Oh, yes! Event 45 in the 50@50 Project! Sorry about my absence. Things are getting crazy around HQ these days, what with our preparations for a HUGE fiftieth event! Have trail shoes, will travel.
To recap, Event 44 was the extreme Ole's Assault put on by our dear friends at XDog Events. Number 45 in the quest was held three days later, and was one of the Portland Trail Series runs in beautiful Forest Park. The course for this, the second race in the fall series, looked a little something like this:
Blogger Me: (Insert course map here)
Procrastinator Me: (I couldn't find it.)
Blogger Me: (Well, did you check the Portland Trail Series website?)
Procrastinator Me: (Um, YES. I'm not stupid.)
Blogger Me: (One could argue that.)
Procrastinator Me: (Watch it.)
Blogger Me: (Did you check the Facebook page?)
Procrastinator Me: (Yes. They didn't post it there, either. They put up a link to the website and it brings you to the course map for the third race.)
Blogger Me: (Hmmm...)
Procrastinator Me: (It appears they overwrite the old maps when they post the new route every other week.)
Blogger Me: (Well, that's what you get for waiting so long to write up the post!)
Procrastinator Me: (Yeah, yeah...)
So anyway, the course was a little over five miles and involved a similar start and the requisite hills, rocks, roots and such found in any Forest Park run. Since the first race two weeks ago was a little dark at the finish, we considered bringing the head lamps. Camera Crew and I discussed this while getting ready to head to the start, but decided that since the course was shorter and it was 'only two weeks later so how much darker could it possibly be', we made the call to leave the lights at home. Um, yeah. In hindsight, head lamps would have been a grand idea.
The crowd was about the same size as the first run two weeks prior. Like I've said before, we start to recognize the same folks from event to event. Especially at the extreme and trail races, since these types of events draw a certain type of person. Crazy - like us.
What can I say? I enjoy pushing my limits. I know I am not 20 or 30 or even 40, and not in prime shape ('round' is a shape, right?) and I know it takes longer to recover from beating myself up at these races. But I love it! It's weird. I think I enjoy the mental aspect more than the physical part. For me, I know my body can do most anything I ask of it and I also know that if my mind quits, I quit. So it's a mental battle during the tough times. I've completed four marathons and my running group coach always said "Mentally, you split a marathon into 'halves' - miles 1 through 20, and mile 21 to the finish." If you're going to crack it's in the second 'half' for sure.
My biggest mental challenge during this project was, by far, the Dirty Duathlon back in April. But at this point in the journey and doing events so close together, I find it in some ways more challenging. Face it - I was still pretty beat up from Ole's Assault and my back was killin' me. The thought of having to go out three days later for another event was depressing. But I love running in Forest Park and being able to hang another bib number in the Hall of Fame was incentive enough.
So... the race started! Up Leif, left on some trail, up to Wildwood, onto some other trail, big drop down, then climb back up along Wildwood, down another steep-ass hill to Leif to the finish. If only it had gone that smoothly.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I fell - again. Recall that during Ole's Assault, my feet went out from under me and I landed square flat on my back. And now, on the descent during this run, in the waning 'maybe we shoulda brought the head lamps after all' daylight, I tripped. I went ass over tea kettle, and did what I felt was a pretty good shoulder roll, James Bond-style. Graceful, I know. Sprawled out on my back, staring up at the darkening sky through the trees, back aching, I heard a voice ask "You alright, man?" I looked over and there was a dog staring down on me. I thought to myself 'Maybe I smacked my head a little harder than a think. The dog is talking to me.' It was a German short-haired pointer, an intelligent breed, so I figured if a dog WAS going to talk, it could very well be this one. Alas, no. The dog was right next to me, blocking from view the owner, who was standing behind him. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.
After letting the guy and his god, er, 'dog' know I was okay, Camera Crew waited while I got up, brushed off, retrieved my water bottle and my dignity from the trail. Then she took off downhill and was out of sight in no time. Me? I was sore and it was dark enough that I had trouble seeing the trail. Confidence thoroughly shaken, I slowly picked my way to the bottom, back down to Leif. Camera Crew was waiting for me, but only long enough to make sure I made it down the single track. Then she was off again! Seems she took seriously my threat to tug on her ponytail, so she just wasn't going to let me get close enough to attempt that. Smart girl.
