Happy Valley 10k and 5k - Race Report, Results and Photos

Looking for some hill work? Have I got the race for you!

But first, here are the particulars:

Need to see the results? They're right here and/or right here.

Want to see photos of yourself all sweaty and sad-looking? Jake Egbert Photography took care of that for you right here and here.

So, the race.

Well, after the illness and subpar performance at the Corvallis Half, I wanted to get something on the schedule fairly quickly just to keep my training momentum going. And while it was a bit of a drive, Happy Valley is just outside of Portland, the date was about right, so I signed up for this one. Definitely sight unseen. Unfortunately.

As I drove into the Happy Valley area, I noticed immediately that there may be a problem. There's no valley. It should really have been named Happy Hills. I mean, I'm not a stickler for detail, but come on.



Yep, that chart that looks like waves on the open sea? That's the elevation profile. It was actually a 5k loop and the 10k ran it twice, so that's why the halves look very similar.

Anyway, the race started at Happy Valley Elementary and the packet pickup was inside the school. Indoor bathrooms...yes! So after a quick pitstop, about 50 of us 10k runners and around 250 5k runners toed the start line and were off! Well, actually, it was more like, we...were...off... Yes, we started right uphill. No messing around with a flat start, let's just get this thing headed uphill.



As you can see on the map, it was a quick uphill jaunt on King, then a left on 146th. That was a pretty good downhill most of the way, then slightly uphill at the end before we turned onto Ridgecrest. Then some zags and a hill through a neighborhood section and back to Ridgecrest. Then a odd little loop into Happy Valley Park. Downhill going into the park and uphill coming out. Once we took the left back onto Ridgecrest, we got the most brutal uphill of the course, all the way to 132nd. Just had to grind it. Once on to 132nd, it was a pretty good downhill almost all the way back to King. Then another left with some down, then up and we're back to the start and the 2nd lap.



Not sure how, but I kept a very even pace through the first three miles, at 8:10, 8:08 and 8:09. Once we dropped all the 5k runners, I had a bit of a lapse in concentration and dropped to an 8:23, but picked it back up for an 8:07 on mile five. Mile six was sort of slow at 8:23, big hill, then finished it up at about the same pace. Averaged 8:14 overall. Not great, but an improvement over my horrid pace at the Corvallis Half.



Not real happy that my Garmin read 6.44 miles at the end. I realize that kind of course can add a bit to the total mileage, but an extra quarter mile is a LOT of extra running. That's two minutes added to my time. Nope, not happy about that, Happy Valley.

Good cinnamon chip bread from Great Harvest at the finish and some amazaballs bundt cake mini things that were fantastic! I think those were from this place - check them out!

Shirts were pretty cool. They had both tech and cotton, but luckily I grabbed a tech shirt before they ran out.



So there you have it. Not a bad race. Good organization and low-key, but so, so hilly. Probably would not run it again. Now I need to find one or two more of the 10k variety before my next goal half: the Eugene Half Marathon at the end of July.

Corvallis Half Marathon Report and Results

Yeah, I was in about nine pictures, but not a single one was a decent shot. Ah well...when your best photo is the one where you're directly blocked by some guy without a shirt that should never be without a shirt, well...

Here are the free photos if you'd like to look through them.

And note, that I was wearing my AWESOME Blerch shirt from The Oatmeal. "I believe in the Blerch!"

OK, Corvallis Half Marathon. Let's discuss. Actually, let's discuss the week heading to the race.

So last Wednesday, Jen came down with a pretty bad case of the flu. Vomiting, diarrhea, the works. I, of course, teased her about it being great prep for the Half. Yes, foreshadowing.

Fast forward to Friday morning. I wake up with an upset stomach, but not feeling too bad otherwise. Yep, I’ve got the runs too. Oh boy. I still don’t feel awful though. So I’m shaving to get ready for work and am about to get into the shower when I suddenly feel like I’m going to throw up. I mean, it hit me out of nowhere. Super-fast. Sweat on my forehead – the whole works immediately. So I get down on the floor by the toilet and…

Yeah, I’m not sure if you know this about me or not, but when I’m really sick or dehydrated, I pass out. I’ve fainted probably a dozen times in my life, usually when I’ve got the flu or something similar.

