Three Buttes, Sore Butts, Tough runners!

the sign says it all

Well, leave it to Sean Meissner to come up with just about the toughest possible run in the city limits of Bend.  He decided to call it the "Three Butte Butt Buster".  The run would entail running all three prominent buttes in Bend:  Overturf, Pilot, and Awbrey.  Not only that but just getting to and from the buttes was going to make it at least a half marathon.  When Sean suggested it to me I said, "Sean, no one is going to come.  Its going to be you and me looking at each others' butts for 13 miles... "

He thoughtfully took a breath and stated eloquently, "if we run it, they will come...".  Okay, he didn't really say that but it sounded pretty funny didn't it?  

The day before the event he called me and said, "I think we're going to have a pretty good turnout!".  "What, like three?", I responded.

But, as usual (unfortunately) he was right and I was shocked to see the cars pulling in early on Sunday morning to go tackle the three buttes.

Ready for battle!

In all, we had 23 people join us on a SPECTACULAR morning and take on the challenge. First we headed west and climbed up ole Overturf Butte. Ah, that was a nice way to get the morning started and we bombed down the hill and back to Fleet Feet for our first aid station. M&M's, some old Halloween candy, and a chance to fill up our water bottles before heading eastside to tackle the formidable Pilot Butte. Everyone was in good spirits as we motored up Pilot Butte. Sean is in great shape right now and took advantage of the situation to blaze up the road and try and sucker us into tiring ourselves out before heading to Awbrey. Only Matt Lieto took the bait.... and paid for it later!

We were treated to some amazing views and actually warm weather up top. We took our time, enjoyed the sights and then headed to Fleet Feet friends' Chris and Darla's house for our second aid station. We fueled up and "pulled up our big kid pants" as we got ready for our biggest climb of the day! Another nice cool down until we hit the base of Awbrey and started panting and pushing up to the top! One more aid station half way up to fill our water bottles (along with some strange cheerleader chants from our employee Christy) and we headed as far as you can go to the top of Awbrey. Only that stinking new fence kept us from the radioactive cell phone towers!
With all the work behind us, we savored the long downhill back to Fleet Feet. Man, it felt good to finish that one off! 13+ miles 1,700 feet of climbing. All I know is that we have some very tough hombres and hombrettes here in Bend. At the finish, we were treated to some sun, the grass in front of the store, doughnuts, chips, and our Official Sponsor: PBR.
All in all an amazing way to start a Sunday. Thanks to everyone for coming out and making sure that I didn't just have to look at Sean's butt or butte all by myself.

Until next time!