I crossed the finish line a minute or two behind Camera Crew. She was smiling, which is encouragement enough for me. This was another good race, a beautiful route (of course) and another reminder of why we love Portland.
For me and my dirty clothes, it was also a reminder of why Portland Trail Series calls this the 'fall' races.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
50@50 Project - Event 44 - XDog's Ole's Assault - Intro
Notice how clean we are here, before the race...
Toughest Course Yet
It's getting harder to write about XDog's events because, while they are similar in a lot of ways, they are each unique animals. I could pretty much cut and paste from previous posts on this blog and get damn close to describing the latest and greatest race - Ole's Assault, Event 44 - but that would be cheating, right? This post may sound much like the ones for McCubbin's Gulch or the Mt. Hood Scramble or Whine on the Vine. But take any part of any one of those events and amp it up another 30-40-50% - and you have Ole's Assault.
Let's start with the distance. This is the longest scramble in the series, the course varying each year a little depending on Kevin's mood. This year's route came in at 7.2 miles, give or take.
Next let's analyze Kevin's pre-race comments on the course. He usually says something cheeky like 'It's 6 miles but it'll feel like 8!" Or it's five and a half but it'll feel like 7!" Always with a big grin on his face, too. For Ole's Assault?
"It's a little over 7 but it'll feel like 15!"
How right he was...
Throw in rain in the days leading up to the event (not to mention thunder, lightning and rain DURING), add in steeper hills and gullies and ravines, lower obstacles that are crazy hard for a guy 6'4" - and you have a much more epic-er XDog outing.
The race is held on property just outside of Astoria, OR. Ole was the original owner of much of the land in the area, and his granddaughter and her family still own and work the land today. They run a logging operation and do it in a sustainable way, which is pretty awesome.
We had driven over the night before and camped at Cape Disappointment out near Ilwaco, WA. We scored a nice little campsite at the end of the road and enjoyed a fairly quiet evening. Camera Crew even got in a little kite flying. I don't mean a short span of time kite flying; I mean a 'little kite'.
It started sprinkling a little just as the sun was going down so we were forced indoors (tent) earlier than we would have liked, given the mild temps. But we played cards (I crushed her at Crazy 8's, she killed me at Go Fish), then we hit the hay so we could be well rested for the big day of killing ourselves.
We got up the next morning after a wonderfully restful sleep, fired up the camp stove to heat water for coffee and tea. We made breakfast - fruit and PBJ's, then broke camp. The drive over to Klaskanine River Park took about 45 minutes. We were enjoying the windy roads of Highway 202 out of Astoria and blew right past the turn off to the race start. We joked that we did that intentionally because we were both feeling a little apprehension over this event.
Ole's Assault brought out the usual XDog crazies. Many people look familiar since we've seen them many times over the last several months. A few asked what event number we were on - we're famous that way. I've said it before - this crowd is awesome. A special breed of people who are always more interested in a good time than in their finish time. We hit the restrooms and waited for the pre-race announcements, which are always entertaining. The gist of the instructions are 'if you get lost or hurt yourself, it's your own damn fault'. To start us off, Kevin led us out in the truck for the first 1.25 miles on some paved and gravel roads, then released us upon the 'trails'. Or maybe it was 'released the trails upon us'.
There were many obstacles on the course, some man made and others placed by Mother Nature. It seems there were a lot of 'duck under and/or crawl' obstacles, which were brutal to my lower back. Standing back up straight got more difficult the further along we went. To rub a little lemon juice into the cut, we were standing on a very steep bank sizing up the best way to get to the bottom of a particularly nasty gully, when alluvasudden my feet went out from under me in the slimy mud and I landed square flat on my back. Ouch. Still hurts today - partly because of another fall a few days later!
That, kids, is what we call foreshadowing.