…so I come to, and I’m not joking here, wedged in between the bathtub and the toilet with my face resting on the toilet plunger like it’s a pillow. And lord, I know where that thing’s been! Anyway, when I come out of a faint like that, it always takes a good few minutes just to remember where I am and what the hell is going on. But it eventually comes to me: I’m sick, I passed out, I should get my face off the plunger. Oh, and I’ll spare you the details, but did you know that some bodily functions, like vomiting and diarrhea, don’t necessarily stop when you’re passed out? Yeah, the bathroom and I were a god-awful mess.

So I get in the shower just to get cleaned up. Stumble downstairs and get into the floor of the bathroom down there…and proceed to do the whole damn thing over again. Vomit, pass out, diarrhea…in various combinations. I think Jen ended up doing about four loads of laundry just from me that day.

So after about two hours of this, I felt a little better and moved out to the couch. Since I weigh myself every day, I realized the next day that I had lost seven pounds in basically two hours!

So yeah, that was two days before the race. Saturday I felt about 60-70% back to normal and I figured I’d walk the damn Half if I had to – I wasn’t going to just skip it. Sunday, I was up to maybe 80% health. The problem was the illness and the weight loss just took the starch out of me. At about 8 miles, my legs were just jelly. There was an ambulance taking a girl off the course at about mile 12 (it was probably due to the heat – it was pretty warm) and I thought “there but for the grace of God go I.”

Yeah, so that's the short version about why I ran a 1:58 instead of a 1:45 or so that I think I was capable of.

If you're looking for results, check here or here.

For non-free photos, head over here or here.

There was a fair bit of controversy about the new logo for the race. Most people didn't like it. They did clean the final version up a bit and the logo on the shirts actually doesn't look too bad.



Sorry, didn't get a very clear shot on that one. Let's try again.



And the back.



It's one of those races where they give you a "finisher" shirt before you actually run the race. That's OK. I still ran it, even though the temptation was pretty strong.

They also tossed in a decent pair of racing socks with the logo, but I forgot to get a picture of the socks. Sorry about that.

The medal isn't too bad. Better looking than the previous few years, for sure.



So that's that. A very slow Corvallis Half. No biggie. I plan to be in shape - and NOT sick - for the Eugene Half on July 27th. Looking for a PR there.

See you then.

Running and Workout Totals for 2013!

First, let's take a quick look back at where we ended 2012. I ended 2012 with exactly 1500 miles on the roads (and treadmills). That was after a 1000 mile effort in 2011. Since I finished 2012 with a bad ankle injury, I figured I'd probably be able to hit around 2000 miles in 2013. Didn't happen...

However! I did improve...slightly. The running mileage for 2013 was 1519.45 miles. Hey, we're improving! But here's the sad part. From January through August in 2013, I ran 1243.40 miles, an average of 155.425 miles per month. If I would have kept on that pace, I would have hit around 1850 miles for the year. Unfortunately, I had a bad rib injury on October 20th and the rest of the year was basically a wash. I'm just now starting to feel like myself again...only I'm about 15 pounds heavier than I was in the summer.

So let's move forward. For 2014, I have no big marathon plans, but I'm looking to set PR's in the Half and the 10k, so let's get on it.

First race up: the Corvallis Half Marathon in April.

Corvallis Half Marathon Race Review and Results 2013

The leaders at 2.5 miles in...all by themselves already.


All righty, then!

If you're just looking for the results for the Corvallis Half, here they are.

And if you need a race review, well hey, I've got one of those too.

So waking up this morning, and seeing that it was 38 stinking degrees! did not make me that happy, especially since it was raining as well. It had all the makings of a cold, wet day. Eek.

So I headed to OSU for the start and wandered over to my office to prepare in the indoor warmth. Advantage: me. I thought about wearing my new Mizuno running shoes for the race, but my longest run in them so far was about 4 miles and I just couldn't pull the trigger. So I ended up wearing my old Nike Pegasus Trail shoes - a shoe that I've never been super happy with, but one that I've used on 13+ mile runs.

I stayed in the warmth of my office and just ran up and down the hall a few times to warm up. At about 15 minutes before the start, I headed out and jogged over to the start line - about a 100 yards from my office. Nice.

With very little preamble, we had a 3-2-1 countdown and were off. The weather actually wasn't too bad at that point; no rain and cold, but not horrible. I wore a long sleeve tech shirt and gloves (the gloves as much to wipe my nose as anything else...hayfever).

