The race takes place in White Salmon, WA, which is just on the north side of the Columbia River from Hood River, OR (about an hour from Portland). Sign up is FREE (definitely the first free race I've run), but you can donate to their local run club, which benefits from all race proceeds. I managed to miss the registration deadline but was able to sign up the morning of with no problem. Tons of staff on hand, water and electrolyte drink available at the start, extremely clean flushing toilets and porto potties, on time start - all very well done.

COURSE:
You start at a park in White Salmon and run on the road for about a mile before turning into the trail. I got a tip from some locals that the bottle neck at the trailhead can be a pain, so I tried to stay at the front for the first mile. We were moving pretty fast but some guys were flying.

Once that mile on the road was over, it was pretty much non-stop climbing for the next 6 miles. The trail was in good shape, but the climb was steep and by 3.5 I was feeling pretty smoked. Took a good fall when part of the trail edge gave out under my foot, but no big deal. Was able to settle into a group of two other guys and push on to the top, where I got absolutely stunning views of The Columbia River, the gorge, and Mt. Hood (not to mention awesome views of Mt. Adams just before mile 4). The day was clear so Hood looked just incredible and I really wanted to stop and soak in some views. But I was only half way, so kept moving on. Stopped at the aid station at mile 7, took some electrolyte drink, peanut butter pretzels (awesome!), filled up my bottle and kept going.

The descent was extremely dicey. The top of the climb took us into a logging area, so the way down was a few miles of single track mixed with long stretches of baseball/hardball sized rocks that the logging trucks drive on when taking down trees. These rocks create very unstable footing, so you really had to concentrate when running down hill on those bad boys. No big blow ups and I was starting to make good time, passing one of my group of three who'd passed me when I stopped at the aid station.

The rest of the course was a mix of rocks and trails until I exited the woods and hit the one-mile road section back to the park. As soon as I hit the road, I saw a guy way out in front of me and didn't think there was any way I could catch him in time (he was one of the people absolutely FLYING at the start of the race). I just kept a steady clip for that last mile and ended up passing him with about a quarter mile to go. That landed me with an 11th place finish, time of 1:53:35.

Everything was extremely well marked - no getting lost on this race. Aid stations were well stocked and the post-race scene had a band, tons of food and drink (mostly Hostess snacks, which was weird but also cool), and a poison oak washing station. Apparently poison oak is a big problem on this trail, but I had compression socks on and never had an issue. But kudos to the race for providing a wash station with TECNU (some anti poison oak scrub). There were no medals, and you had to buy a shirt, but again, this was a free race and I gave it a five star SWAG rating for how well everything else was stocked.

I would do this race again in a heartbeat - extremely well done, FREE, staggering views, killer workout, and really nice post-race scene (which is where the pic below is taken from). Easy five out of five for me.

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