Salem, Oregon's
Running & Walking Club Site
Home of
Willamette Valley Road Runners (WVRR)
www.WVRoadrunners.org.

      Peggy Holstedt, Mickey Days, Michael Collins and Burke Schmidt competed in the Big Dog Du in fine style this year. We had a great time, completing first run legs in good time and with no incidents (speed bumps), in fact precious few stories.

    The cycling began near Highway 26 and headed toward the coast. The first two legs were mostly climbing to one of the summits of the coast range and, too, were relatively uneventful. The third leg, however, was eventful. The start of the 19 mile leg is a long descent followed by a significant 4 to 5 mile climb. That was relatively easy, although the clouds seemed to become darker. Just as the long hill was crested and the bike speed was increasing significantly, it began to sprinkle, this continued for a while; the pace on the bike was approaching 35 to 40 miles per hour. Almost at the moment I was going through the fastest part of the leg, the clouds opened up and provided me with a significant gully washer, the type of rain where motorists pull over and wait for it to pass. Since this was impossible, and even though visibility was almost zero, I continued at the same pace hoping nothing would go wrong. I was lucky despite some rough road sections and managed to complete the leg in a relatively good time despite the rain. After that we had absolutely beautiful weather for the balance of the race, sunshine and beautiful fluffy clouds. All the rest of the cycling legs went quite well, albeit, Cascade Head is surely higher than in past years. One surprise was that the road just north of Pacific City which had fallen into the sea had been repaired, however the repair was tough on the bike and cyclist both. As late as June no repair had been made and we fully expected a detour down 101 through Hebo. 

    The best part of the entire race was on the last leg of the run. Peggy was running well and spotted a member of a team we had been 'dogging' the entire race. Their cycling skills were excellent, their running was so-so. What made the competition sweeter was that they were the Geckos, the people responsible for triathlon training clinics in Portland. As Peggy crested a hill, she spotted the woman runner for this team, struggling up the next hill. Peggy picked it up and passed her on the uphill, about a half-mile from the finish. The last turn was down, which worried Peggy a bit, but then she turned to the final road to the finish and found that the balance, except for a real short portion to the finish was uphill and Peggy knew she had the race. She finished strong.

    Each year as we complete the Big Dog Du, I invite club members to join us in this first class event next year. You can compete as a single, as a member of a two-person team, or as a member of a four-person team. If you are a strong runner and an excellent cyclist then try the two-person team; if you are strong but want to have fun while competing, try the four-person team. If you are willing to train mercilessly, 15 to 20 miles running and 100 miles cycling each weekend for the time leading up to the race, then complete the event as a solo. Regardless of your preference, the invitation is open.