Trail Run Nationals One Month Out

Just one month from now on September 13th the XTERRA Trail Run Nationals - a half-marathon on the Deschutes River Trail in Bend, Oregon - will showcase some of the nation's finest harriers on one of the best stretches of trail in the world.

And it's no coincidence that the very best-of-the-best runners are from right there in Bend.  Back to defend his title is Max King (as in the King of XTERRA Trail Running - he won both Nationals and Worlds last year).  Another Bendite, Kami Semick, is the favorite in the women's race.  She was second last year (but she was sick) and all she did this year was win the world ultramarathon championship in Belgium (her 100km time of 7:37:24 was nearly 10 minutes faster than Irina Vishnevskaya of Russia).

King and Semick are regularly featured in RaceCenter Northwest Magazine, and in the August/September issue King was quoted as saying "The urban-to-wild trail system we have in the heart of Bend makes it a great venue for a large scale event like XTERRA Nationals.  It's also nice that I can roll out of my own bed, throw the running shoes on, and jog to the race start as my warm-up."

Nice for Max, maybe, but what about the poor soul traveling in from sea level on the East Coast? You see, Nationals is the culmination of the 2008-2009 XTERRA U.S. Trail Run Series that included more than 50 races in eight regions across the country, and one of the perks for regional series champs is free entry into Nationals.  To date, nearly two dozen of those a-grade runners from from several series (including the New England Series) are taking XTERRA up on the offer and traveling to Central Oregon for the challenge.  Indeed, hundreds of adventurous trail runners from 16 states, Canada and Japan have secured their spot on the start line so far.

Interested runners for this year's 5km and 10km fun runs, as well as the 21km championship race are encouraged to sign-up prior to Aug. 17 when the early-bird rate expires.  A wealth of information about this year's event can be found at xterratrailrun.com.

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