A new kid in town

Yesterday I volunteered at Rainshadow Running's first annual Gorge Waterfalls 50k.  No doubt this will quickly become one of the must do ultras in Oregon.  It seemed to be a tougher race than most of the runners expected.  But everyone had a positive attitude.  

There were only two full aid stations and I worked at the second one at mile 20.  Liz and Kamm were the captains so, of course,  it was a well-run, organized ship.  Due to my habit of getting the water and sports drink mixed up, I volunteered to handle the food table.  It poured rain for a lot of the race, so the challenge was keeping things dry, even with a canopy.  

Highlights of the race included seeing my Portland chick buddys conquer the course and meeting some facebook friends for the first time in real life.  Also, very near the cutoff, a very accomplished maniac was thinking of dropping.  He looked pretty good, but I think the course was just tougher than he expected.  Normally, I think this kind of thing is a personal decision.  But he told me this would be his first dnf.  Since he really did appear to be okay, I told him he needed to keep going.  Just then, the Beast came through.  I told him,  go with the Beast and you'll finish for sure!  So he did and I saw later that he finished.  Yay!

For volunteering, I get a free entry into another Rainshadow race.  I hope I can do the Beacon Rock 50k (or 25k ) in June.  I'm still not running due to my foot.  The pool and I have become close friends.  Next week is Pac Rim One Day.  I'm volunteering and crewing.  Marc is running.  And the Little Guy will appear as mascot once again.