Dirty Second Half, Bend

This morning there was a great race in Bend which I ran a couple of years ago too, the Dirty Second Half. It follows on from the Dirty Half in June and has a slightly more difficult course, basically involving dirt and single track with a 750ft climb to half way then back down, plus lots of rolling trails along the way. As a bonus, Krissy Moehl was in town for a Patagonia shoot and ran the race so it was good to catch up with her and to make some new friends. I also wore a florescent North Face vest after the RD warned that hunting season has just started so try not to get shot. I was about the only one who opted to glow in the dark, but I certainly wasn't shot, despite hearing a lot of loud bangs.

I do plan to take things easy to get some decent recovery in, but I think my issue has just been too many long races (50 milers and longer) at too high an intensity and with too little a gap between them. I was sensible enough to not also run the inaugural Bend marathon the day before, but I was tempted. Mind you, seeing a guy finish the half there with bandages, blood and dirt all over him was a little worrying (he'd fallen hard somewhere and smashed his face!).

More short races is a good thing and they really don't leave you as wrecked, even with a significant level of effort. That feeling of (relative) speed is also a bonus as I've not had too much fast running recently and it's just plain fun to zoom along single-track and not have to save something in the tank for later.

The course starts outside Bend at the Seventh Mountain Resort and almost immediately has a short, steep downhill and uphill which gives a good idea of whether the legs feel good. Seven days off running meant my legs had recovered a bit and today was mainly fun running. I couldn't wait until the highest point so that the cruising could begin and the single-track on the way back was perfect for pure enjoyment. I ran much of it completely alone after the lead two guys flew off at an incredible pace.

Finishing was a relief, particularly that I'd felt ok most of the way. But the first two guys were so far ahead they weren't even around the finish any more (1:15 and 1:18 on a course that probably adds almost 10 minutes to your road half marathon time). 1:26 for third was a good result and makes me feel like I'll at least get through the race in Chile in two weeks. A good day out on the trails for everyone.

A few photos from the Footzone running store blog which show the types of trail in the race:

Oregonian running - about time too!

After trying to move to the US for a very long time to be with my fiancée, Amy, I finally arrived (on a tourist visa for now, anyway) in September. But I didn't get to my home in Bend, Oregon, until later, after several races and visiting several States.

It's just been voted as the best place to run trails in Outdoor magazine, so should be a perfect place for trail running. Excellent - just the sort of news I wanted just before I arrived, although I already know just how beautiful it is. Snow-capped mountains, forests and great views almost anywhere, even in downtown.

So after a visit to some of Amy's family in Portland and the marathon there (see photo with large crowds of runners on a road, above), I arrived in Bend just in time to join the running community in a local half marathon...on trails, of course.

The Dirty 2nd Half is the sequel to the Dirty Half in June each year. As it was the first year for this 2nd Half, people weren't quite sure what the trail would be like, but the times from the June race included some sub 6-minute milers over the trails.

It was a little out of town at the Seventh Mountain resort and started early on a Sunday in October. After really hot weather for the weeks before, it had cooled down to winter-like temperatures. Well, English winter (a fair bit below freezing).

I only did a short warm up due to the cold then lined up with about 300 others on the trail. All we could see were trees, but the race director told us there would be a climb from about 3 miles and that it's generally a hard course to run fast on, but not too technical apart from a few sections.

Sounded ideal to me, although I'd trained hard during the week to get ready for a marathon at the end of the month. I'd hoped to place well, but Bend has a reputation for having a lot of top class trail and ultra runners so I had no idea of who would turn up (or what they look like). Although I had met one guy, Max King, a top American trail and distance runner (63 minutes in the half marathon certainly impresses me).

Everyone clearly gave Max the nod as the obvious winner and he showed it within 100m by sprinting after the lead mountain bike at about my sprint speed. For the rest of us, there was just open trail ahead as we lost sight of Max after about a mile (he slowed down to a more reasonable 5min/mile pace).

The trails were beautiful, but with my body parts freezing I was focusing on keeping up enough speed to get my internal boilers going. After a few miles I felt cosy, but was also tired. I was just behind 2nd and 3rd and the trail started a steepish uphill climb at the 3 mile mark, just as advertised. The ground wasn't icy, but I slowed down so much I wasn't in much danger of slipping on anything.

We mainly followed a mountain access path but the hill kept on for several miles and went from about 4,000ft to 4,750ft (it's so useful to have the Garmin to tell me how much drop I'd have until the finish). I felt bad and was overtaken by several people, just wanting the climb to stop since my legs weren't fresh enough.

It eventually levelled out at a water station at 7 miles, then went on to a single track path. This was more my sort of thing - varying degrees of downhill on more technical terrain. I started enjoying myself again as the path wound left and right, sometimes ducking under branches.

This kept going for most of the rest of the race, but with a few harsh uphills thrown in. It felt great to be in the wilderness with some slight danger of bears, cougars and the like...but not much danger. I'd done trail marathons in the UK but never a trail half and never in such a pretty forest. In fact, all the trail marathons had only involved sections of forest since we don't have as much of it in England. And since I'd never done a shorter trail race I'd never tried to run really hard on the trails and push the speed up.

It was a mental boost to go at about 5k pace on the trails, even if they were downhill. But the last 3 miles or so were back on the flatish/undulating section, overlapping part of the first 3 miles. I could see 2nd and 3rd again after a long absence from them. But I managed to follow 3rd down the wrong way and add on a quarter of a mile before we both turned back. The guys behind had caught up and 2nd was nowhere to be seen. I didn't care that much since I'd had a fun race and the second half had made up for the pain of the first half. I made one last effort to get into 3rd and managed to hold it to the finish.

1h26m was slower than I'd expected but until mile 7 I was on for my personal worst half marathon time. Max managed 1h14m and won by 10 minutes. But at least it gives the rest of us something to aim for...

A really enjoyable start to living and running in Bend and the organisation was great from the local running shop. I'm really looking forward to more races around here and to meeting a whole new set of runners.

Next race is the Tri Cities marathon in Washington State, where Amy's Mom lives. A completely different type of race, it's a dead flat road race. But having that variety is what makes running so interesting and challenging to me. I wouldn't give up any one type of surface or race and am looking forward to including 100 milers in my regular set of races, almost twice as far as anything I've done before.