Given this spectacular heat, the Strava Segment for this week is in the shade of Portland’s Forest Park. And it’s a downhill segment. It’s also easy to determine the start and finish – it’s right there in the title!
Alder is (and I’m making and educated guess here) about 0.7 miles from the Thurman Gate, which is actually about 50 meters in from the 0-mile marker of Leif Erickson Trail. You start there and run downhill back towards the gate. The elevation goes from 505 feet to 397 feet, a grade of -4% and a loss of 108 feet over four-tenths of a mile.
This segment, as of August 3, has been attempted 19,147 times by 3,814 people.
As of August 3, 2017, the course records for the PTS Final Sprint from Alder to Porta-Potties are:
Women’s: Chelsea Burns from October 2016, 2:36
Men’s: Andrew Lemoncello from July 2017, 2:10
So, can you beat their times and become the leader of this segment? You have until Friday, August 18 at noon to try and break the record and see your name in “lights” on Run Oregon! We’ll post a new Segment next Friday at 12.
Our segment from two weeks ago was the “Sunstone Slog,” which had 1,587 recorded attempts by 366 people. As of August 3, 2017, that number has risen to 1,644 attempts by 374 people, but there are no new CRs. Keep trying!
Strava is an online training and racing log for runners and cyclists. The basic account is free and requires you to create a login. There is also a premium version, but in order to run and record routes as described in this post, you do not need to subscribe to their premium service. Note that this is not sponsored by Strava, nor endorsed or supported in any way by Strava. It’s just a fun thing we’re going to do to give some speedy shout-outs to area runners and pose a challenge to those of you willing to take on their segment.