About two-thirds of the way through we came across a young man named Jake, about 15, who was visibly upset. We asked if he was okay and he replied that his mom had fallen, hit her head and was bleeding, so he was trying to find help. Camera Crew is a trained Wilderness First Responder and I have a fair share of training as well. So we asked a few questions - not enough, as it turned out - and decided to backtrack to find them, see what we could do to help. Jake was with some other runners so we sent them on the way out. The info we got made it sound like his mom was just back up the trail a little ways. Thankfully, we met up with the boys older brother, Aiden, and found out a couple of vital pieces of information: His mom hadn't fallen and hit her head, but rather had smacked it while ducking under a log. Big difference. The velocity of a fall would lend itself to a more serious injury, but bumping your pumpkin could only be so bad, since one would theoretically be moving a little slower while maneuvering under a deadfall. And we found out that she was actually back very near the start of the trail portion of the race, not any where near where we were. So we decided to re-retrace our route, and head back along the course with Aiden until we got to a point to hook up with the road. We found the younger brother and left them near the road to be picked up by volunteers. A gal named Liz came through saying she had arranged help to get to the mom via the road and that there were a couple of soldiers with her and her husband. So those guys would definitely be trained to help her out.
Well, we were pretty frazzled by all that excitement, confusion and extra effort. The finish was a little anti-climactic because we were just a little fried from the course and the backtracking. Needless to say, this race was exceptionally epically awesomely difficult - and fun, in it's own devilish way. It was as advertised - the toughest XDog event of the season. As usual, we felt a unique sense of accomplishment that comes from the extreme nature of a challenge such as this. It pushes your limits as well as your buttons, a test of physical and mental toughness. We did pretty well in both categories, for the most part. I will say that at least I wasn't speaking in tongues like after the Dirty Duathlon back in April.
I'm sure Ole was looking down at the spectacle, laughing his ass off.
We took Highway 30 back to Portland. I like this drive - it's interesting and traffic moves along. But, wow, my back was killing me. Sitting still while driving just made it tighten up, which made unloading the SUV fun. Oh well - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
Let's start with the distance. This is the longest scramble in the series, the course varying each year a little depending on Kevin's mood. This year's route came in at 7.2 miles, give or take.
Next let's analyze Kevin's pre-race comments on the course. He usually says something cheeky like 'It's 6 miles but it'll feel like 8!" Or it's five and a half but it'll feel like 7!" Always with a big grin on his face, too. For Ole's Assault?
"It's a little over 7 but it'll feel like 15!"
How right he was...
Throw in rain in the days leading up to the event (not to mention thunder, lightning and rain DURING), add in steeper hills and gullies and ravines, lower obstacles that are crazy hard for a guy 6'4" - and you have a much more epic-er XDog outing.
The race is held on property just outside of Astoria, OR. Ole was the original owner of much of the land in the area, and his granddaughter and her family still own and work the land today. They run a logging operation and do it in a sustainable way, which is pretty awesome.
We had driven over the night before and camped at Cape Disappointment out near Ilwaco, WA. We scored a nice little campsite at the end of the road and enjoyed a fairly quiet evening. Camera Crew even got in a little kite flying. I don't mean a short span of time kite flying; I mean a 'little kite'.
It started sprinkling a little just as the sun was going down so we were forced indoors (tent) earlier than we would have liked, given the mild temps. But we played cards (I crushed her at Crazy 8's, she killed me at Go Fish), then we hit the hay so we could be well rested for the big day of killing ourselves.
We got up the next morning after a wonderfully restful sleep, fired up the camp stove to heat water for coffee and tea. We made breakfast - fruit and PBJ's, then broke camp. The drive over to Klaskanine River Park took about 45 minutes. We were enjoying the windy roads of Highway 202 out of Astoria and blew right past the turn off to the race start. We joked that we did that intentionally because we were both feeling a little apprehension over this event.
Ole's Assault brought out the usual XDog crazies. Many people look familiar since we've seen them many times over the last several months. A few asked what event number we were on - we're famous that way. I've said it before - this crowd is awesome. A special breed of people who are always more interested in a good time than in their finish time. We hit the restrooms and waited for the pre-race announcements, which are always entertaining. The gist of the instructions are 'if you get lost or hurt yourself, it's your own damn fault'. To start us off, Kevin led us out in the truck for the first 1.25 miles on some paved and gravel roads, then released us upon the 'trails'. Or maybe it was 'released the trails upon us'.
