Smith Rock Ascent 50k

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Finisher beers

The Smith Rock Ascent 50k was our first race of 2018, it was also my first van camping trip of the year. John and I camped at Skull Hollow Campground, which was ~15 minutes from the start of the race. It was also first come, first served, we lucked out and got one of the last spots. There is camping at Smith Rock, but only for tents not camper vans. We got to Skull Hollow around 3pm, after setting up and settling in we enjoyed a few beers and dinner and watched the sunset from the van. I love van life. 
enjoying Van Life

 The next morning John dropped me off at the start of the race where I met Susan, she was staying in Bend with her family. We grabbed some coffee and took in the views of Smith Rock, since it was our first time there. Shortly after we arrived the race started, we passed Monkey Face and were both amazed how much the rock actually looked like a Monkey Face. 



The heat started pretty early, luckily we had ran 30 miles in the heat in California a few weeks earlier, but it still did slow us down more than I expected. Overall the course was really runnable and we had a pretty good day. I don't have tons of things to report* on, we just enjoyed running together and finally getting to experience Smith Rock, which I have to admit parts of the course reminded me of Bandera, but Susan and I admitted that we both preferred mountain races. 

Our people were waiting for us at the finish line, we enjoyed a few beers in our new finisher glasses and headed our separate ways. Though before John and I headed back to our campsite, I took advantage of the $2 showers at Smith Rock. That was probably the best 2 dollars I have spent in a long time. 


We ran through my campsite


 *Sorry for the short race report, if you can even call it that. We are really behind on posts. 
Location: Smith Rock State Park, Terrebonne, OR 97760, USA

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