Forest Park 50K - Portland, OR - May 2010

My first Ultra! What convinced me to sign up for such an event?! Here's the quick background...

After moving to the Portland Area, making friends was one of the things on my To Do list. So my search for friends came easiest with the running community. Through the group runs at Foot Traffic, I met some crazy people and heard some great stories! Such as, one of the guys I ran with had finished the Leadville 100! (A 100 mile race in the Rocky Mountain air is as tough as it gets, for most). The more I went to these group runs, the more I heard about the different races near Portland. One of those races being the Forest Park 50K. After some ultra encouragement from my friend Chris, I jumped in and signed up for my first Ultra!

Forest Park 50K

So there I was, warming up at the start of the Forest Park 50K. Shoe of choice, Columbia Ravenous. Food of choice, Dave's Killer Bread con Peanut Butter. Underwear of choice, None.......just kidding! The race started with a gradual uphill that lasted 4 miles or so. The 50K group started at the same time as the 20K group, so it was hard to tell which person was running which race...this made it hard to pace with anybody! Being my first ultra (and a hilly one, for me at least), I played the conservative game. Steady as she goes!

After the 20K runners reached their turnaround, the trail became less crowded and MUCH more peaceful. As soon as I felt alone on the trail, I began singing danger music and using my water bottle as a gun (I watched Predator the night before the race). The trail was amongst 2nd-growth forest greenery, completely hidden from city everything. The twists, turns, drops, and small climbs were so much fun, and the race became more of a meditative run. The meditation part came in the form of turning off the mind and focusing solely on foot placement on the dirt path...step step step step ZEN. Way different than any road race I had run before, especially since I was running mostly by myself.

The aid stations were phenomenal, stocked with gummi bears, PB&J sandwiches, pretzels, M&Ms, fruit, water, and some electrolyte beverage! Marathons mainly have GU energy gel for food, so the added variety seemed like a high class snack buffet. I mainly picked the red gummi bears and chased them down with a quarter PB&J. In between the aid stations, it was all about the GUs.

After the halfway point, my calves felt tight (moo), and my hamstrings were feeling a bit strained. I was able to keep a steady pace through the homestretch, passing 3 manly men and getting passed by nobody. The last 4 miles were all downhill, and I surprisingly was able to bomb the downhill with a ferocious pace! The last mile felt like a 6:00 pace as I sailed past another runner and finished strong.

Results:     5:01:13, 14 out of 86 finishers

Pace:     9:43 min/mile

Afterward, I stayed and talked with runners for hours while eating cookies, chili, and whatever else sounded good at the time. My legs felt a bit jostled (including a tight right IT band), but overall everything was still working fine! My feet had no issues, and my Columbia Shoes served me well.

Lessons learned: Running a trail 50K was much more enjoyable than a balls-to-the-walls road marathon. It's amazing how far you can run with relative ease if you slow down enough to enjoy the scenery.