Run for the Hills

Boy, did I ever. My second race in two days. I was feeling a little shnarky from Friday's festivities (it was one of my labmate's last days, so naturally we had to give her a good send off) and Saturday's celebration (State TTT Champs, yo). But I managed to get out of bed early enough to ride Tigger the 5 miles to the race start in time to register for this fun and local trail run.

Last Wednesday, Cary, the race coordinator, board member of the Greenbelt Land Trust that was the beneficiary of the race, and current fellow Wednesday night speedster who feels no qualms about running my legs off each week, convinced me that this was going to be the most fun to be had on a Sunday morning. Which, ironically, turned out to be true. Just as an aside, the Greenbelt Land Trust is kind of like a not-for-profit Boulder Country Parks and Rec that goes around buying open space around Corvallis to create a green buffer to keep out the big box stores. So, the "Greenbelt" is creating a sort of People's Republic of Corvallis.

My experiences last summer with the Imogene Pass Run convinced me that there is nothing more fun than running trails uphill. So, I was really looking forward to this event, especially as a great test of my fitness leading into next week-ends Dirty Half. The first mile starts off gradually uphill along an asphalt bike path, but quickly pops onto single track and turns up the heat on the incline as we proceeded through some sharp switchbacks. The path narrows and then widens out into horse track around mile two, screaming downhill back to a little bit of the blacktop trail before cutting across a grass field and entering the woods on the backside of Baldy. From this point, the trail undulated, weaved, bobbed, and generally tested the hip flexors before ascending all the way to the top of Bald Hill where we were serenaded by a folk guitarist at mile 3.5 before heading downhill and back to the start/finish area. Throughout the race I picked off the runners in front of me until I found myself running behind a guy wearing Tevas (no joke). I was actually content to stay behind him as I figured he had the best foot placement ever, but he was nice enough to pull up and let me pass. So, I was left to cruise down the hill (I refuse to call it a mountain) into the finish.

My motivation during the race actually came from a ghost runner. Erika's Bill ran the course on Saturday and was kind enough (evil chuckle) to tell me his time before hand. I imagined him at each turn just out of sight. In a way, it was kind of unfair because I had the benefit of other competitors, but I was handicapped by the TTT the day before. But, you won't hear any excuses from me because I beat him in the end.

I thought I was under the radar on this one, but today there was a picture of me (starting the race) on the cover of the Gazette Times. But today's props go to my friend Sydney who was quoted in the paper as saying "I kind of felt like barfing right then" - about the summit of Bald Hill. Don't feel bad. We all did, Chica.