I hit the first two miles at:
-7:59 / mile one
-7:52 / mile two



That's me in the backwards OSU hat, keeping the non-existent sunshine off my easily-burned head.

When I ran the Corvallis Half last year, and set my PR, I was running about a 7:50 pace. This year, however, I'm about 10 pounds heavier (I'm working on it) and knew I didn't have much of a chance of a PR. Which is probably OK, since I didn't go out too fast like I usually do...and didn't suffer at the end of the race like I usually do.

At the water stop at 2.5 miles in, I said "hi" to Carson and her Girls on the Run buds.



The next three miles were a touch up and down as we ran through the Bald Hill area and my splits looked like this:
-8:00 / mile three
-8:15 / mile four
-8:21 / mile five

I was actually feeling pretty good. I wasn't trying to push it at all - I didn't think I had the fitness for that - just keeping within myself and trying to stay steady.

We hit a nice downhill on the next couple miles as we came out of the park and onto Oak Creek:
-8:04 / mile six
-8:02 / mile seven

Then the uphill as we turned onto 53rd to head to Walnut. Definitely the toughest section of the course. Not too steep, but a fairly long, steady climb. Takes some concentration here to keep pace. My slowest mile:
-8:35 / mile eight



Then the nice downhill right afterward:
-7:58 / mile nine
-8:04 / mile ten

I was starting to wear down a little bit here, but still felt pretty good. Of course, then a woman that had to be five or six months pregnant went by me pretty easily. That's not good for the old ego.
-8:18 / mile eleven
-8:26 / mile twelve

You can always tell the first timers on the course right about here. Reser Stadium is right there in front of you and you can see a few people speed up, thinking they're coming in for a landing. Sorry, but then they turn you back away from Reser for a mile+ trip around the campus for a bit. I saw at least two guys stop and walk as soon as we turned away from the Stadium.

Strangely, I was starting to get cold here again, after warming up during the middle miles of the race. I guess I should have been running faster.

I speeded up just a touch as I started to smell the barn:
-8:17 / mile thirteen
-7:30 / last tenth

The finish in Reser is always fun, although I'm not sure how those football players run so fast on that turf. It's not that easy to run on.

So I came with a 1:46:54, about four minutes slower than my PR. Considering the shape I'm in, or not in, at the moment, I'm happy enough with that. That got me 272nd place out of 1487 overall, and 17th out of 67th in my age group. And 2nd, apparently, in the grouping of me and pregnant women. Well, I hope 2nd...it could be worse than that, I guess.

The shirt is actually better looking than the first two years and the finisher's medal was nicer-looking as well. Way to go, Tyler!



Now I need to figure out what races I'm doing for the rest of the year!

Corvallis Half Marathon - Done!

1:46:54

Results and race review in a bit.

Half Marathon Training Plan - Week Nine

Well, this is the week. The Corvallis Half Marathon is on Sunday. My predictions for the race? Well...

-I looked at my running journal from last year and I'm about 10 pounds heavier than I was for the Corvallis Half in 2012. Not a great sign. I've been slowly losing weight after a tough winter healing my ankle, but the old body just doesn't shape up as quickly as it used to.

-Shoes! Argghhhh! Since Nike went and ruined the Pegasus, I just CANNOT find a shoe that I'm happy with. I've gone through a number of shoes and brands lately and can't seem to come up with something that makes my feet happy.

-Weather forecast for Sunday looks maybe OK, maybe damp. Shouldn't be too hot, for sure. Let's hope for clouds and no rain.

So...I don't have super-high expectations. But maybe that's good, really. I'll go into it not expecting a PR, I'll just run easy, and take it as it comes. There's always another race coming up soon, right?

Here's what I have to look forward to this week (with the proviso that on the last week before a longish race, I always try to judge how my body is feeling toward the end of the week and back off if needed - I want to feel fresh and not at all sore when lining up on the start line):

-Monday

--Rest

-Tuesday

--1m warmup
--6 x .25m at 7:45 pace
--1m cool down

-Wednesday

--3m at 7:50 pace

-Thursday

--1m warmup
--.25m at 7:45 pacs
--.25m at 7:45 pace
--.15m at 7:30 pace
--.15m at 7:30 pace
--1m cooldown

-Friday

--Rest

-Saturday

--3m easy

-Sunday

--Corvallis Half Marathon

Half Marathon Training Plan - Week Eight

Only two weeks until the Corvallis Half now. Last full week of workouts this week, then a slight taper next week heading into the race on Sunday morning.

