Luke - 12.5

Warning: this post is super-long and somewhat boring.

Ridgeline Ramble 20k

Going into this race I didn't think a win was probable. Looking at previous years' results, I figured I would need a strong showing to have a chance at keeping up my streak of Eugene-area wins. I developed a strategy based on what I thought I would need to do to ensure a win, namely, run a Course Record. The splits for the CR holder (last year's winner) were 44:xx for the first half and 36:xx for the second half, so that's what I was aiming for. I figured if I ran under the old CR I wouldn't be too upset if I didn't win. That time is super-fast, though, so I wasn't quite 100% on my chances of actually running that. Anyway, my strategy to get the win was to hang out in second place, or just anywhere in the lead pack except actually leading, until the turnoff for Spencer's Butte. I had gone up to Spencer's Butte a good number of times this year, so I knew that section of trail pretty well, and the section of trail right after that is down then back up the Fox Hollow hill Zack and I do all the time. So I planned on using my home-field advantage, going balls-out into the lead at that point and killing those three miles, then hopefully holding on for the second half of the race to get the win. At work on Friday, I visualized pretty much the entire race from start to finish, and I was looking forward to seeing how it would actually play out.

I had to leave my house at 6:40am to bike the four miles to the finish in time to catch the shuttle to the start, and my heavy old bike could barely handle the hill I had to go over. But I made it on time, and got on the school bus with seats too small to handle my legs. On the 20-minute drive to the start, I pinned my number on my singlet and attached my chip to my shoe, and talked with my seat-mate, an older woman who had come down from Portland that morning to run. The shuttle was actually a bit late leaving the finish, so we only got to the start about ten minutes before the run was supposed to begin, and I didn't get in line for the bathroom in time so I and about 20-30 others headed into the woods instead. It usually takes a couple miles of warmup for my stomach to get going, and I didn't have that, so I didn't really go much, and I just had to hope I wouldn't get a cramp during the race.

At the starting line I saw Josh Gordon, who was running the relay with his fiancée, and Adam Booth, the guy who had won last year's 10k in a time almost 2 minutes faster than mine, who was also just doing the relay. There was only one runner with a Rogue Valley Runners jersey, and he was an older guy...last year's top two were both RVR guys, and I had somewhat expected there to be a group from there again this year who would contend for the win. There didn't seem to be anyone that stuck out as obviously faster than me.

