Pacific Crest

Saturday morning dawned dark and dreary...

It was dumping rain when Tyler's dad, Larry, and I sojourned out at 6 a.m. to the Athlete's Village to pick up my packet for the race. They were sadly unorganized — surprising considering the plethora of events that were going on this weekend for this particular event (including but not limited to a half marathon, a Boston-qualifier full marathon, a triathlon, a duathlon, and a bike race) — and had me fill out a waiver that I'd already completed online and then said nothing about my finisher's shirt and other goodies (which I managed to snag after I ran).

It was still raining at 7:30 a.m. when Staci, who was also running, and her boyfriend met us at the cabin. There was talk of our support crews abandoning us until the finish line, which earned both significant parties glares and dire threats.

At 7:45 a.m. when we were dropped off at the start, the rain had petered out into a half-hearted sprinkle.

By the time the gun went off at 8 a.m., the rain had stopped completely and valiant rays of sunshine were peeking through the ominous clouds.

Pacific Crest's half marathon course twists and turns through greater Sunriver, OR on luxuriously flat bike paths. Hills on this course are laughable inclines that are noticed only when your pace becomes harder for but a moment. The downside would be if you're running the full marathon: it's a loop. You get to do it twice.

The rain staved off for the entire run and then a bit more before rolling back in.

I kept up with Staci for the first 5.5 miles, we clocked 9:17s and 9:25s before I couldn't maintain any longer and had to let her pull away. Even so, I didn't truly lose sight of her white jacket, pink hat and blonde ponytail until nearly mile 7.

By mile 8, I was hurting and had my first crew sighting. Tyler was at the right place at the right time, and he told me later that he nearly missed me because he thought I was likely further back (which you can hardly blame him for considering I ran this race really fast and based on past performance I ought to have been farther back). He was a little ray of sunshine that kicked my wrecked knees into gear and gave me a boost until mile 9 when I was able to have my snack.

He found me again at 10.5, and I asked him where the rest of the crew was.

"We spread out, they're back there! You're faster than we thought!"

At 11.75, he hailed me once more and gave me the boost I needed to get through until the last tenth of a mile of the race. Larry waited there to cheer me on and right at the finish was the rest of the crew.

My official finish time was 2:05:46.

Only 4 seconds away from a personal record (sorry to those of you who I told it was...I thought it was, but I just double checked. Heather and I did Run Like Hell in October 2010 in 2:05:42).

Pretty damn close though. And 11 minutes faster than the Dirty Half two weeks ago!

It was fun and I'd do it again, if only because it was so blessedly flat.

Ciao,
kc