Here's what I have to look forward to this week:

-Monday

--Rest

-Tuesday

--1m warmup
--.75m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:30 pace
--6 x .15m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:30 pace
--1m cool down

-Wednesday

--1m warmup
--3m at 7:45 pace
--1m cooldown

-Thursday

--7m at 8:15 pace

-Friday

--Rest

-Saturday

--6m at 8:00 pace
--6 x 100m strides

-Sunday

--10m at 9:00 pace

Half Marathon Training Plan - Week Seven

We're getting close now. Only three weeks until the Corvallis Half. I actually felt pretty good during my long run yesterday...well, longish. It was a recovery week, so... Come to think of it, maybe that's why I felt pretty good.

Here's what I have to look forward to this week:

-Monday

--Rest

-Tuesday

--1m warmup
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:40 pace
--2.0m at 7:50 pace
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:40 pace
--2.0m at 7:50 pace
--1m cool down

-Wednesday

--1m warmup
--3m at 7:45 pace
--1m cooldown

-Thursday

--6m at 8:15 pace

-Friday

--Rest

-Saturday

--6m at 8:00 pace
--6 x 100m strides

-Sunday

--14m at 9:00 pace

Half Marathon Training Plan - Week Six

I'm feeling like I'm not getting in half-marathon-shape quickly enough. The Corvallis Half is coming up really, really fast on April 14th. But at this point, what can you do but stick to the program and hope the body starts shaping up soon?

Here is the workout plan for this week:

-Monday

--Rest

-Tuesday

--1m warmup
--.75m at 7:45 pace
--.10m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:45 pace
--.10m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:45 pace
--.10m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:45 pace
--.10m at 7:30 pace
--1m cool down

-Wednesday

--5m at 8:30 pace

-Thursday

--1m warm up
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.50m at 7:30 pace
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.50m at 7:30 pace
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--1m cool down

-Friday

--Rest

-Saturday

--6m at 8:00 pace

-Sunday

--12m at 9:00 pace

Half Marathon Workouts - Week Five

So I'm in Week Five of nine, getting ready for the Corvallis Half Marathon on April 14th. It's Tuesday, and my legs are still sore from my long run on Sunday...not a good way to start week five.

Here is the workout plan for this week:

-Monday
--Rest

-Tuesday
--1m warmup
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:45 pace
--1.50m at 8:00 pace
--.25m at 7:30 pace
--.75m at 7:45 pace
--1.50m at 8:00 pace
--1m cool down

-Wednesday
--4m at 8:30 pace

-Thursday
--6m total, alternating 3:00 min at 7:45 pace with 1:00 min jog

-Friday
--Rest

-Saturday
--6m at 8:30 pace
--6 x 100yard strides

-Sunday
--14m at 9:00 pace

Here goes nothing...

Today's Half Marathon Workout - Week Four

OK, so I'm in Week Four of a nine-week half marathon program. Getting ready for the Corvallis Half Marathon on April 14th.

My first three weeks have been like this: 42 miles, 43 miles and 30 miles. Week four will be 42 miles total again.

So today's workout is 6 miles, alternating 3:00 minutes at my 10k pace, which is around 7:30, with 1:00 minute jogs.

Sounds interesting.

The 2012 Race Schedule - PR's or Bust!

Well, after the pain and misery that was the Newport Marathon, I had to take a couple weeks to get my head straight, but I think I'm back in the right frame of mind. I'm ready to race again. I'm actually feeling sort of fast and frisky.

So let's set the remaining 2012 race sched!

Strangely enough, and I didn't plan it this way, I'm looking at five races for the rest of 2012...and they just line up in perfect order from short to long: 5k, 8k, 10k, Half Marathon, and finally, Full Marathon.

And don't forget the PR portion of this plan. It's all about the PR! About the only advantage of being an old man like me is being able to shoot for all-time PR's...but if you miss those, being able to shoot for your Master's PR's! Unfortunately for me, a LOT of my Master's PR's are my all-time PR's. Ack!

Let's run it down!

