Rainshadow Running is legendary in the ultra community. I was excited (and very nervous) to finally run one of the legendary James Varner courses. The Oregon Coast 50k did not disappoint. The hub of the race is in a little coastal town called Yachats, OR. There are plenty of little beach cabin rentals in the town, as well as few hotels-- tons to choose from to stay in for the race. If you can get there the night before, Innov-8 hosts a shake-out run and takes you on some of the coastal trails you don't get to see during the race.
I'll be the first to admit, I didn't know what to expect from the race. It's about 4800' of gain over 31 miles, however, the first 9 miles of the course are pancake flat (6.5 of those you run on the beach), so you get that 4800' of gain smashed into around 20 miles. Don't let anyone tell you differently-- the climbs are STEEP, but the views are worth it. Most of the elevation gain is broken up into 3 big climbs. The view of the coast at the top of the first big climb is breathtaking. If you have the time, stop for a minute to take it all in. If you're someone who uses poles during a race, or someone who has been thinking about it, this is definitely a race to try them out on. The race is a mix of of terrain-- beach, gravel paths, a little bit of pavement, hard-packed double-track and some pretty technical rooty single track. Be prepared for it all.
As I said, the first 6.5 miles of this is on the beach--this isn't nearly as terrible as it sounds. The sand is hard-packed by the water, so you're definitely not sinking into it every step--but your feet WILL get wet. The beach section is beautiful, and people come out to cheer. I'll be the first to admit we lucked out with the weather this year, for the most part. Being October in Oregon, there's a pretty decent chance it will rain or snow during this race. High winds, rain, and high tide could make the beach section much more difficult.
One of the unique things about this race is it offers 50k runners two drop bag points-- TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS. You see your first drop bag at mile 7 right after the beach--pack a towel, and change of shoes and socks. You will definitely want to change your shoes if you don't want your feet to be hamburger meat by the end of the race. You can also stash a drop bag at Cape Perpetua (Mile 14 & 24). This is a good spot to replenish your nutrition if you don't want to carry it all with you. This is the bag I decided to keep my poles in, so I could grab them before the big middle climb in the race. Part of me wishes I had put them in my drop bag at mile 7 and had them for the first big climb. It's not a bad idea to stash extra layers in your bags. The weather can, and will, change quickly during the race. While the temperature stayed pretty pleasant (mid 50s, low 60s), during the race, we had the winds shift, fog roll in, and for about 15 minutes, there was rain. Be prepared for everything.

Now to the nitty gritty:
Parking-- easy, they have you park in a big field by the Adobe resort at the start/finish. Piece of cake
Bathrooms--They have portopotties and bathrooms at the resort at the start, as well as bathrooms along the course (which is not always a guarantee during trail races)
Aid Stations: AWESOME. The volunteers at these races are amazing. Wy'East Wolfpack dressed as Vikings this year at the cape perpetua aid station and kept the energy up the whole time. Aid stations are stocked with all the usual ultra snacks (oreos, gummy bears, fruit, chips, water, gatorade, coke, etc)
Post Race: What can I say-- ocean views, kegs, and food trucks. You can't go wrong.

All in all, amazing race. Rainshadow Running does not disappoint. Tough courses get paid off with amazing views, a huge sense of accomplishment, and a high five from James Varner at the end.

End note: Some of the trails we run on during this race, including the Amanda Trail, are historically significant to The Coos, Lower Umpqua, Alsea, and Siuslaw, and other Oregon Coast Tribes. Rainshadow Running sent out an email before the race explaining the significance of this trail. I greatly appreciated this information, and was even more grateful to have the privilege to run there.

Hands down, this is my favorite race I've done since moving to the Pacific Northwest. GoBeyond racing puts on amazing, well-organized races with killer courses. The 50k has about 2800' of elevation gain overall, so it's tough, but still a very fast course. There's one pretty long climb on the PCT (but nothing devastating or super-steep) and a few smaller climbs (although they were bigger than I thought) after the PCT climb. With those climbs come AMAZING views of Mt Hood, so there's definitely a good payoff, and something to look forward to.
The race starts out at Clackamas Ranger Station-- there's a decent amount of parking on the side of the road, and places to stash a bag for the start/finish. I camped the night before at Clackamas Lake campground, which i would highly recommend if you don't feel like driving in the morning. There are also plenty of campsites nearby around Timothy Lake.

The only part of the course I found a little hair-raising was the first part of the out-and-back on the single track on the PCT--a couple miles in you have people coming back in the opposite direction on the single track, so we all had to navigate around each other. This, however, is a reality of most ultras that have any single-track on them, and is definitely not a reason not to run.

The aid stations and post-race setup for this race were WONDERFUL. It was a hot day, and I'm usually towards the back of the pack, so the heat was getting pretty brutal by the time I got to the aid station at 18. Thankfully, there was a woman there ready to sponge me down with ice-water. I'm pretty sure I fell in love with her, and she'll never know it. Aid stations are all stocked with the typical ultra-snacks, and the volunteers were really helpful about refilling packs and bottles. Post race there was 10 Barrel beer, and pulled pork with Red Duck BBQ Sauce (YUM!). The race directors are so friendly, and gave me a high five and a big hug when I crossed the finish. They make sure that the last finishers have the same fan fare as the first finishers, and I am so grateful for that.

I will definitely be back for this race next year...they offer a 50 mile the day before, as well as an option to run both the 50 mile and the 50k. If you are in the Portland area, I would also highly recommend volunteering for one of the Go Beyond Race series races. It's a lot of fun! I've volunteered at the Trail Factor 50k in Forest Park in May, and am signed up to help out at the Mountain Lakes 100 in Sept.

