This past Saturday's trail marathon -- one that should become a regular in the PNW...

http://rungentlyoutthere.com/goat-run/

Good story. My last big race this year was a paper form inserted into an envelope with a hand written check. These are few and far between these days. Nice photo at the end. The words sufficed for the rest of it. Thanks.

It's nice to read a race report from you, John.  Sounds like you finished well under 6:30.

I love the photo at the end.

Congrats on the race John.  Enjoyable read.  Glad you weren't smiling at the goats longingly .  Oh, for what its worth, I make 10 days the cutoff line for the last long run...it doesn't seem like it, but do you think that had a negative effect on your race day?

Good question, James -- Yes I do, but not in a major sort of way--there were a bunch of other "minor" contributors.  I normally use a two-week taper, but the last longish run is what I usually think of as a medium-length run (should have been about three hours instead of 5½.  I lacked the confidence that was there in years gone by.  The park job was more physical this year (worked Friday before the marathon).  I could not do my 5-day running cycle--tried to bike to/from work to regain some lost running.  We live in a puzzle of what should I (we) be able to do at this age (I am 72).  bbbyyy... On the way home we decided it was probably a pretty good run, more challenging (heat and hills) than I recognized while out there; very glad I did it.

Here's an action photo, proving he still runs.

Thanks for sharing. I love the way you write.

I looked at the race web site. Those trails look wonderful and you can tell a lot of work has been done on them to keep them nice.

Nice John...thanks for sharing..glad you came moving past the 13.1...and you had people running behind you ..so nice that you have someone to lean on in the end.

Congratulations.

very nice read- thank you and congratulations on a solid finish; funny how much of long distance running is a mental game