This is a race that takes place about 1.5 hrs from my home and every year I see the photos afterwards and say "i need to run this someday!". the fall leaves through this stretch of the Rogue River Trail and the Union Creek area (about 20 miles I think from Crater Lake) are about at their peak in mid October and weather has historically been very nice this time of year. I don't recall when it was, but earlier in the year I floated this race idea to Leslie to see if she wanted to do a fall 50K. So I was excited when she not only wanted to run it but her and Shorty made a camping vacation out of it. At one point, my husband and I were also planning on a 4 day camping trip but he had an opportunity to go do his kind of racing (dragsters) in Bakersfield.

The race was on Sat 10/14, starting at 8 a.m. which meant we'd be running during the annular eclipse and that added another element of uniqueness to this race. But weather predictions for mostly cloudy skies meant we likely wouldn't see anything.  and we didn't. In fact, it wasn't until I glanced at my watch and it was 9:30 and I realized the eclipse was over and done with and I did not notice any change in the lighting of that morning at all. It didn't get dark like I thought it would.
Daybreak Racing is the organizer of this race and they run the 50K on Saturday and then on Sunday they have  a HM and a 12K, so it's a weekend of festivities and a lot of folks camp at the campground where the race starts/ends.

I stayed with Leslie and Shorty on Friday night at their campsite and Shorty drove us the short 10 mile drive to the start in the morning. It was SO nice to have that kind of race support!  We got up early Saturday morning, got all race ready, and headed over to the start.  This race brings out a lot of the local trail running community so it was almost like old home week seeing so many friends that morning. 

I've never run along this stretch of the Upper Rogue River Trail. I live closest to the Lower Rogue River Trail and have run that several times, but this is a much different landscape where the Rogue River meanders through ancient lava tube and runs underground, forming a natural land bridge. It's really a beautiful area. At times the water gushing through here is so loud and powerful that it's almost deafening. 

Ok - racing!  Temps called for mostly overcast, starting in mid 40's, not getting warmer than 60, so ideal running conditions~ Shorts and tshirt weather and I started with a light shell.  And put it back on with a couple miles to go because i was getting chilled.

Here we are at the start:

The first 10-13 miles are wonderful - smooth trails, not too many rocks or roots to navigate. And one water crossing, that you actually cross twice when this segment of the race was an out and back.

some friends contemplating this crossing and if there was any way to avoid wet shoes at only about mile 4 of the race. There wasn't. You will get wet as the water was probably ankle high.

The trails were soft and velvety along this section and colors were so beautiful!

Once you get to around mile 15ish or so, there's a lot more lava rocks to navigate and with the rain that the area had earlier , many were a bit slick with all the moss growth too. This was definitely where I did mostly walking, which really made any goal time I had for this race tank.

the majority of this trail follows the river so you almost always have a great view

here I am coming into the finish a little over 8 1/2 hrs later!  My first 50K I ran in 8:08, my second I ran in 6:36, and I thought I might be around 7.5 hr in this one because the elevation gain was only around 2800 ft, so pretty flat as far as 50k's in this area go, but dang if all those rocks didn't slow me down more than I thought they would. 
But I made all the A/s cutoffs, didn't fall, and finished under the 9 hr cutoff time, so I'm happy with my work out there that day.

My coros said my moving time was about 7.5 hrs and I just can't believe I wasted about an hours worth of time out there! a potty break, A/S eating, and picture taking all took up more of my time than I thought.  But it's all good. This was more of a trail run to be with friends and enjoy the area than to compete for a fast time, so I'm glad that goal was accomplished because I had the best time out there. In fact, my usual running partner, Lisa, and I ran about 3/4 of this race together and chatted and laughed so much that a few people who were near us commented that " you two are having so much fun out here!". yes, we were.  

There were 111 finishers in the 50K and I was 105 
In my AG I finished 4/6 with an official time of 8:37. My watch measured 32.4 so I got in a nice little bonus mile somewhere 

Today - I feel surprisingly good! Already dreaming of what 50K I want to do in 2024! 

Thanks for reading!

eta: here's a pic the race company took of our Woodlands running group that was there that morning. I love this shot of all us (my running pal Lisa is to the right of me in bib 236)

Great report, Tammy!  Beautiful pictures!  If this race wasn’t during the cross country season, I think I would like to do it… even though I said I would never do another trail distance run.  Anyway—congratulations on a great day!

Oh, I love this!

Great report, Tammy and congrats on a fun race.

What a wonderful race report.  The pictures are so beautiful.  I'm glad you both had such a great day.  Congratulations!

Congratulations, Tammy! What a great race report and pictures... thank you for sharing.

Beautiful course. It looks like a great race. Thanks for sharing the great pictures and your race with us.

Paul

Great race report!! Your pictures really show the beauty of the region, but all I can think is I would probably hurt myself out there!!

The fall I took on the 25k trail run on a not technical course was enough to scare me a little. So glad you had so much fun out there!!