The Hand-Crafted Races of Summer

Summer is in full swing, and races abound. But the best of the best are brought to you by X-Dog Events, Run Wild Adventures, and the Timberline Trail Running Club. Why? Because we're among those local organizations who have devoted themselves to the artistry of the perfect course.

Many events claim to be exciting and tough. Many claim to be the world's toughest endeavor known to man. But simply making something tough is easy. Buckets of marbles will make a flat road race tougher, but for the wrong reasons. Running through electrically-charged wire will make the course tougher, but not more enjoyable. If an obstacle slows you down because it keeps you from running, then that defeats the purpose of having a race. Obstacles, natural or man-made, should be on the course to challenge participants, but not slow them to the point they can't keep going.

For example, when working on Ole's Astoria Assault, there's hundreds of trees that cross the path, and these natural obstacles add to the charm and difficulty of all the unnatural, man-made ones. There's also a lot of brush and undergrowth that's trimmed down. It's not necessary to clear away all the brush from the trail, but leaving a solid mass of greenery there so participants would have to push and swim their way through would slow the momentum, and make it less of a race. And sometimes, there's a thin line between too much and too little. Too many vines, stickers, or thorns at ankle length, or dangerous branches or rocks along the path that may trip people up -- that adds difficulty, but not enjoyability. If we simply made the course no longer runnable, well, that's no challenge at all. The purpose is to push the participant while allowing them to keep pushing themselves.

Just look at the Whine on the Vine. The H is in the 'wine' because it's supposed to be tough, with five obstacles and a nice trail run. Sure, there could be 50 man-made obstacles, but for a 5-mile race, there would no longer be any running - just standing in line, waiting, from one obstacle to the other.

Ultimately, each race course has its own character and unique properties. Recognizing and expanding on those unique properties is what makes it great. There are a lot of flat road races out there that are great events that serve a specific purpose. But anyone can design a flat 10K, marathon, or half marathon; what gives a flat race its character is the city or town it's in. But races that offer truly unique courses are ones that can't be duplicated. And being true to a race's character should result in a better event.

This is true with the Timberline Mt Run. It had a figure-8 course with two whole miles scrambling through the timber. A simple re-alignment of the course replaced those miles of cross-country through the forest with solid miles on trail. Now, there's more ascent, more descent, and more overall mileage. It's one clockwise loop below and above the timberline, so it's simpler, and the consistent trail aspect holds true to the nature of a high-elevation mountain run.

So sign up, and catch what we're calling perfection. The X-Dog Whine on the Vine is August 4, the Timberline Trail Running Club's Timberline Mt Run is August 11, and the second annual Detroit Mud Run kicks off the Run Wild Adventure 2013-2014 calendar on October 12. The Multnomah Falls Trail Run is September 29, after Ole's Assault and Maupin's Ride Row Run.