Victory is never clear cut in the Stumptown Cross series.
The Stumptown Cross Country Series kicks into high gear with Race #2 on October 14th, a relatively flat and fast 5k tour of Lents Park in SE Portland. Team Red Lizard’s popular XC series offers five races of various distances in parks throughout the city of Portland. The distances and muddiness increase as the season goes on, but the Lents Park course is only 5k and generally dry and firm (whoops, did I just jinx it?), so expect lots of fast times, friendly teamwork and good-natured rivalries.
The course does a double figure-8 around the park, with the only hill occurring at the south end, in the form of a quick descent, a short stretch of level ground, and then a brief climb back up. Other than that, the race is pretty wide open with lots of straight, flat trails and large fields on solid dirt and grass.
Unlike the first race in the series, this one has separate start times for men and women, so each gender can relax while not racing and cheer on the other. Cross country is as much fun to watch as it is to run, in fact maybe even more fun (says the road running enthusiast!). But seriously, this is the best of both worlds, a chance to race all out and also watch an exciting race.
The stampede is on at the start of the 2015 Men’s 5K at Lents Park (Win Goodbody photo)
The series offers team competition in various age categories, as well as a new series-long individual scoring system, but each individual race is a high quality fun event in its own right, so whether you plan on running all five races or just one or two, you’ll have a dusty (or muddy) good time!
What: Stumptown Cross Country, Race #2
When: Saturday, October 14th
Where: Lents Park, SE 92nd Ave. and Holgate Blvd., Portland
What time: Women – 9:00a; Men – 9:30a
Registration: $50 for the full series, or $15 for each individual race ($20 per race on race morning). You can register online HERE. (Team Red Lizard members can claim a discount on the series and individual races.)
