along with Hal Koerner and his staff they went the extra mile for us.

More great experiences from the grand, beautiful state of Oregon.

Look how nice the weather is at the awards ceremony. With Brett Rivers and Matt Keyes.