After running the hilly Helvetia Half Marathon last weekend, I needed a 27 mile training run before the Tahoe Rim Trail Ultra . I picked SunRiver for 2 reasons. 1) it has a little bit of altitude and 2) it is usually warm. Both of these conditions coupled with a few others kicked my butt last year at Tahoe.

The race started at 7:30 AM. SunRiver is a golf resort in the high desert of Central Oregon. I tried for an early start but it was not granted. They walked us to the start line, about 3/4 of a mile. I was surprised how much the mere 4200 feet of elevation affected my breathing. The course was bike trails, asphalt, shaded in the morning hours but relentlessly unshaded when the sun was high in the sky. The course was absolutely beautiful. The Ponderosa pines don’t have much of a crown for shade. I saw deer along the course 3 times. It was incredible! They were almost tame, they’d take notice as you went by, but held their ground rather than running off. I had trained some with the new AccelGel and wanted to see what it was like for the entire marathon. We ran through the wooded trails for quite some time with the birds, deer and lots of squirrels. At one point we found ourselves next to a river. This was nice when the wind picked up, it brought some cool air over the water to cool us down. We had a few bridges and tunnels. The tunnels were very disorienting for me, maybe because they were so small. They were much more like a little tube. After the water we ran across a meadow. Then by an airport full of small planes. The taking off and landing was a nice distraction from the miles. Then we were back around the river. Some people were rafting along here. I could hear the screams of someone being playfully pushed off the raft. Next we ran by some condos, the lodge and back to the village. Full marathoners went to the left and repeated the course again. I ran by my booth and filled up on GU2O and AccelGel for the second lap. The second loop was warmer and had less shade. I’d been using Endurolytes every hour and this seemed to be working really well. No finger swelling and my spirits were very high right until the end. There were aid stations about every mile. I would drink a couple of gulps of water and pour the rest on my head and shoulders. One of the things I noticed about the AccelGel is that I never got really hungry. Usually by mile 18 I am STARVED, but the AccelGel kept me from feeling hungry and I really liked that. Here are some pictures .

I also saw some Portland Fit shoe tags as the half marathon people went by. GO PORTLAND FIT!!! You guys ROCK!

The whole weekend was fun. The entertainer on Friday night was awesome! Saturday night the band was great too! There was really good food, good beer. The atmosphere was festive.

All in all, I would recommend this marathon/half marathon!

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