PCTR Forest Park Trail 10K - Portland OR
I drove down from Seattle with the kids and Rebecca so that we could all do this trail run right inside downtown Portland and then explore Portland over the Memorial Day holiday. The 10K went off fifteen minutes after the 20K and the 50K runners at 8:45am.
Race director Wendell put the pressure on by saying "you'll see flags every two minutes or so unless you're Adam and then its every 30 seconds". Uh oh. They're gunning for me now. I took off like a shot after the start with just one runner, Terry McCormick, hanging on my shoulder. It starts with a lot of climbing singletrack which is great. I turned to the side every minute or so to see what the competition was. Terry said "I'm right here". Nobody else was close. After about 15 minutes of climbing we passed a yellow flag that I would have turned downhill at, but Terry stopped me. We continued on climbing up the hill past it. Terry tried to surge after this but kicked it up and stayed with him the whole time. He slowed down after that and after matching his pace for a while, I surged ahead.
Once I got to the top I really turned it on down the hill to the point where I could no longer see or hear Terry. I came out onto a flat road which was marked with several yellow flags. I attempted several times to turn back onto the trails when seeing flags that looked like they might indicate a trail. I passed my 10 year old son Josh running the wrong way. He was following people that had made that right turn at the yellow flag. I told him to follow other runners since they were all heading back to the starting area.
I finally found the turn up the hill and ran update for a few hundred yards to where that previous turn had been. Then left and back down the trail towards the start. On one of the switchbacks I finally saw Terry behind me pumping furiously. I had thought he was long gone, but realized I needed to step it up. As the trail flattened out with about a half mile to go, Terry came alongside moving much faster than I was and quickly dropped me. I finished second about a minute back in 48:52.
chilling with Liz and Ben after the race
Race director Wendell put the pressure on by saying "you'll see flags every two minutes or so unless you're Adam and then its every 30 seconds". Uh oh. They're gunning for me now. I took off like a shot after the start with just one runner, Terry McCormick, hanging on my shoulder. It starts with a lot of climbing singletrack which is great. I turned to the side every minute or so to see what the competition was. Terry said "I'm right here". Nobody else was close. After about 15 minutes of climbing we passed a yellow flag that I would have turned downhill at, but Terry stopped me. We continued on climbing up the hill past it. Terry tried to surge after this but kicked it up and stayed with him the whole time. He slowed down after that and after matching his pace for a while, I surged ahead.
Once I got to the top I really turned it on down the hill to the point where I could no longer see or hear Terry. I came out onto a flat road which was marked with several yellow flags. I attempted several times to turn back onto the trails when seeing flags that looked like they might indicate a trail. I passed my 10 year old son Josh running the wrong way. He was following people that had made that right turn at the yellow flag. I told him to follow other runners since they were all heading back to the starting area.
I finally found the turn up the hill and ran update for a few hundred yards to where that previous turn had been. Then left and back down the trail towards the start. On one of the switchbacks I finally saw Terry behind me pumping furiously. I had thought he was long gone, but realized I needed to step it up. As the trail flattened out with about a half mile to go, Terry came alongside moving much faster than I was and quickly dropped me. I finished second about a minute back in 48:52.
chilling with Liz and Ben after the race
posted by Adam Blum at 1:16 PM
1 Comments:
Never underestimate Terry when it comes to trail running! I've never met anyone who can push through the pain like he can. He's amazing. What is more amazing is that he doesn't even train regularly...crazy!
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