This is the second year that my girlfriend, Stephanie Howe, and I did the Gorge Waterfalls 50km. We enjoyed it so much in 2012 that we had to come back. Unfortunately the 2012 winter storms caused massive wash-outs of the trail and hundreds of blown down trees. The trails were still not fixed in time for this year’s race so we got to do the same course we were familiar with.
Because we
would be starting and finishing at Benson State Park (near Multnomah Falls) we
decided to stay in Troutdale this year. This would give us much closer access
to the start/finish plus allow us to go into Portland as we wanted. We decided
to make a weekend of it so headed over Friday after work and stayed through
Sunday.
We woke up
the next morning to a beautiful day in the Gorge. Sunny with the highs expected
to be 75-80. It was going to be a great day. I think we were both a bit nervous since this
was our first race since Bandera. Neither Steph nor I had a stellar showing
that day in Texas and we both really wanted to have a good one. Steph was also
working on a sore calf and I’m still pretty up and down with my results. There
would be a ton of fast guys at the race (Ian Sharman, Jeff Browning, MarioMendoza, Yassine Duboun, Chris Kollar, Hal Koerner & others). In that group a top 5 is a good day!
A few
general highlights from the race:
·
Lots of vertical
·
Lots of technical single track
·
Really beautiful course with waterfalls around
every corner.
·
Well marked course with great volunteers and aid
stations
·
The course Profile:
·
I had a really solid race and was 3rd
overall (but need to give credit to Mario, if he hadn’t crashed and sprained
his ankle in the last few miles he would have been ahead of me and was fighting
for the win)
·
I was excited to get to run with the leaders for
a few miles in the middle of the race
·
My downhill running has gotten drastically
better
·
I got attacked and knocked to the ground by a
dog. Luckily it didn’t bite me and we both walked away OK (only a bit scared).
After a
quick shower we headed to Dundee, OR for a few wine tastings. We ended up a
Lange & Erath (both have great Pinot’s). We hoped to visit more but it was
already 5p and everybody was closed for Easter on Sunday. We drove back to
Troutdale and got some dinner in downtown Gresham. Not sure if anybody knows
it, but Gresham actually has a lot more than strip malls. It has a super cool
downtown with good restaurants and brew pubs. I’d seriously recommend it.
Sunday morning was spent exploring Portland neighborhoods and shopping for
stuff you can’t easily find in Bend.
Overall, I’d
really recommend doing a full weekend around this race. Because it is a ‘short’
50K you are not totally wasted and can enjoy the many things the Columbia river
gorge and Portland have to offer. You can stay in Hood River or Troutdale and
really get a good Oregon vacation.
About me…
I’m 30 years old. I’m lucky to have Stephanie Howe as my running partner and
girlfriend. In case you didn’t know, she won the PPP and is sort of a big deal.
I’m still semi-new to running but very
experienced at racing. My background is cross country ski racing. I moved to
Bend in 2006 to join the XC-Oregon Ski team. I’ve since ‘retired’ from ski
racing but can’t stay away from the start line. I work for a software company
here in town called Tech Soft 3D managing sales in the western US and Asia. In
the past 3 years of being a runner I’ve done four 50K’s, three 50milers and one
100K. I’m looking forward to my first 100Miler.
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