Condor 25k Trail Race Review and Results

Sorry, I'm a little late on this, but I've had a tough couple days since the race...as I'll explain.

So the Condor 25k. The inaugural running of the Condor 25k, in fact. A little trail race in McDonald Forest outside of Corvallis, in memory of longtime Corvallis trail runner Dave Bateham.

I was supposed to do a 16 mile run for my marathon training over the weekend anyway, so I figured, why not sign up for a 15.5 miler on the trails? So I did.

In retrospect...

Anyhoo, I had to transport myself over to McDonald Forest, since Payton had a Cross Country race at noon over in Albany...and he took the whole support crew with him! I got there plenty early, sat around for a bit, then went outside to see that the Honey Bucket line was huge.

So I wandered off into the forest for a little private time. By time I had taken care of business and got back to the start, it was only about 4 minutes to race time. I punched the start button on the old Garmin watch and hoped for the best.

Nope.

They started a little early and I was still acquiring satellites. What are you going to do? I took off, hoping my watch would click in, even though it never does once you start running...and are going through a dense forest.

Damn.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I was getting over a cold. I had taken some cold meds, but my nose was running like a faucet.

So the first couple miles were up, up, and up. I felt pretty good though. We started to head down at about two miles. I was basically doing three things: running, wiping my nose and checking to see if my watch had hooked on.

That's when I rolled my ankle.

Of course I did. I was barely even looking where I was going. I was staring at my watch and my Kleenex instead. Stupid. It was one of those where your foot turns way over and you limp for about five or ten strides and think, "yeah, I can keep running," and then you think, "yeah, this is really going to hurt later."

And it does.

But I digress. The important part of the story here is that I kept running. And I turned my watch off, because it just wasn't happening...and I didn't want to turn the other ankle.

So I've got no running stats. No pace. No elevation. No nothin'.

Here's what the course looked like, according to the race directors, one of the last honest professions...

There were a lot of hills, I can attest to that. Strangely enough, with my ankle hurting, the uphills were actually easiest on my foot. The downhills and right turns were murder. I minced down a number of downhills that I should have been flying down. Ah well...

I got through about ten miles feeling pretty good. Then I hit a bit of a wall. I had already been running by myself for a long, long time. No one in front and no one passing me. But then, just as I felt I was running out of gas, I started passing people. Obviously, some other folks were hitting the wall as well. I went by six or seven people in the last few miles, which is always fun. Then at the 15.4 mark, I got caught! I was just mailing it in at that point, waiting for the finish line. A women came up on me and said, "I've been chasing after that hat for five miles." Well, hell...I guess that's what I get for wearing my OSU hat. She went by and I was happy to let her finish in front - she beat me by one second. Nice job, Erika.

Here are the results if you're interested.

I finished in 2:30:37. Good enough for me. Unfortunately, now I have this ankle that's twice the size of my other ankle. Not good. Maybe I should have just run my regular old long training run on the bike paths. Boring...but safe.

Oh, and the delay on the review? Not only have I been fighting the ankle...I had a root canal today too! Woe is me.

Here's the shirt. It's awesome.

Check out that condor. I love the condor! And the back is awesome as well.

A great tribute shirt for Dave Bateham. And a pretty good race...hopefully, I'll be healed up for the 2nd annual race!

Photos by Clem LaCava right here.