At the start I tried to hold back somewhat, looking to tuck in behind whoever took the lead (and wasn't in the relay). Adam Booth went to the front and kept up a pretty fast pace heading up the hill into the woods, and he was followed by Josh Gordon. I let the two of them go. A guy in a Gorilla Thrilla shirt came up and got into third, and I remembered seeing him on the bus on the way out, but couldn't remember if his number had the R in front of it that people doing the relay have. He was going pretty fast so I had to work a bit to keep close to him. There were a bunch of switchbacks real early on, so I tried to catch a glimpse of his number when I could. I saw a flash of it a couple times and was pretty sure I saw the R, and was pretty sure I remembered seeing that he was in the relay when I saw him on the bus, so I let him go. At that point I was about 60m in front of the next-place guy. My left shoe came untied and I figured there was a lot of race still ahead of me, so I stopped and tied it. I hit my watch as I stopped and again as I started and my shoe-tying split was eight seconds. I'm so fast. Stopping allowed a couple guys to almost catch me, so I ran at their pace and hoped one of them would pass me to allow me to follow my original plan. I was going pretty slowly but neither of them came any closer. I don't know if they were just keeping the same distance on purpose or if that was the pace they wanted to go. As we came out to the first road crossing, about two miles in, the further-back one (the RVR guy) passed the other, and I slowed way down hoping he would pass me too, but we were just going way too slowly, so I led the two of them into the next section of trail. The point where I planned to take off was a little past halfway through this 2-mile section. We headed up a hill, then headed back down, and as I got to the bottom I heard someone wipe out. I almost stopped, and even put my hand on my watch to press stop, but caught myself and instead just sorta turned around and asked if he was okay. It was the RVR guy, and he got up and said he was fine, so we continued on. The other guy passed him as he was falling, and I think put a little distance on him as we kept going. We were going pretty slowly, so I was just taking it as easy as possible without intentionally slowing down. I just kept telling myself to wait until the post (there's a post at the turnoff for the butte). A few times I got far enough ahead of the guy behind me that I couldn't hear him, but at about halfway into the trail it seemed like he was getting ever so slightly closer. I hoped he would be around when I got to the post so he could see me take off...for some reason I thought that was important, in a mental-strategy kind of way I guess. Anyway when I finally got to the post I could hear him behind me and I think he was just close enough to see me. I floored it, and even though that part of the trail was switchbacks going down, I don't think he could see me after just a few seconds. I was booking it down the hill, only slowing down at the hairpin turns of the switchbacks. At the next road crossing there was a small crowd, and a guy said "This is our 20k leader!" so I knew the Gorilla Thrilla guy was indeed doing the relay. I hit my watch as I headed down Fox Hollow, and tore on down the hill. At the unofficial halfway point of the hill I was at 2:38, but there was a turnoff to add a small loop so I didn't get a normal split. I think I would have been right around 5:30. The extra loop included a fair-sized hill followed by a section where I had to walk for a few steps to cross a stream. From there I headed down a hill onto a road for maybe 200m. Up ahead I saw a runner in black...both Josh Gordon and Adam Booth were wearing black, so I had caught up to one of the relay runners. I hit my watch again as I started back up Fox Hollow, and was at 37:30, so an 8-minute ascent would put me about a minute behind CR pace. I was slowly reeling in the runner in black, and caught him about three minutes up the hill. It was Josh Gordon, and we exchanged "Good job"s. I was at 3:49 I think at the unofficial halfway point, so a pretty good pace. Josh Gordon passed me with about 50m to go, in his final sprint before handing off to his fiancée, Renee. I reached the top in 7:42, so probably less than a minute off CR pace. I grabbed a cup of water and took a few sips before discarding it and heading into the next section of trail. It took me about a quarter mile to catch up to Renee, who is fairly fast herself, and I just tucked in behind her for a while as we passed people who were doing the 10k. I only passed her like a mile later, so for that section I was going at less than 100%, which was a breather I probably needed. When I passed her I took off pretty well...it was mostly downhill so I was able to get some speed going again. I passed a few more 10k'ers and didn't see anyone else ahead as I got to the next section of trail. The trail went uphill, and at one point some joker had dumped a pile of dirt right across the trail, so I had to climb over that and get a bit muddy. The next uphill was fairly tough, but I knew it was the last big hill on the trail, so I gave it some effort. From my first-half split I knew my split for the second half would have to be about the same as when I ran it last year as part of a relay with Zack, so from the top I tried to fly down the last section of trail. When I got to the road I knew there was about 5k left, all road, net downhill but with some large rollers. I had mapped out where 1, 2, and 3 miles from the finish were the night before, and at three miles to go I was at 66:09. The CR is 81:xx, so I knew I'd have no chance at that, even with the net downhill. The third-to-last mile was more uphill than I was expecting: the first third of it was straight down, and the rest of it was straight up. It took me 6:22. The second-to-last mile was uphill for the first 100m, then the rest was downhill. Most of the downhill in it was too steep to even go very fast on, it was just killer downhill, as I'm sure I mentioned in last year's write-up. That mile took about 6:15 and I knew I was fading. I kept telling myself that there was a chance one of the other 20k'ers would be finishing strong and could catch me if I didn't keep pushing. The last mile starts with the last uphill of the race, a ~100m, steep one. It felt weird going up it after having gone straight down for almost a mile, but I didn't completely die on it like I had the very first year I ran this race. From the top, got a nice gradual downhill for about a quarter mile, then just had a flat, wide-open road almost all the way to the finish. Around the last curve I took one last look behind me (saw no one, of course) and then headed to the finish. There was a little section where I had to hop up onto the grass and go up a 5-foot mini-hill, then the line was about 25m into a parking lot. As I was heading in the announcer said "This should round out the top 3 in the relay..." then a bit later as he looked up my number said "No, this will be our 20k winner!" and I got a bit of cheering and I smiled and put my arms up a bit as I crossed the line.

My time was 1:24:46, so about 3½ minutes off the CR. (Looking at past results now, the CR holder's time the year before he ran the CR was 1:24:45...so I guess next year I should improve that much!) I think with a bit more competition I would have gone a bit faster, especially in that first three miles when I was really holding back, but I'm just happy to have won.

I got a sweatshirt, a medal, and a trophy for winning...if I'm less lazy at some point in the next few days I'll take a picture of the trophy and post it here.