Great hometown charity race. My training partners and I needed a half marathon test in our marathon training cycle. A couple of the guys had done this race the previous year and really enjoyed it, so we piled into a couple cars and drove down from Portland the morning of the event. The forecast had rain and wind in it, so I was prepared for a somewhat miserable morning. Low expectations, ironically, are a beautiful thing. There was essentially no wind and only trace amounts of rain during the race. Stoke factor was high.

This is a 'real' hometown charity event and although the registration was a bit on the high side, after being at that event, I have no doubts the proceeds went to the right place. The expo was a reflection of local influence but darn good. The volunteers and course marshals were an eclectic mix of school kids and Biker gang looking dudes - all super cool and encouraging.

Being a Halloween race, you'd expect a lot of costumes and they were all there on course, in abundance. This and the fact that so many people were in the event really made it enjoyable. My guys and I took the top 5 spots in the race (of course I was 5th, :() and the organizers were effusive in their appreciation that we came down down for the event. Everyone was so darn nice.

Leading up to the event, I was quietly targeting a top 3 finish, so I wanted to start the race a bit more aggressively than I had at the last ultra I ran in December and to pace myself with the front runners. Well, the race started with a promenade through the Wyeth campground, lead by the race promoter. Jogging at easy pace through the campground, I was chatting with a dude that I had carpooled with to the venue, forgetting that I wanted to have a faster start, duhhhhhh. Just before hitting the single track bottle neck, I finally woke up and moved up as much as I could in the pack. I was in about 30th position when we hit the single track, which wasn't a big deal in a 31 mile trail race, but I wasn't able to keep track of the people ahead of me. Ehhhh, oh well...

Let's see, what else is noteworthy in a 31 mile trail race? The scenery was pretty bitch'n. I dunno, what else? There was a lot of free beer and wood fired pizza that I was too sick to enjoy, at least immediately after the race. Great live music, too. Alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the race...

Errrr, well, for the first 20 miles or so, I just kept moving up and pick'n guys off, one by one. I was still averaging sub 7:50 miles by mile 20, but that was about to change. The course threw about 6K of climbing at us, total, but the kick in gut wouldn't come until about mile 25.5. That's where we hit Multnomah Falls; all the gapers (aka, touristas); and more importantly, a 1.3-1.4K climb up and around the back side of the Falls. I figured that I was in about 5th place, at that point. I anticipated the climb before the race and I reckoned that that's where guys would wad-up on the side of the trail and cry for their Mommies. Little did I know, I'd be one of them. Leading up the base of the climb, I had passed a guy who seemed to be in a bad way, so I didn't think I'd be seeing him again for the remainder of the day. Wrong. At the base of the climb I really started to cramp and by a quarter of the way up I had to stop because I couldn't walk - catastrophic muscle seizure. Some dude came out of nowhere and trotted passed me like he was a frick'n goat. Then, the dude whom I had left for dead, zombie-lurched passed me. That crushed my soul. Fortunately, my legs recovered a bit and I was able to keep zombie boy in sight. By about 2/3 of the way up, I was able to re-pass him and finally rid myself of the undead, once and for all. As for the goat, he was long gone. After cresting the summit, it was a long steep downhill run to the finish. Again, I had to come to a complete stop in order to release a paralyzing cramp, but I got back under way and when I finally crossed the finish line, the promoter high-fived me, handed me a growler of beer and congratulated me on my 3rd place finish. I was like, "Really? I thought I was like, fifth. Ok if I lay down right here, right now, man?"

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Susie and Duncan were there to greet me at the finish and that's about all I've got to report. Big thanks to my guys for all the training miles and encouragement. Awesome, awesome course! Next stop, Eugene