Tuesday Night Group Run

As some of you may have heard, I was granted the privilege of running the inaugural version of the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40M after being wait listed earlier this month. Since will be my second ultra of the year and first try at a distance above a 50k. I am excited and nervous about this attempt due to my poor performance at the Gorge Waterfalls 50k this past March. I have attempted to gain as much hill training as I could in the past couple of weeks, but it’s hard to gain any real climbing fitness in that short of time. Hopefully my largest base mileage to date will help give me some edge, but my limited number of long runs will definitely not  help the cause.

This past Tuesday I was able to hook up with a friend of a friend from school, Jason Leman, who also competes in ultras, and he informed me that a group of ultra runners meet up every Tuesday in Forest Park at 6pm by the Leif/Thurman gate to do a 7-8 mile group run. I have been looking for a way to plug myself into the ultra community here in Portland, and this meeting looked like a great opportunity to meet some people. So I met up with Jason and this group on Tuesday to get a good training run in and to start introducing myself. I am still trying to learn everyone’s name, but one that I do remember is AmySproston, from the Montrail Ultra Running Team and winner of the Pine toPalm 100M. We chatted briefly about a pair of Montrail's that I am wear testing and how she is looking forward to their release. In the end, it was a great run, and I was able to push myself harder with more accomplished and experienced runners. I will definitely be meeting up with them as often as possible.

Tomorrow, I am briefly heading down to Central Oregon to help my dad’s friend open his lake home for the beginning of the season. My dad’s friend’s camp includes 1 larger cabin with 4 smaller bunk houses located on Lake Billy Chinook. The house runs off solar power and generator power when needed, has no TV, no cell service and no other ppl this time of year. In the summer, the area is occupied by a few other residents. Summer activities include watersports like wakeboarding, waterskiing and tubing, ATV riding and hiking. While the weather may be crummy, I plan to do at least 1 lap of the Tam-a-lau Trail and get some nice desert running. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can stay in the rainshadow of Mt. Hood and stay away from the precipitation, while also getting a much needed change of terrain.

UNT

Bryan