There were many obstacles on the course, some man made and others placed by Mother Nature. It seems there were a lot of 'duck under and/or crawl' obstacles, which were brutal to my lower back. Standing back up straight got more difficult the further along we went. To rub a little lemon juice into the cut, we were standing on a very steep bank sizing up the best way to get to the bottom of a particularly nasty gully, when alluvasudden my feet went out from under me in the slimy mud and I landed square flat on my back. Ouch. Still hurts today - partly because of another fall a few days later!
That, kids, is what we call foreshadowing.
About two-thirds of the way through we came across a young man named Jake, about 15, who was visibly upset. We asked if he was okay and he replied that his mom had fallen, hit her head and was bleeding, so he was trying to find help. Camera Crew is a trained Wilderness First Responder and I have a fair share of training as well. So we asked a few questions - not enough, as it turned out - and decided to backtrack to find them, see what we could do to help. Jake was with some other runners so we sent them on the way out. The info we got made it sound like his mom was just back up the trail a little ways. Thankfully, we met up with the boys older brother, Aiden, and found out a couple of vital pieces of information: His mom hadn't fallen and hit her head, but rather had smacked it while ducking under a log. Big difference. The velocity of a fall would lend itself to a more serious injury, but bumping your pumpkin could only be so bad, since one would theoretically be moving a little slower while maneuvering under a deadfall. And we found out that she was actually back very near the start of the trail portion of the race, not any where near where we were. So we decided to re-retrace our route, and head back along the course with Aiden until we got to a point to hook up with the road. We found the younger brother and left them near the road to be picked up by volunteers. A gal named Liz came through saying she had arranged help to get to the mom via the road and that there were a couple of soldiers with her and her husband. So those guys would definitely be trained to help her out.
Well, we were pretty frazzled by all that excitement, confusion and extra effort. The finish was a little anti-climactic because we were just a little fried from the course and the backtracking. Needless to say, this race was exceptionally epically awesomely difficult - and fun, in it's own devilish way. It was as advertised - the toughest XDog event of the season. As usual, we felt a unique sense of accomplishment that comes from the extreme nature of a challenge such as this. It pushes your limits as well as your buttons, a test of physical and mental toughness. We did pretty well in both categories, for the most part. I will say that at least I wasn't speaking in tongues like after the Dirty Duathlon back in April.
I'm sure Ole was looking down at the spectacle, laughing his ass off.
We took Highway 30 back to Portland. I like this drive - it's interesting and traffic moves along. But, wow, my back was killing me. Sitting still while driving just made it tighten up, which made unloading the SUV fun. Oh well - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
Friday, September 13, 2013
Big Week Coming Up!!
We here at the 50@50 Project strive to keep you, the reader and follower and supporter, entertained. It's because of this crazy commitment that we will be attempting to hurt ourselves next week, not in one event but in three.
First up - Event 44: This Sunday is an XDog Event (I could stop right there and you'd get the point) - Ole's Assault. We've never done this race. It's rumored to be the toughest, most badass XDog event on the calendar. The website says the average racer will take 2 to 2.5 hours to complete the course. An as yet to be determined number of miles in the forested mountains of the Coast Range near Astoria, OR with 'no less than 10 challenging obstacles' on the course. Yippee.
This fat kid is in trouble.
(Note to Kevin at XDog: I love you and hate you.)
Next up will be Event 45: Race #2 in the Portland Trail Series. This one is an evening run on Wednesday. If the first course we ran a couple of weeks ago,for Event 43, was any indication, these guys like hills.
Camera Crew - don't forget to wear your hair up...
And then, the following Sunday - Event 46 AND (more importantly) our first wedding anniversary!!!! XDog's (there they are again) Ride-Row-Run, an extreme triathlon. Yep. This is how everyone celebrates their anniversary, right? Right? No? Hmmm...