5k - July 4, 2012
All-Time PR: 19:59
Master's PR: 23:11

This one is coming up fast. Next Wednesday, on Independence Day, Corvallis has one of the most low-key 5k races you'll ever find. Four bucks and you're in! I don't have a chance in hell of setting my all-time PR here. I haven't completely given up on that yet, but I'm not in that kind of shape right now. I do think I can lower my Master's PR however. One concern: I ran this race last year and had a HORRIBLE race. Considering I run this route about once a week, I really should have no excuses here.

8k - July 28, 2012
All-Time PR: 37:40
Master's PR: 47:02

Ten minutes difference between the two PR's! Crazy, right? Well, there is a reason behind that. The only 8k I've run since I been back in decent shape these last couple years was the Run for the Hills 8k...trail run. And yes, it had some serious hills! But this year, we're going back in time and revisiting a race that me and my brother used to run every year, back in the day! The Seafair Torchlight 8k! Back in Seattle, baby. And yes, I see a Master's PR. All-time? Maybe.

10k - September 23, 2012
All-Time PR: 48:57
Master's PR: 48:57

Both PR's were set last year at the Fall Festival 10k in Corvallis and that's where I'll be running this year as well. Hey, it's flat, it's fast, and it's on trails and roads that I run every single week in Corvallis. PR? Yes, I think so.

Half Marathon - October 27, 2012
All-time PR: 1:42:24
Master's PR: 1:42:24

Well, both PR's were just set a few months back at the Corvallis Half. That course is fairly flat and pretty fast. And familiar. The Runaway Pumpkin Half in Lebanon? Don't know. It's in it's second year, and I didn't run it last year. PR? Well, I ain't gonna run it and not try to PR, right?

Marathon - December 2, 2012
All-time PR: 4:12:55
Master's PR: 4:12:55

We're not even going to talk about Boston before this one. I've learned my lesson there. But PR. Oh yeah, me and the CIM are going to PR. You heard it here first.

So that's the rest of the year. Looks good.

Let's do it.

Boston Marathon 2012 Heat Test

I realize the rest of the country has been suffering from a heat wave for weeks now, but this weekend was truly the first time this year that Corvallis has had hot weather.

Unfortunately, I needed to do a long run today. After last week's Corvallis Half Marathon, I had taken five days off to rest my legs and my ouchy oblique muscle. But I couldn't stall any longer, so I did a short six-miler in the heat yesterday and had a 20-miler scheduled for today.

As soon as I woke up this morning, I knew I had to get cracking - at 7:00am, the sun was already blazing into our bedroom window. I jumped into my shoes, had a quick Clif Bar and got going just after 8:00 to try to beat the heat, but...

As an aside, while understanding that the Boston Marathon folks had it tough last week in the heat, I must admit I sort of felt, "just suck it up and run already." This is called "foreshadowing."

So I took off and felt pretty good for the first seven or eight miles. It was still fairly cool and the sun wasn't high enough in the sky to worry about - still lots of shade. Still, I had gone through my water bottle and had to fill it up again at Dixon on the OSU Campus during mile eleven.

Then, the second half of the run...

As you can see by my pace times, it got hot. There was no shade anywhere. All the uphill sections were in the second half. And I ran out of water completely around mile 17. I was starting to feel a little queasy right around then - probably not a surprise since I was out of water. I was close to home though, so I figured I'd just keep struggling toward home. Stopped at a stop light during mile 18, I was feeling really light-headed. Oh boy...

As you can see by my pace, I had started walking, a lot, by then, but I was still feeling terrible. I limped home, grabbed three glasses of ice water and sat on the floor of the living room for about 20 minutes. I felt awful. Then I went to take a shower and had to sit on the side of the tub for a minute to clear my head. It was almost an hour later before I started to feel almost back to normal. Oof.

Which is all a long way to say, "Yeah, it's hard to run in the heat, and I have a lot of respect for all those people that made it through the heat in Boston last week. Congratulations on a great run."

Corvallis Half Marathon Race Review!

Yep, the 2nd Annual Corvallis Half Marathon is in the books. Check out the results right here and/or here.

So the race...the day started out just about perfect. Light cloud cover, temp at the start right around fifty degrees and absolutely no wind. Perfect. They were calling for 2000 runners, but it sure didn't seem like that at the start line - it was very thin towards the front of the starting chute. I guess everyone wanted to be in the back of the line. Whatever.

So the OSU band played the National Anthem, nice touch, and we were off!

