Kevin Ankrum's Staging Area

This is a challenging, fun race put on by X dog events. I participated in 2017 as a first-timer. Would have preferred a pre-race day packet pickup option but packet pick up was straightforward and well organized. The race director was at the starting line and engaging participants in conversation. The biggest issue for me was the overall mileage was actually 9.2k vs 8k as advertised. I’m not one to complain about running additional mileage but to me, why not make it 0.8k longer and call it a 10k as that seems more substantial? Either way a fun race with a good crowd. I didn’t attend the post race pizza/beverage feed at the local pizza place down the road but I’m sure it was a good time had by all. Overall, if you’re looking for a good option for a November race, this one is a better choice than the Veteran’s Day race that HTC used to put on (though they didn’t put this on in 2017, so future years may be up in the air). I like to keep a November race on my calendar as motivation to keep up with training heading into the winter months, and with limited local options in the PDX area, chances are good I’ll be back for more Kevin’s Cups in the future.

My 2nd time running this race, new course route than when I ran it back in 2015. Put the hills out front of the race and they were mostly downhills vs. uphills two years ago. After the hills in the first 10k, the remainder of the race was mostly flat and would have been a good candidate for PR if not for the train that stopped me and others for ~5 minutes less than 100 yards from the finish line!