I grew up going to Kensington Metropark-- my parents used to take me there to canoe, to hike, and to feed the birds and the nature center. When I was searching for a July or August marathon, and I saw this one pop up, I was pretty darn excited. The price was right, the timing was right, so I signed up. I went canoeing there the day before the race with my dad, and my excitement began to build when I saw the course. It's almost all on the bike path that runs around Kent Lake in the park--beautiful scenery, lots of tree coverage, and a good amount of hills (I would compare the elevation gain to Barrington, IL--lots of rolling hills, a couple of big-ish climbs, but nothing unmanageable).

The race started at 7am--I was a little worried about this when I saw what the temperature was supposed to be for the day, knowing that I would likely be running well into the 11am hour. Packet pickup was the day of. For a small race (only 100 and change registered for the marathon, 300 for the half which started half an hour later), the pickup was disorganized. It was a bunch of high school kids who didn't seem to have been given any direction handing out bib numbers. When I got into the corral to start, I heard a man behind me say "Well I don't know who's number I got, but this isn't the one they emailed me with." Ooops.

The really nice thing about the course is that it loops around the lake twice. The park access also makes it really easy for spectators (although they weren't very many). My parents were able to park and hang out on the side where I would pass them at miles 12 & 20, with plenty of shade, bathrooms, and picnic tables nearby. Starting out the race, I had no idea where the aid stations would be. There were none shown on the course map, and in the course description, it only said "aid stations every 1.5-3 miles." I decided to run with a water bottle (as most of the people doing the full did), and thank god I did. The aid stations were really far apart, which is bad news for a full marathon in July. With the setup of the park, and the fact that the course looped around the lake more than once, there was no reason there couldn't have been more.

Water became a real issue when I hit mile 17--I came upon two women who were trying to help a runner who had gone down, and gone down hard. He could barely speak and didn't know his name or what day it was. We were more than a mile in either direction from an aid station, so I stopped to try and help, and give the man some of my water. One of the women was dialing 911 as the other woman was trying to get ahold of the Park police. It didn't seem like there was much of an emergency protocol in place, as the ambulances were coming from nearby hospitals, and were having trouble finding us. When an ambulance finally did come (almost half an hour after the man went down), they almost left because they thought they were supposed to be responding to another downed runner elsewhere. When you decide to host a marathon during what is notoriously the hottest week in July, you have a responsibility to the runners to 1. Have plenty of water, and 2. Have plenty of easily available medical care. At this point I was very disappointed at what had seemed to be a very promising race. Once I started running again, I made the decision to drop at mile 20 where my parents were. Finishing the race would have put me at well over 5 hours, and I was already mentally and physically exhausted. I could hear ambulances on the course every couple of minutes, and from what I heard people were dropping like flies in the heat. You pass the start/finish at about mile 18, before you start the last loop around the lake, so I informed some race officials of the downed runner.

This is only the 2nd year this race has been put on--it has potential, but I think it needs to make some pretty major changes. The course is wonderful--but the race (at least the full marathon) needs to start earlier. I would have gladly started that race at 6am, if it meant avoiding a little bit of the heat. There also need to be way more aid stations--every 1.5-3 miles in July doesn't cut it, they need to be every 1.5 miles AT THE MOST. Third--there needs to be a better emergency protocol in place--that might mean hiring a private ambulance company for the day and familiarizing them with the course. Half an hour wait for medical attention for someone in really bad shape is unacceptable. Also having the full names of the participants on the bibs would have been a huge help--especially with the bibs being all mixed up at the beginning.

I plan on emailing the race directors to tell them everything I've said here. I think this could be a really great, low key, scenic race. If some changes were made, I would consider running it again.

Living in Chicago, you'll be hard-pressed to find a race where most of the course isn't run on the Lakefront. Not that the Lakefront isn't beautiful--but paying to run a race on a path that you run for free almost every day gets a little old. I had been considering (and am still considering) the Chicago Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in July, as it is one of the few races that runs through the city streets...as long as you're willing to run in the thousand degree weather.

When a friend told me she had signed up for the North Shore Classic, I took a look at the course and it was an easy sell. Only about half an hour north of the city, the course weaves through the Highland Park neighborhood, and north to Fort Sheridan. The streets on the whole course were nice and wide, so there were no areas where the runners bottle-necked. The course does have some hills--mostly small rolling ones, nothing too crazy, except for one big climb somewhere between miles 7 and 8. Don't let the course elevation map scare you--hills always look way scarier when they're squished into a tiny graph.

The race this year was on a particularly windy day (20-25mph winds!), which, for the first half of the race, was blocked by the tree cover in the neighborhoods. Once you hit about mile 9, the straightaway to Fort Sheridan, that tree cover disappeared and we had that wind straight in our faces til after mile 11. At least we finished with the wind at our backs!

The field in the race isn't huge--it was about 1700 runners for the half this year. The aid stations and the finish line are very well-organized (they hand you all the goodies IN A BAG at the end, so you're tired ass doesn't have to decide if you want a banana or a bagel or a protein drink or all three). Parking up in Highland Park can be a little tight--I would suggest getting there pretty early to find a spot. I don't usually care much about race swag--but the race shirt (a technical singlet) is actually something I will wear again, and the medal was as big as my hand.

I would 100% recommend this race--great course, not too far from the city, good views, and potentially better weather than a lot of Chicago spring/summer races.