So our one year celebration will be in Maupin, OR where we'll bike 26 miles, then kayak the river for three miles, then run four miles to the finish line. I'm going to say this now - ouch.
What's that? I could have just gotten Camera Crew some flowers and a card? Son of a...
So, yeah. Three potentially grueling and painful events in 8 days. I hope this makes you very happy.
First up - Event 44: This Sunday is an XDog Event (I could stop right there and you'd get the point) - Ole's Assault. We've never done this race. It's rumored to be the toughest, most badass XDog event on the calendar. The website says the average racer will take 2 to 2.5 hours to complete the course. An as yet to be determined number of miles in the forested mountains of the Coast Range near Astoria, OR with 'no less than 10 challenging obstacles' on the course. Yippee.
This fat kid is in trouble.
(Note to Kevin at XDog: I love you and hate you.)
Next up will be Event 45: Race #2 in the Portland Trail Series. This one is an evening run on Wednesday. If the first course we ran a couple of weeks ago,for Event 43, was any indication, these guys like hills.
Camera Crew - don't forget to wear your hair up...
And then, the following Sunday - Event 46 AND (more importantly) our first wedding anniversary!!!! XDog's (there they are again) Ride-Row-Run, an extreme triathlon. Yep. This is how everyone celebrates their anniversary, right? Right? No? Hmmm...
So our one year celebration will be in Maupin, OR where we'll bike 26 miles, then kayak the river for three miles, then run four miles to the finish line. I'm going to say this now - ouch.
What's that? I could have just gotten Camera Crew some flowers and a card? Son of a...
So, yeah. Three potentially grueling and painful events in 8 days. I hope this makes you very happy.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
50@50 Project - Event 43 - Portland Trail Series - Intro and Wrap
The first run in a five run series, 5.78 miles in length.
This was an evening run and two days after a 10k trail run. So neither of us was very excited to do this event, at least until we got going. Once it started, we had a blast, naturally.
As you will see in the first vid, Camera Crew was not a happy camper. I'm posting the Intro and Wrap together so you can see the difference a trail run makes! Haha!
Enjoy!
Intro:
Water bottle - check
Running hat - check
Watch - check
Grumpy wife and running partner - check
Wrap:
Look who's all rainbows and unicorns!!
This was an evening run and two days after a 10k trail run. So neither of us was very excited to do this event, at least until we got going. Once it started, we had a blast, naturally.
As you will see in the first vid, Camera Crew was not a happy camper. I'm posting the Intro and Wrap together so you can see the difference a trail run makes! Haha!
Enjoy!
Intro:
Water bottle - check
Running hat - check
Watch - check
Grumpy wife and running partner - check
Wrap:
Look who's all rainbows and unicorns!!
Back on the Trails - Two Days Later
As you saw in the previous post, we had returned to our beloved Forest Park! On Labor Day, we had completed the Wildwood Trail 10k. And here it was two days later on Wednesday for Event 43 in the 50@50 Project - the Portland Trail Series. As the name suggests, this is a series of runs put on as a fundraiser for the Forest Park Conservancy. This organization works to protect, foster, and preserve the ecological health of the park as well as inspire appreciation and future stewardship of this magnificent place. At 5,000 acres, it is the largest naturally forested urban park in the US. Take that, Seattle!! Read all about it at www.forestparkconservancy.org
The trail runs in this series are held every other Wednesday and consists of five races. The first four of these will be official 50@50 events - numbers 43, 45, 47 and 49. We'll be missing the last one because we will be, uh, er... 'out of town'. These events will be fun mostly because each course will be of a different distance on different trails, so we'll get to re-visit more of the park. Which is wonderful, truly.
I really had no idea what to expect as we drove up to the top of NW Thurman for the start of the race. Registration for the series is limited to 150 people but there are usually no shows. I wasn't sure how formal the event would be or how many people would show up. As it turns out, the races are chip timed and they had a big official timing clock, a check-in table, water, etc. - all the trappings of a real live event!! Sweet! Surveying the crowd, I noticed that most of the runners looked to be, well, runners. I'm a big guy at 6'4" and packing some extra weight, so I stand out as the most Clydesdale of Clydesdales at most events, especially the smaller ones like this. For those who don't know, 'Clydesdale' is a special category at runners - means we're all big fellas. Anyhoo, seeing all these wimpy-size people never bothers me. I feel good about getting out and participating. And, hell, this was Event 43, remember. I am confident that no one in this crowd, other than Camera Crew, had done 42 events since January prior to showing up at the trail head.
