Is this really the only XC race that I have run? I'm not sure why that's the case, but the Assault on Mt. Hood will remain on my annual 'must race' calendar.
Weather conditions were much better this year than last, but, in my opinion, the course was much more challenging. Kevin, Terry, and I warmed up along the course and took note of some of the trickier sections. We ended up making a wrong turn and missing about a mile of the course, but even with just a quick glimpse I knew we were in for a treat.
After finishing up and getting our gear together, we met up with Tom & Carol and made our way towards the starting line. During our pre-race scouting trip, I noticed a few big puddles and muddy sections about a quarter mile into the race - so I made the decision to start off aggressively. When the race director announced "everyone's favorite two letter verb", I made sure I was clear of any out of control kids.
At the first muddy section, I was in 8th or 9th place and felt comfortable with the hard quarter mile push, and as I was hoping - I was able to stay out of the mud without having to rub elbows with anyone. The course began to undulate, and I was heading up a small hill towards the golf course club house. I maintained position here and was able to pick up the pace as we went down and around Second Pond. There was a sharp downhill along a choppy section of paved golf path. There were enough roots and loose rocks that I wasn't comfortable immediately bombing down the hill, but about halfway down I opened up the stride and passed one of the runners ahead of me. I did notice that my shoes had terrible grip on the pavement. At the bottom of the hill, the path took a sharp left turn and I could feel the lack of traction I had.
Some of the middle portions of the race are a bit fuzzy, but once I hit the same downhill that TomD and I bombed down last year - I took the same approach. I was in 4th place and 2nd and 3rd were within shouting distance, so I made the decision to run it hard. I was pretty gassed, but I hauled ass with reckless abandon being sure to stay on the grass just off of the paved golf path...but perhaps I was too reckless! Just as I was nearing the bottom of the hill I hit the breaks pretty hard to turn towards onto a steep and rocky hill. Unfortunately, as I was breaking my left foot slid on the grass, then skidded over a plastic ground covering (probably for watering the green). When my foot hit the grass after the plastic cover, my legs got pulled back a bit by the change in friction and I went ass over tea kettle. Fortunately, I'm quite skilled at falling. Once I knew I was going down, I went with it and turned my shoulder over, rolled/slid on my back, and then popped right back up. Terry had a good view and guessed that I only lost 3 or 4 second. I think the burst of adrenaline helped make up for that lost time.
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| Exiting the single track. with about a mile to go.. |
Going up the hill, I could still see 2nd and 3rd place, but I hadn't made up any noticeable ground. Somewhere around the 2 mile mark I watched them climb a short steep hill and they looked like they might be coming back to me a bit. I was wrong though - that short steep hill was steep enough so that I had to grab at the grass and almost climb versus run. My legs had a tough time getting back to a fast pace after that and then I made my way into the single track. I felt like I was in no man's land at this point, and as I exited the single track I entered the section of the race that likely caused me to fall back to the pack behind me.
It was a very spongy section of grass that lasted probably a third of a mile, and I felt like the ground was just sucking the energy out of my legs. In retrospect, I should have freaking tightened the screws, consequences be damned. Once I got out of that crap I had roughly one mile to go, and the course remained undulating.
With about a half mile to go I finally heard another runner, but unfortunately it was a CRC runner that must have made a hard freaking push. I started to pick up the pace to keep him on my back shoulder, but I think that was likely his plan: catch up and stay on his shoulder. Once we passed the Golf Club house, we went down that short little hill and crossed the pavement. I was a little nervous that black ice had formed as there was a bunch of sand thrown down and a handful of volunteers. This didn't work in my favor as I had to hit the breaks and make sure I didn't wipe out again - the CRC runner was able to see that I crossed with zero safety issues and I think he may have hauled down after me.
We circled the starting line area and made our way up the short hill before the final downhill into the finishing shoot, and I made a hard push to get some breathing room. The move backfired on me though, and CRC stuck to my shoulder and flew past me as we crested the hill. Within the span of 15 feet, he had created a huge gap. Looking back, I wonder if that was all he had and he was hoping I wouldn't surge down the hill...but really, I was pretty cooked. Still, wtf, that sucked. Passed with 200 meters to go and I didn't/couldn't respond.
5th place, a nutcracker, free beer and pasta. Great time.
Results.
