Bridge of the Goddess Half Marathon 9/19/15

What a great race! This one falls six weeks before the New York Marathon, and I'd heard it was a spectacular debut race last year, so I decided to sign up some time ago. As it happens, it fell right around the time I'd decided my training runs have been a little flatter than they ought to be, so I'd been adding a little more texture to my runs over the last couple of weeks.
I'd intended to keep this one fun and not super competitive, although you never really know how you'll be feeling on-course, but I did a pretty good job of not killing myself out there, and pulled off a respectable time, too.
The course boasts over 1,000 vertical feet along the 13.1 miles, and I am inclined (pun intended) to believe it. I was not aware of running on any flat at all. The nice thing was that the hills were rolling, but not insubstantial. 
The Columbia River gorge is really breathtakingly beautiful, and the whole race was visually delightful, even when we were running along Highway 84 (separated from cars by a barrier). The day was amazing. Nice, wispy clouds to accentuate the pretty sunrise (we were encouraged to be there by 6:30, as the race started on a bridge and they had to close off traffic).The course was an out-and-back along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. There were a couple of tunnels where we passed under the 84, so we got to take advantage of both the overlook to the Columbia and some nice, shady, hilly climbs. One section at about 3 miles was the "stairway to heaven", which sounded worse in the description than it really was. I'd expected single-track bottleneck, but it was a nice, well-maintained, wide staircase. No trouble at all other than the quad burn that comes with climbing stairs. It was even monitored by a very friendly and enthusiastic volunteer.
I felt pretty good, and didn't worry as people passed me. I figured that even if I did feel like racing, I wouldn't kick it until mile 10, so I remained calm on course and enjoyed the scenery, and tried to go for even-effort rather than any particular time. When I started seeing the front-runners coming back from the turnaround point, I realized what a fast, competitive field it was. I decided to plug along at my non-aggressive pace.
As I neared the end, the race took us along the main street in Cascade Locks. Running on public streets can be a problem in some races, but the many volunteers and polite folks on the sidewalk kept it moving along nicely, and I was able to accelerate to the finish line.
I finished in 1:49:06, which is rather a slow half for me, but I am super satisfied with it. I was able to maintain an average speed of 8:13, which is just about 8 seconds slower than my desired speed in NYC in a few weeks, so I feel like I'm on target. I came in 32 overall out of a field of 640, and 5th in my age group out of 97, so I've got nothing to complain about.
Thanks Hammer Nutrition for the gels, anti-fatigue caps, and always for the Recoverite. These keep me running happy!

Belated Race Report - Whine On The Vine 7/19/15

I love X-Dog Events. I discovered them the first spring we lived here, which would have been early 2007, when I ran the Dirt Dash. For years I've run several races a year with X-dog, and have seen them grow from a pretty small operation that seemed to run out of an old school bus to the still small but glorious operation it is today. They were doing obstacle runs before obstacle running was a thing. Not that obstacles are *my* thing, but I'm willing to crawl over, under, around, and through some stuff to get where I'm going.

A few years back, X-dog offered their last Tillamook Burn race, as the private property on which it was held was sold. Bummer, because that was a hell of a challenging 7-mile run.

In its wake, however, we got the Whine On The Vine Adventure Run. This one is held at the lovely J Albin winery in Hillsboro. (FWIW, I'm always surprised this is Hillsboro - it must be the very bottom left corner of it, because it feels more like Newburg). This year was the third annual WotV event. The first year, I failed to follow the course properly and almost accidentally came in first place. I skipped a really big hill, and had to back-track until I found the people I'd been running near in the first place and picked the course back up. Disappointing, but so it goes among really rugged trails. 

Last year and this year I followed the course better and fared relatively well.

At J Albin winery in July, it is very dry and dusty. This year it was especially so, as we had a very hot, dry summer here in Oregon. As we weaved back and forth through the grapes, we kicked up a lot of dust. Usually after the grapes, we head out into a large, open field and traverse 3 or 4 obstacles. This year, it was so hot, and the race organizers opted to forego a couple of the obstacles and head us into the forest sooner. They elongated the forest part of the run to make up for the lost mileage. The terrain in the forest is beautiful. Sometimes the path is one-person wide, sometimes less than that. Blackberry bramble and even one instance of barbed wire threatened the shins as we went up and down the steepest hills. I fell twice, which is not unusual on this kind of path, although it was a little comical this year, as my two falls were about 20 feet apart. I'm sure the people running near me thought I might be one of the obstacles.

As tends to be the case in these races, starting off slowly worked to my advantage. As we got to about mile 3 of the 5.15-mile course, I passed many of the people who blasted by me in the first mile, and by the time we got to the Redneck Slip-n-slide (a big tarp running all the way down a steep hill, manned by a few volunteers with hoses), I was the third woman. I didn't gain any position after that, but I did keep third place female (and passed a few men on the last mile).

In the end, I was just the right combination of muddy, bloody, and dusty, and ready for the complimentary finish-line mimosas.