Off I went straight to Oregon. I didn't even stop for gas from Costa Mesa to Sacramento. After some twelve hours of driving I decided to stop for the night in Oregon. The motel was in Klamath Falls, and wasn't anything spectacular, but who can complain spending 35 dollars per night. I woke up on Saturday full of vigor, and ready to seize the day. Leaving town I was taken in complete awe at the sight of Lake Klamath.
After recovering from this distraction I drove another three hours into Bend. The city of Bend is a very lively somewhat small town in the middle of the state. I drove into town with little direction. I parked in the quaint downtown shopping district. I was surprised to learn that the packet pick-up was at the Footzone store only one hundred yards from where I parked (Talk about convenient.) I walked over and picked up my race bib and goodies.
I booked a motel, and I waited for the three o'clock check-in time. After wandering around Bend for an hour or so I headed over and set up camp. I spent the evening relaxing and watching television. Exhausted from the whole endeavorer I retired to bed around ten. With a forty-five minute drive before me, I awoke around four o'clock. I showered, dressed and headed out. Sisters, Oregon is a small suburb of Bend. The race was designed to start at the Sisters Middle School. With a little confusion I found the middle school. The day before I had "read" on the website that the race started at 6 A.M In actuality the race started at 8 A.M. This blunder allowed me to start an hour early. With a little bit of patience the time for the early starters arrived. There were a surprising amount of early starters. With a small pep talk the race director Sean Meissner let us loose.
The first few miles of jeep roads flew by quickly. I didn't feel strong those first few miles but I pushed as fast as I could. The terrain of the race quickly changed. The fifth mile filtered us onto single track trails. After a few miles of this I found my rhythm. I wasn't speeding through the course but I was astounded by the folks who blazed through each section. Many of the aid stations were three miles apart but a couple of them were nearly six miles apart. The first fifteen miles passed somewhat worry free. The terrain was moderate rolling hills, but not unbearable. The overwhelmingly breathtaking views constantly had my eyes set on the peaks in the distance.
As the race reached the halfway point I continued to get exhausted. My frustration could have easily been mistaken for anger. The miles slowly ticked by and my body began to express it's distaste towards my objective. Soon enough I reached twenty-five miles and I began to focus on the scenery and let the uphills and downhills come and go. I have no idea when exactly it happened, but the twenty milers slipped back onto the course and began showing up. Almost as soon as they did, they filtered back out and straight to the finish. The forty milers still had around 10 miles to go. Most of the next few miles were flat, with a few climbs but nothing extremely tough. With only four miles left there were a few tough spots, but nothing extreme. I entered the last aid station and joked with the volunteers. I am not sure exactly how the anticipation showed but I took off and ran with the finish in mind. In most cases what I was doing could not be construed as running, but I felt like I was flying over those uphills and descents. With only a couple miles left I was passed a couple more times, and just tailed one of them into the finish. I had made it under the cut-off. That was exciting because my continual slowing made tracking a specific speed difficult. None the less it felt good to know that I made it under the cut-off. I finished in 8 hours and 38 some odd minutes. Good enough for state 29.
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