The Great Columbia Crossing 2009
| TThis Fall, I went on a Great Adventure with two of my brothers (aka. "The Three Amigos"). As a Guam boy, anything below 70 degrees F is "freezing." This beautiful sunny day was an arctic 40+/- degrees F. Very cold for my liking. But I managed to warm up 1/2 way thru the course. My ritual, whenever travelling from Guam to the mainland U.S., is to "torture" my brothers by enticing them to sign up for a race that we can all do together when I come over. Being the oldest brother, they dutifully comply with my every wish. Poorly trained as they were, they nonetheless agreed to try and prepare for the Great Columbia Crossing, which begins at Dismal Nitch (aptly named) on the Washington State side, and traverses the Astoria/Megler Bridge to the quaint and charming city of Astoria, Oregon. I highly recommend this race--it is a fabulous 10K course. And for a modest fee there was a great race t-shirt with original art by local artist Don Nisbett. Upwards of 3000 runners and walkers turned out for this event. We went the night before the race and walked the main street of Astoria just before sundown. Astoria is filled with really cool shops bursting with curios and art. We also found one of the best Thai restaraunts I've ever eaten in (and I eat Thai food all the time!). The Phad Thai was superb as was everything else. The ambience of the restaurant was first class. The prices? absolutely reasonable. We stayed in the Comfort Suites Inn in Astoriaa and treated ourselves to a great swim in the heated, indoor pool and |
My Apologies in advance, I have recently learned that the pictures on this page do not load in some versions of Explorer Internet Browser.  The Mighty Megler Bridge - 4.7 miles of the course and the longest 3-truss bridge in the world. |
soaked ourselves silly in the clean and fully operational hot tub. Then we went to bed. Brother Rick, who didn't sign up for the run at the last minute, was assigned the "rack" (otherwise known as the hide-a-bed). Ofcourse we all suffered as each brother is a prodigious snorer. We watched Kung Fu Panda and back-to-back re-runs of NCIS until the snoring took over.
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| The trek begins on I-5, leaving Portland and heading toward the Kelso/Longview exit. Enroute we stop at the venerable Burger Bar in Kalama, WA to carbo load for the race ... |  |
| Just the sort of complex carbs we needed for a decided edge over all the other competitors ... |  |
| Once in Astoria we engage in some shameless promotion of the premier training tool of the truly great Pacific Northwest runners ... |  |
At registration central we bribe the race official with a complimentary training log. Upon passing inspection, we are given permission to pass out 26 free logs to folks who promise to use them ... Given the ridiculously low price -- FREE! -- they "sell" out in no time at all ... |
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| A race entrant gets a little off course! |  |
| Doing that tourist thing on the Boardwalk along the Astoria waterfront the evening before the race ... |  |
| Dos Amigo-- Don Jones (L) El Capitan Amigo (R) Tres Amigo& Official Photog--Rick Jones (Not pictured, of course. He's taking the pic) | |
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The Three Amigos -- (L - R): Papa Bear, Mama Bear & Baby Bear |
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| See What I mean by quaint and interesting shoppes! This place was full of all sorts of really cool stuff. |  |
| A breathtaking shot of the Megler/Astoria bridge ... the main course of the race tomorrow. From 0 to 200 ft above sea level in this small last section of the bridge before you enter Astoria ... |  |
| It's so much easier to announce "victory" before the race. The day of reckoning has arrived! Why are we smiling? Its 40 F +/- |  |
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| Heading for the bus ... like lambs silent before the shearers we line up to be shuttled to the start. Dismal Nitch, here we come! |  |
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| The warm light of morning sunrise brightens the bridge and our spirits, too! | |
| Just a little harder and I'll be airborne! |  |
| Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy... |  |
| Count it pure joy!!! |  |
| Hm-m-m-m, now did I for sure turn the iron off before I left the house this morning? |  |
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| Yo Ho! Ho! There's a pirate on the course! Argh-gh-gh! |
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| Coming in for the home stretch ... |  |
| If I just focus, its a done deal ... |  |
| This is definitely too much fun ... |  |
| I was born to run! |  |
| No worries, mate! |  |
| Ditto! |  |
| The Little Engine who could! |  |
| Scarlett O'Hare |  |
| There is absolutely no other place I'd rather be at this very moment! |  |
| All the colors of the rainbow ... |  |
| "Nothin's botherin' me, blue skies is all I see." |  |
| Thumbs wa-a-a-y up, Boss! |  |
| With the right tunes I can go anywhere ... endure any distance ... |  |
| What race? I've been chasing down my blue ox all morning! "Yo, Babe, come on back here!" |  |
| You have to really be going fast to get this much loft ! |  |
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| Oh, we'd forgotten all about you! You're still in this race? Wow! |  |
| Brother Don has a 2 minute lead on me and is heading into the finisher's chute. He has never beat me before and the magnitude of this feat will only dawn on him as the race unfolds ... |  |
| Big brother isn't whistlin' Dixie, he's sucking air and in serious oxygen debt. |  |
| What, the finish line already? How'd we beat the guy who wrote that great running log, anway? We thought he was supposed to be real fast! |  |
| Make way for the old man ... |  |
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| A toast to the sponsors of this fine race. Aaah, the elixir of runners everywhere! |  |
| A race is only as good as its support crew and volunteers. On that score, this race was terrific! |  |
| The exact moment when my brother finally figures out that he actually beat me this time! |  |
| We literally "hit the wall" and recover over breakfast. |  |
| Brothers to the very end (all three of us) |  |
| We vow to do this next year and next year I win. |  |
Well, that's the end of our Great Columbia Crossing adventure. I do hope you enjoyed the photos and the narrative. I found the stories on each face to be a unique reflection of the joy each runner experiences. So many pleasures. E.Neil Culbertson |
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