Now, you all know I love Camera Crew very much. But I have to say, she was a little grumpy as we milled around waiting for the start. This was another of those evening races, something we still haven't adjusted to yet. We're 'run in the morning' folks, so evening is all about cooking dinner and winding down. I was still sore from the 10k trail run two days earlier, so wasn't super excited about this one. But Camera Crew was downright pissy. She had to come home from a day of work, then get ready to go out and run. She really didn't want to be there. But we love running trails and so I finally told her 'You know that as soon as this is over, you'll be grinning from ear to ear!' She was.
In fact, I'll post the intro video and the wrap video together. You'll see the difference. And you will laugh. I promise.
Our course for the run looked like this:
For reference, as a general rule any part of the course that runs right to left is predominantly steeply uphill and (of course) left to right is out-of-control downhill. The trail rolls up and down for a lot of it but Wildwood, Alder, Dogwood, and Wild Cherry can be pretty steep in places. In summation, this was a damn tough course, coming in at 5.78 miles.
The race started and we took off up Leif Erikson for about a mile, which was a nice warm up. Once we turned off on Dogwood, it was fun time! The trail went up and up, met up with Wildwood. We took that to Alder then bombed back down to Leif. Now, I have to tell you that up to this point we had been trading off taking the lead. Shortly down Alder, Camera Crew took the front and she just kept going and going and going. She set quite a quick pace and didn't stop til we got all the way down to Leif! I was pushing to keep up, thinking to myself "Wow, she's either still pissed about having to run or feeling really REALLY good!". Fortunately, it was the latter. After the first mile, her endorphin's kicked in, she realized where we were and got all happy! So by the time we got to Alder, she was thoroughly enjoying herself. When I hit Leif, she was waiting for me, smiling.
We headed back down Leif until we hit Dogwood again, did the same climb as the first loop (see map) but instead of cutting off on Wildwood, we kept going to the tippy-top of Dogwood, as it brushes NW 53rd. We cut off Dogwood onto Wild Cherry for the wild drop back down to Leif. This stretch went on much longer than I remembered, but I tell ya, we were bombing down this trail. I'm writing this three days later and my feet, ankles, and knees are still quite sore and achy from the downhill pounding.
(Also, note to self: consider bringing headlamp next time; it's dark in the woods and trail vision was sketchy at times!)
Once we got to Leif, it was about half a mile to the finish at the park gate. At this point, we're both feeling good and excited to be almost done. We were cruising down the road, a gentle downhill. I'm picking up speed cuz, well, I'm fat and running downhill. Camera Crew speeds up and starts to pass me. I keep pace. She speeds up a little more.
Oh, I see now. It's going to be one of those finishes.
Miss Grumpypants is now in a full out sprint, as am I. I thought - briefly - of reaching over to grab her ponytail to get ahead of her but then wisely considered the repercussions. I usually take her in these sprints - longer legs, longer stride. I'm not sure what had gotten into her, but Camera Crew was matching me straight up. Thank god the finish line came when it did because I was running out of gas. And, as it turned out, I shoulda yanked her hair because the official results had her finishing one second ahead of me.
I call BS.
Like I said before, it was so awesome to be running in Forest Park again. It's gorgeous and this trail series is going to be a blast. I'm very excited to have this be a part of my little project.
But next time, Camera Crew - you better wear your hair up.
The trail runs in this series are held every other Wednesday and consists of five races. The first four of these will be official 50@50 events - numbers 43, 45, 47 and 49. We'll be missing the last one because we will be, uh, er... 'out of town'. These events will be fun mostly because each course will be of a different distance on different trails, so we'll get to re-visit more of the park. Which is wonderful, truly.
