Friday night after dinner, Mac's Mom decided to make a Cold Stone run for the family. Mac went along to help lug all seven orders. When they got back, Mac gave me a piece of news with my HUGE ice cream shake: The Mount Wilson Trail Race was tomorrow.
"No, it's not!" I argued back. I knew this race took place on Memorial Day weekend. We were now two weeks past that in June.
"Yeah, it is. They are having the pre-race dinner tonight." Mac answered back. I tried to explain to him about the calendar and Memorial Day not being in June, but he cut me off. "They had to postpone the race because the trail washed out after the fires." I didn't fully believe him until I checked the web, but it was true. Didn't matter though, because the race was already full. But I decided I'd go down to the start anyway; it seemed there would be at least a few cancellations with he date change. Of course, that didn't stop me from consuming all nine-million milk fat calories in my shake - call it carbo loading, hahaha!
Turns out I was right about the cancellations; the race director let me in a half hour before the race started. And so, less than a week later, I was back running on the Mt. Wilson trail. The race is 4.3 miles up to Orchard Camp with a 2100 ft elevation gain and then right back down again. And let me tell you, the trail doesn't get any easier just because you are racing! I am sure I walked about half of the way up - maybe more, but I was in good company! The downhill isn't much easier, because I had to pass nearly two-hundred runners behind me that were still on their way up and manage to not fall off the 2-3 ft wide trail while doing it!
I finished 8th woman (of 72), 42nd overall (of 230), pushing it in to break 90 minutes (1:29:38). That breaks down to 10:26 pace, which before now would have sounded incredibly slow to me. But I respect the power of the hills a lot better now! Plus, I can always blame Cold Stone! I am not sure if I didn't push myself enough or if my legs had finally gotten use to the hill pounding, but I wasn't really sore at all the next day, which was good since we were crammed on plane, flying back to Oregon!
I ran at the gym today and was nearly sick just looking at the treadmill. Looks like I am going to be making some field trips to Silver Falls this summer, which is about the only trails within an hour of here. :(
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