Crater Lake, Oregon

This weekend Amy and I were at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, one of the most beautiful places in the US. I had the Crater Lake Marathon, a road race around the lake finishing down at Lost Creek Campground with the last four miles on a fire road. This would be a great location for a trail race too, but the road one was hard enough.

Definitely the toughest road course I've ever run, thanks to the elevation and amount of climbing - 2,579ft of uphill, 4,180ft of downhill and a high point of almost 8,000ft. Full results will be on the race website and in the local paper, and I ran a 2:54 thanks to the fast downhills.

But the most enjoyable part of the trip was seeing the lake from so many different view-points. In particular, pre-race I hiked up a little to look out over Wizard Island (the big cone in the lake) as the sun rose. Wish I had my camera then to capture the peaceful, warm glow or the deer which were just out of view of the other runners and looked at me apprehensively.

At least Amy and I had more time after the race to take in the views, even if forest fires in the region made the mountains look hazy. Here's some trail porn:

The race start area the day before, at 7,600ft

Wizard Island

The 'Phantom Ship'

Deep blue water

Speedgoat 50k probably needed a few of these signs