Lord Hell...I Mean Hill

First of all we finished, and I am PROUD of us for that!

Stats:
Time - around 1:10 hours. Average pace was 14.52 per mile. The first 2 miles were slow...over 17 per mile, but included three back to back really steep hills.

Distance - my GPS said 4.76 miles the race was billed as 5 miles so not sure who is wrong them or my GPS.

Elevation - Over 1100 total, with over 750 in the first 1.6 miles alone.


We enjoyed (insert smirk here) snakes, Lord Hill (which was so steep not a single runner ran it, and some of us had to use the tall grass along the side of the trail to help pull ourselves up), mud, horse poop all over the place, water crossing, fallen tree to climb over, HOT SUN beating on us most of the time, beautiful single track trails through the woods, some very steep tricky down hill descents, and trails that were narrow and were steeply slanted toward drop offs.

I answered the question to "do you have to run an entire race to say you ran it?" The answer is HECK NO! We fought for every single step we took walking or running. We ran that race and earned all the mud and sweat we crossed the finish line with.

Even if we had wanted to, and been able to run the entire way we couldn't have because some of the trails were so narrow it was impossible to pass. If the person in front of you was walking so was everyone behind them. There were some brutal up-hill climbs that no one ran, not even the hard core runners, and some of the descents were so riddled with rocks and roots that you couldn't really run or you would fall. Was more of a runners shuffle for a lot of it.

I learned a few things during this race. I LOVE single track trails there the woods that just wind around. So pretty and offered a really nice recover stretch as it was pretty flat. Michelle and I can run 5 miles no problem, as long as it is a "normal" 5 miles race with no crazy ass hills to climb.

This race challenged me in so many ways and I feel so good about completing it. Due to a lot of factors we had a serious lack of training and we have always been sort of lazy in our hill training, but we still made it. With a little more focus and a more steady running schedule longer races are so in our future.

One again Thank You to Michelle! She is my perfect running partner. Offering support when needed and heads up on mud pits, roots and rocks to look out for.

I'm glad it's over, not sure how I feel about doing that one again, we have a year to think about it though. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy feeling pretty BAD ASS for accomplishing what we did today!