6 races in the span of 5 weeks. 1st, 25th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st.
Here's how the last one went down... summary of the block of racing at the end of the this... (edit: summary coming later)
Three years ago when I moved from Austin the plan was to stop off in Boulder for 2 weeks, check out the place, and then continue on to Bend to see what it was all about. Well... we know how that ended. For those three years now I have been telling my friend (and back country hero), Chris Williams, that I'd make my way out there. When planning the season I saw a good race in Pacific Crest Half and thought that it'd be the perfect chance to go visit and race. First off Bend is _not_ an easy place to get to. Unless you are able to fly into Redmond (20 miles to the north) you have to fly into Portland and drive out. Yes, it's a nice and scenic drive but can really wear on you after a couple hours. BTW... Mt. Hood is impressive!
I arrived in Bend late on Wednesday evening and promptly put my legs up and took a nap. I still had a some mile repeats on the schedule to knock out. I was staying at Chris' sweet place (a shrine of fame to friends, the mountains, triathlon, etc) and after a solid nap and some food i set off for the local HS track. WU'd up first on the Deschutes river trail that is so often spoken of and it did not disappoint. Soft dirt, needles and wood chips "paved" the way. Okay so _now_ it was off to the track. This being Oregon and the love the youth distance runner the track was a distance dream. This was by far the fastest track I'd ever run on. I was going 10-15 seconds a mile faster than normal. Okay so the 1500 foot drop could have had something to do with it too. With the sun setting the air got cool/cold FAST. I thought Boulder was dry. Bend is parched!!! A warm day got fridgid fast and by the end of my session my fingernails were numb!
Thursday I got in a great hour run on the river trail then rode up to Mount Bachelor. 15 miles and 2.5k in gain. You move from high desert and ponderosa pine (think Flagstaff) to fir and spruce alpine. Awesome-Amazing ride. Topped off the day with Transformers2 (I grew up on that stuff... I was beside myself with excitement).
So finally getting to a little bit about the race here... FRIDAY! Simply put I set out from the house at 10a to get in a swim, ride, packet pickup, bike course recon and bike drop off completed. I didn't get home till 6p and not a minute of that was squandered. Oh, and the bike ride got severly truncated. The race has two transition areas and that added to the complexity of the pre race activities. Needless to say I was a bit beat come days end.
GAME ON... RACE DAY!!!
With the morning lows in town in the 40s and even colder up in the mountains the race has a gun time of 9a. This allowed for a relative sleep in as compared to other races. Things went smoothly as I parked within a 2 minute walk of T2 dropped my things and got on the bus for the ride to T1. Once at Wickiup I set up shop next to Matt and got my things in order. After a ~40 min delay we were off. The water was pristine and the views off to my right were gorgeous! By far the most scenic and clear and beautiful swim I'ver ever done (yes, Kona is awesome but I'm a mountain man and to race in the alpine country had me absolutley beside myself... just wait for the bike course!). I didn't gas it at the start and rather just eased into my pace and was reminded that that is SUCH! a better way to start the day then the non-sensical 50m sprint-and-settle-in that I normally do. Put the pace at speedy cruise and rolled into T1. Got some personal chearing from Erika (maker of bad ass hats) and was off!
The first 7 miles or so you climb out of the res and up to the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. That name alone should give you a hint to the awesomeness that was to come. Check out some of the pics from the course here. I'll try and sort through some pics from the trip and post those over the next few days. The course transistions from a mix of alpine and ponderosa forrest to full Alpine forest by mile 10. Cyrstal clear lakes, fir and spruce trees, snow capped peaks, cool mtn air. Oh yeah... AWESOME. As it's a false flat all the way to mile 34 or so before the first substantial climb you have a slight grade to push into. I was sitting comfy on the watts and passing the duathlete wave folks all the while dishing advice such as "yer bike comes with a small chain ring... use it". Kidding... sort of. As we neared the "Sisters", Bachelor and Broken Top the scenery was filled with lakes, mountains, snowbanks, forrests... that all lead into one hell of a serious climb (10mph at 340 watts?!)... but wait... those spotter cars are coming around me faster and faster. Uh-oh. I'd later find out that Matt had closed the gap to within 25 seconds at the crest of the ski resort. Once over the top I got set to BOMB down the other side. 14-ish miles of SUPER FAST descending awaited. Tight and low I carried as much speed as I could and let my legs freshen up from the climb effort. We quickly left the alpine behind and, being back on the dry side again, were in the stands of Ponderosa. Unlike Oliver where I let my legs chill for a long while prior to T2 I wanted to keep them pumped and primed so spun them up anytime the speed dropped a hair too low. Finally the descent leveled out and I was able to grab some gears again and booked it into T2.
I wasted no time (aside from a HUGE shlug of de-fizzed coke) and set out on the run. I found my pace immediately (tempo runs and mile repeats are AWESOME!!!) and was feeling good. Looking back I could see that Matt was now ~90 secs back. No time for games... it's go time!!! From 0-5 I really kept the same pace and mindset and never really thought much of being hunted and simply worked away at my own race. I got one report at mile 3 of 3 minutes but didn't believe it but then Chris rolled up at mile 7 with a 4-5 minute report and I realized whoa... I'm putting time on him! It's going to take a looooong time for me to remove the complex of being a hunter vs. hunted when it comes to the run leg. But that is my goal. To be the hunter... even if it's from the front! : )
The course is entirely run on a cart path around the retirement community of Sunriver and the stories I can recount of "odd" encounters with volunteers, residents, and visitors could double this write up.
I eased off the gas for the latter half of the run so as to not dig too big a hole and cruised home (and uh... through a mass of people in the last mile that had NO idea a race was going on) to the win.
I really enjoyed the event and hope that it can grow as a professional race. Although this year's field was not quite what it was last year I hope that next year will see a return to a deeper start list.
I rounded out my trip to the area with a climb up Broken Top on Sunday, another great run on the river trail on Monday and Tuesday and a bike climb to McKenzie Pass on Monday. A looooooooooooooooong travel day home on Tuesday and now I'm back and settling in for some final fast preps for Boulder Peak before I turn my focus back to America's Hat and IM Calgary 70.3 and Ironman Canada.
This post has gone on long enough... I'll hit up my summary post tomorrow.
LIFE.IS.GOOD.
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