peterson ridge 20 miler race report

I love Central Oregon. Let’s just get that out there. Ponderosa Pine, red cinder roads, snowcapped mountains. This is my happy place.

I’ve had my eye on the Peterson Ridge races for several years, but they always fell on Vegas soccer weekends. As a now pretty much retired player though, I had a free weekend to make the trek to the other side of the mountains to do a little running.

My ambitious self signed up for the 40 miler.

My realistic self switched my registration to the 20 miler not long after the Gorge.

As race weekend approached, I realized that my hopes to spend the weekend over there were not going to materialize. In fact, I would need to get up bright and early and drive over the morning of the race. Thank goodness for a 9 am start.

Mt Washington, standing majestic

I woke at 5, grabbed some breakfast, and was on the move. No sweat. I made it by 8:30 – more than enough time to sign in and get ready.

How wonderful it was to see some familiar faces – my new Trailfactor friends who had come over on Friday to enjoy a girls weekend. Races are fun, but doing them with friends make them even better. I was glad for a little company.

We lined up, heard a couple of race announcements, and were off. My favorite moment: Yassine running backwards through the crowd chasing the dog he was going to run with. Smart dog. He was going back to the car. Yassine still managed to win. Of course.

I did my usual. Ran like hell at first. At one point, some guys running next to me said they were running a 7:30 pace. What?! It felt easy. A feeling of dismay came over me. I tried to settle down and find my own sustainable rhythm.

Now the course advertises it is uphill the first half, and a gentle downhill the second. Whatever. There were little hills all throughout the course. But nothing too major – it was all very runnable.

Cruising past Cheryl, who ran with me for a bit. I loved that!

I had also heard that the 20 miler didn’t have the pretty views that the 40 miler course did. Thankfully that wasn’t good information. It was beautiful up on the ridge.

I kept moving pretty well through mile 16, and then I just sort of lost my fire. I was tired of racing. The fast start probably didn’t help.

And then I fell. Face down in the dirt. I laid there for a moment. Ugh.

Mentally, I was done. So when I passed a gal who seemed to be breathing pretty hard, I decided I would run with her for a bit. We started chatting. I realized that I was enjoying running with her more than I was enjoying trying to run hard, so I relaxed and went with it. Koushik caught me at the last aid station and mumbled something about maybe running together, but when he caught me on the road, he said he needed to go faster because he was cramping. I thought about going with him, and then thought about helping my new friend Ruth in. I decided to stick with her.

At this point, I decided to become the good samaritan runner. I started chatting with everyone we passed, ridiculously cheerful. I am sure there were some runners who wanted to give me a good smack. I fell behind Ruth as I tried to urge a 40 miler along; I had to hammer down for 600 yards or so to catch up, so I know I had some fire left in my legs. It was just gone from my head. I’ve got to work on that.

Ruth & I crossing the bridge – about a mile to go.

We kept running together and finally rounded the track to the finish. 3:26:21 – a 10:19 pace. The best reward – hearing Ruth tell her friends that I had pulled her to the finish. That was awesome.

Of course, Max King finished his 40 miler before I finished my 20 miler. New goal: make it to the halfway point of the race before he finishes.

I found the Trailfactor folks and celebrated a good day on the trail – cheering in the other 20 & 40 mile racers, enjoying some great food and soaking up the Central Oregon sun before driving home. What a great way to spend a Sunday.