Did I have a solid plan coming into this race? Yeah, not so much. I wasn't positive how I wanted to run this Half. A few weeks back, I was running very well...felt good, felt strong. Then I pulled something in my side, maybe an oblique. The last couple of weeks have not been as good. I've been cutting runs short, skipping days, just not hitting on all cylinders. So I thought I better go out conservatively, maybe try for an 8:15 for the first few miles, at the very fastest. The problem was my brain was having trouble communicating with my legs. I could not, could not, slow down enough in the first mile. I checked the Garmin...7:35 pace. Holy crap! Slow down! Checked it again a minute later...7:38. Are you kidding me? I totally put on the brakes and finished the first mile with a 7:54. OK. I mean, I know I can handle that kind of pace for five, six, seven miles, but for 13.1? Not sure. Slow down. Now!

Nope. Second mile...7:46. Nope again, third mile...7:46 again. Yowza. OK, I was getting past the point of this even mattering. I mean, I was already 25% into the race, might as well just run it now. If I died at the end, then there you go.

At least a couple slight uphills in miles four and five kept me slightly above 8:00 pace, with an 8:00 and a 8:03. And a slight downhill in miles six and seven, I kicked it back up to 7:43 and 7:42. I was feeling pretty good and was almost ready to stop worrying about my pace. But not quite. See, mile eight was the long, slow uphill. That was the only worry left. If I could get through that mile at a decent clip, I'd feel pretty good about the rest of the race.

Oof, long, slow, uphills. Not my favorite. But I got through it at 8:14. Good enough. Just a couple very short hills after that - almost all flat or downhill on the last five miles. The sun came out on and off to warm up the situation, but how can I complain about that? I've been waiting for sunshine for months! Bring it!

I got through mile nine at 7:35 - lots of downhill there. Miles ten, eleven and twelve came in at 7:49, 7:48 and 7:54. I was starting to feel it a little bit - my legs were wearing down. But I reminded myself that I was on pace to absolutely crush my Half Marathon PR and that kept me chugging along. Actually passed a few people that were crashing harder than I was during mile thirteen, a 7:46, and brought the last tenth home with a 7:05 pace. Considering they run you down into the stadium on an asphalt ramp that's at about a 15% slope, I'm surprised I didn't slide through the finish line on my face - my legs barely kept up with me going down that hill.

Came across the 50 yard line in Reser Stadium at 1:42:24. That was good for 175th overall (out of 1634), and 10th in my age division (out of 60). But that's just the frosting.

The cake was the 1:42:24 was a nine-minute plus PR of a Half time I ran way back in 2004. And my 2012 Corvallis Half finish time was a full 14 minutes faster than my 2011 finish time! I'm feeling pretty good about that.

But is it Boston worthy? Well, that's the big question, right? After all the hemming and hawing, the 7:50 pace was exactly the pace I'd need to run in Newport to qualify for Boston. So that's good. But clearly, the pace I can run for 13.1 does not exactly transfer straight across to 26.2. The pace conversion at Runner's World grades me up to a 3:33:24 marathon time. Which is about ten minutes faster than my last approximation, but not quite up to the 3:25:00 I need for a BQ.

Ah well, I needed something to work on for the next six weeks anyway.

Photos by Jen Lommers - thanks!

169

Corvallis Half Marathon Results!

Here they are!

Race report coming soon.

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Corvallis Half Marathon in 40 minutes...

Just sitting in my office at OSU, about 100 yards from the start line of the Corvallis Half Marathon.

Psyching myself up with a little Radiohead live at the Grammy's with 15 Step!

Be back later today with a race report. Wish me luck.

Let's race!

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Beaver Freezer Triathlon 2012 Results!

Here they are!

And here they are!

And Steve Hatten - go run your 3rd lap!

Wow, what great weather for the race - let's hope we get the same thing next Sunday at the Corvallis Half.

Congrats to everyone that raced the Freezer!

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Corvallis Half Marathon Elevation Profile

If you haven't registered for the Corvallis Half yet, you better get on it. It's not sold out, but it's close, so head on over here and get registered.

Up above there is the course and elevation - click on it to make it big and beautiful. Pretty flat except for the slog up Walnut to Martin Luther King Jr. Park between mile seven and eight. That's sort of a drag. But it's downhill after that, so you can push hard for home after you hit mile eight.

And here's a PDF of the map of the course from the RD, if you're interested.

We're less than two weeks away.

Ready or not, here we come!

