Thursday, September 20, 2007

Todd Ragsdale's 100 Miler


Photo taken by Andy Atkinson

On Tuesday, September 18th local runner Todd Ragsdale ran 100-miles around Ashland, Oregon's Lithia Park. Why? Just to see if he could. He ran a 3.5 mile loop 29 times. He started at 2am and 16 hours and 36 minutes later he was done. A fantastic time for a 100 mile run! He was accompanied throughout the day by many local runners, bikers and drivers. He spent little of the day without friends. Even the local news showed up. See Todd's interview on You Tube.

Congratulations Todd!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

A Runner's Destination: The Red Bridge



Try and find it...the City by the Bay. Most days of the year the city of San Francisco and it's infamous bridge of note, the Golden Gate, can be enveloped in a dense wall of fog. Though no fog was to be found on this early Fall morning, our intrepid runners would encounter other dangers on their way to their destination.

Aliens from Mars...



UFO's...



Tall men in horns and dresses...



But being the good runners' they were, the band regrouped and hydrated at the Treasure Island Music Festival.



Then headed for the Golden Gate...



And, finally, after many miles they arrived at their destination.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

McKenzie River Invite



Why would anyone invite so many Rogue Valley Runners to a central Oregon party? Probably because they knew we would give their course a run for it's money, and that in part is exactly why RD Phil Vaughn decided to have the Mckenzie River 50k invitational on Sunday. The allure of the Mckenzie river 50k has grown greatly in my mind over the years based in part by the fact that it fills so quickly year after year. On the day that entries are taken, it fills leaving those who want to experience a first rate NW race on the sidelines watching. This year, Eric Poole, Joe Griffin, John Leuthold, Todd Ragsdale and myself provided the SO contingent and became the exception to the rule as the MRTR hosted a special invite for it's 20th anniversary. The race was as billed; fantastic single-track, cascading waterfalls, nice temperatures, fast course, easy crew access and all the lava rock you can handle. The race started way too friendly and as the morning progressed I found myself waking to the realization that if I wasn't too careful I could let some of the excited folk get too far ahead. And that is exactly what happened as the eventual winner gained 10 minutes on me in some 20 miles. However, as is the case with speedy sub 2:20 marathoners that shouldn't be out running for 4 hours they start to "come back." Unfortunately for the invite I could only regain 8 minutes. Oh well, there's always next year and the hope of breaking that inconceivable CR. Congrats to Todd, John, Joe, and Eric for making the A standard and for putting up with all the razzing that preceded the race.