The Hills of 2016

Making Peace with Hills

At one point I used to avoid running courses with hills.  Living on the East Coast, it was easier to enter a pretty flat rise with a couple of bumps in the road.  On the West Coast, you can expect some hills and some are very tough!

Sage Rat Run

Hills almost beat me at the Dirty Rat Trail Run during the Sage Rat Run weekend.  My husband and I had run the 12K the day before, which was pretty flat with one significant but short hill that I remember.  Day two during the trail race, it was WAY tougher than I expected.  We chose the 10K and I'm so glad I stuck with the 10K distance.  I knew hills were part of the course, so I had thought about switching to the 15K the day before and so happy I didn't!

The 10K starts in a little town square and shortly into the first mile takes a steep climb up and up and up and up...it seemed to never end!  I'm not talking a hill that is just long but also a very steep grade.  I saw people walking backwards to try and make it up the hill in many places.  The 10K felt like a half marathon during the uphill climb.  But, once we got to the top and turned around, I was averaging 10:30 minute/mile for the remainder of the race!  I was so excited to run continuously at that pace.  My husband actually earned a 3rd place finish in his age group during the 12K, so he ran with me on the trail race.  We earned every bit of the 6 inch medal!  Yes, I said 6 inch medal!

So, here's to the hills! It won't be the last hills I'll see on the left coast!