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New RaceCenter NW Magazine Article is Out!

And it's about streaking!

Keep your pants on, it's not about that kind of streaking. No really, keep your pants on. This is a family blog here! Well...sometimes....

Anyway, let's start at the beginning. I've got a new article in the April/May issue of RaceCenter NW. If you're heading to your local running store soon, pick one up. If you're one of those people that likes to get all techie on us, then head over here for the fully digital version. And over here for all the digital versions of issues from the last year or so.

So let's flip through the pages here and see if there's anything to see.

OK, on the cover, we've got the Eugene Marathon. "Track Town." Sure, I guess. Then the Editor's Note. Brook talks about "humble pie," and how runners love to get a serving, or not. I'm not sure, I was sort of hungry when I read it and he kept talking about pie, and...

Next, we've got the News Briefs: Foot Traffic opens another store in Portland, ClubSport has new tech and Warrior Dash has three events in the NW in 2012. Good, good.

Oh wait, there are more Briefs: Vancouver USA Marathon news, Heaven Can Wait 5k rolls into Bend, Spokane to Sandpoint Relay, and the Germans Love Them Some Portland Marathon. Also good and very nice.

Holy smokes, more Briefs: Marathon keeps growing in the US, and Cherry Blossom Fitness Festival debuts in The Dalles....and I turned the page and there's still more...Blue Lake Tri hits 29 years, Bike MS hits Willamette Valley, and Baker City gets a Cycling Classic. Whew.

Then we've got an article from my boy Max King. Max, who recently missed a turn in the Chuckanut 50k, talks Acclimation 101 on heat and altitude. Good stuff.

Donna Marlor, who has all sorts of initials and stuff after her name, writes about Fluids, Electrolytes and Optimal Race Performance. See, if you've got the RD and the CSSD and the MD and the PhD and things like that, you get to use four-syllable words in your article title. I, personally, try to stick to one syllable: Go. Streak. Yay! I don't like to confuse people right off the bat.

Then we've got USATF stuff.

Then a good article from Jeff Browning on running your first trail 50k. And it's got a big picture of R's Fav Jenn Shelton right at the front, so you know it's got to be good reading.

Next is an article from tri stud Chris Bagg about not feeling bad when you're a loser. I've seen that guy race and I'm not sure he's the right guy to write that article - he's faster than hell. When you title an article "Surviving Disappointment," you probably should hire me to write it.

Then Teague Hatfield talks about the "offset" of running shoes. This is a touchy subject for me because I like shoes with a decent sized offset between the heel and toe, but this whole minimalism craze is driving the shoe makers to shrink the offset down. It's the reason I no longer run in the Nike Max Moto.

Then, THEN, we've got a great article from the R's about Streaking and Running. In other words, running lots of consecutive days or consecutive races. Fantastical article - you'll love it, I'm sure.

After that, an article with two of my favorite Oregon runners featured, Lauren Fleshman and Kara Goucher, talking about their Olympic plans.

Brian Burk talks about swimming in open water - one of my favorite activities, but still something that stops plenty of people from even trying outdoor tris.

Then Event Calendar and Ads and we're done. All in all, a very good issue. Quite a few articles that I'd read all the way through in this one, and trust me, with my attention span, that's saying something.

169

Race T-Shirt Review - Corvallis Half Marathon

Hey, it's the first tech shirt of the year!

The Corvallis Half Marathon brings out a high-quality Sporthill tech running shirt. Nice gray color - I like that. Gray goes with just about anything. The design? Meh. It's not too exciting, that's for sure. I like the Roman numerals - that's cool. The orange color of the design is good, but hopefully they'll jazz up the logo just a bit next year. As this was the inaugural running of the Corvallis Half, word was most things were done, necessarily, on the cheap. Since they sold out this year, with 1800 runners, perhaps they'll use a little money to get a nice shirt design next year.

The shirt itself is sized a bit small. Now, if you're cut like the R's...um...where was I going with that? Anyway, if you're in great shape, it's fine. If you're a barely-sub-two-hour half marathon runner like, well like me, then it's cut a little small. Too bad.

The back? Lots of ads again. A little better look than the last few shirts we've reviewed, but nothing spectacular.

The medal? Well, it's a medal. Again, it's pretty plain. No color. Square. Again, it's average.

Overall? Solid, but with lots of room to improve for next year.

Grade: B