I really had no idea what to expect as we drove up to the top of NW Thurman for the start of the race. Registration for the series is limited to 150 people but there are usually no shows. I wasn't sure how formal the event would be or how many people would show up. As it turns out, the races are chip timed and they had a big official timing clock, a check-in table, water, etc. - all the trappings of a real live event!! Sweet! Surveying the crowd, I noticed that most of the runners looked to be, well, runners. I'm a big guy at 6'4" and packing some extra weight, so I stand out as the most Clydesdale of Clydesdales at most events, especially the smaller ones like this. For those who don't know, 'Clydesdale' is a special category at runners - means we're all big fellas. Anyhoo, seeing all these wimpy-size people never bothers me. I feel good about getting out and participating. And, hell, this was Event 43, remember. I am confident that no one in this crowd, other than Camera Crew, had done 42 events since January prior to showing up at the trail head.
Now, you all know I love Camera Crew very much. But I have to say, she was a little grumpy as we milled around waiting for the start. This was another of those evening races, something we still haven't adjusted to yet. We're 'run in the morning' folks, so evening is all about cooking dinner and winding down. I was still sore from the 10k trail run two days earlier, so wasn't super excited about this one. But Camera Crew was downright pissy. She had to come home from a day of work, then get ready to go out and run. She really didn't want to be there. But we love running trails and so I finally told her 'You know that as soon as this is over, you'll be grinning from ear to ear!' She was.
In fact, I'll post the intro video and the wrap video together. You'll see the difference. And you will laugh. I promise.
Our course for the run looked like this:
For reference, as a general rule any part of the course that runs right to left is predominantly steeply uphill and (of course) left to right is out-of-control downhill. The trail rolls up and down for a lot of it but Wildwood, Alder, Dogwood, and Wild Cherry can be pretty steep in places. In summation, this was a damn tough course, coming in at 5.78 miles.
The race started and we took off up Leif Erikson for about a mile, which was a nice warm up. Once we turned off on Dogwood, it was fun time! The trail went up and up, met up with Wildwood. We took that to Alder then bombed back down to Leif. Now, I have to tell you that up to this point we had been trading off taking the lead. Shortly down Alder, Camera Crew took the front and she just kept going and going and going. She set quite a quick pace and didn't stop til we got all the way down to Leif! I was pushing to keep up, thinking to myself "Wow, she's either still pissed about having to run or feeling really REALLY good!". Fortunately, it was the latter. After the first mile, her endorphin's kicked in, she realized where we were and got all happy! So by the time we got to Alder, she was thoroughly enjoying herself. When I hit Leif, she was waiting for me, smiling.
We headed back down Leif until we hit Dogwood again, did the same climb as the first loop (see map) but instead of cutting off on Wildwood, we kept going to the tippy-top of Dogwood, as it brushes NW 53rd. We cut off Dogwood onto Wild Cherry for the wild drop back down to Leif. This stretch went on much longer than I remembered, but I tell ya, we were bombing down this trail. I'm writing this three days later and my feet, ankles, and knees are still quite sore and achy from the downhill pounding.
(Also, note to self: consider bringing headlamp next time; it's dark in the woods and trail vision was sketchy at times!)
Once we got to Leif, it was about half a mile to the finish at the park gate. At this point, we're both feeling good and excited to be almost done. We were cruising down the road, a gentle downhill. I'm picking up speed cuz, well, I'm fat and running downhill. Camera Crew speeds up and starts to pass me. I keep pace. She speeds up a little more.
Oh, I see now. It's going to be one of those finishes.
Miss Grumpypants is now in a full out sprint, as am I. I thought - briefly - of reaching over to grab her ponytail to get ahead of her but then wisely considered the repercussions. I usually take her in these sprints - longer legs, longer stride. I'm not sure what had gotten into her, but Camera Crew was matching me straight up. Thank god the finish line came when it did because I was running out of gas. And, as it turned out, I shoulda yanked her hair because the official results had her finishing one second ahead of me.
I call BS.
Like I said before, it was so awesome to be running in Forest Park again. It's gorgeous and this trail series is going to be a blast. I'm very excited to have this be a part of my little project.
But next time, Camera Crew - you better wear your hair up.
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