[SteelBlue]

This was an incredibly well supported race with a lot of tradition. Oregon is a state that prides itself in its running community and this race was stocked with locals who were very high caliber. The winner competed in the Olympic marathon trials earlier this year and the runner up has qualified for the Olympic trials in the 3000 steeple chase. Most of these guys went to HS in Southern Oregon and they come home to race against the best from the area.

It was a perfect day for running, with temperatures in the mid 60's at the start. The course was flat for the first 4 miles with one long but manageable hill placed as you head into mile 5. You turn around at mile 5 and come back the same way, hitting that hill again and then coming home on a completely flat course. It took me a mile to break out of the crowd enough to find my pace and make up for lost time. Once I knew I was below an 8 minute mile I held that pace for the entire race. My goal was to come in under 1:20 min and I ran a 1:18:42. That gave me a 7:53 average pace for the 10 mile race. It put me at 30th in my age group out of 79 and 249th out of 990 overall. I was pleased considering I'm not quite back in the shape I was in before my surgery in January.

I highly recommend this race to anybody who happens to be within reasonable distance of the Southern Oregon area in mid April. The community takes a lot of pride in the race, lining the streets and cheering you on. You get to see some very high quality runners (I saw the winner coming back the other way as I was hitting mile 4) and the race is administered flawlessly including chip timing.