In which I run 13.1 miles

The hills I praised so generously here and here? They hate me. No, they really do. Today, I ran more than I have ever run before; I ran for 13.1 miles or thereabouts. The approximation is because this was a trail run, where it is rather hard to measure distances accurately. And the trail has a 1600 feet ascent and descent. There, I had to get that out there before I revealed that it took me 2:37:50 according to the "chip and dale" system used by Enviro-sports. It was definitely much slower than my target time, but I did attain my first target of finishing! And the hills, yeah, were way tougher than I was prepared for. A half mile hill at 20%? Phew.

We started out at 9:10 am from the parking lot of Skyline Ridge County Park. There were 200 participants, the maximum number of permitted runners on the trail. After circling around the lot, we hit the trail, which begins to climb almost immediately. Now, I had followed the online running pundits and planned to do everything just as I had done on my training runs to avoid any unexpected results, except, I had a bottle of Gatorade in my hand. I don't own one of those belt thingies or a camel back, and thought I could wing it by running with the Gatorade in my hand. But as my arms ached, I realized it would not be quite that simple. So about a mile into that first hill, I took a sip of the Gatorade and chucked it behind a tree to be picked up on the way back. After that initial hill, I felt warmed up, and began enjoying myself. Skyline Ridge is a beautiful park with meadows, forests and ridgelines. At one point, I mounted a hill and saw blue-and-white sky and verdant hills stretching endlessly. The sky almost seemed to put both its arms around me in comfort. It felt for a second like I was running off the edge of the earth. Hey, with such a view, not too bad.

Soon, I reached the 3-mile mark, the first turn around. I did not drink anything at the aid station because I could feel the Gatorade I had drunk sloshing somewhere in my depths. No more water, thanks. Now to find the precious Gatorade that I had discarded on my way up. So what had I used as a marker to find that particular tree? You guessed it, the cloud above that tree which was a peculiar shape. But seriously, as I dropped the bottle, I had looked back and tried to capture that view in my head so that I could identify it on my return. And given that I was in better shape on my return downhill, I thought I saw the tree. There sat the artificially-colored, sugar-loaded super liquid in a non-biodegradable plastic bottle! I had won the Earth Day treasure hunt! Oh wait, this is a half marathon.

At the 6-mile mark, I took another swig of the Gatorade, and left it at that aid station. The next mile or so was fairly tame from an elevation standpoint. We passed Horseshoe Pond, a clear and serene pond, which made me want to stop and stare. It all went downhill from there, err, uphill actually. All the 20% hills were in this portion of the run. There was this lady who had been taming the uphills mercilessly, but slowing down on the downhills. I was inspired and ran as much as I could on all the uphill stretches. And overtook her on the downhills (evil grin). All the views were breathtaking, and after a point, I wished I had some breath left. I passed some beautiful meadows where the merry wildflowers pepped me up to the 9 mile mark. Sip some water, chat with uphill-runner-queen and storm downhill. During the last few miles, my legs gently let me know that they were tired. I pretended not to listen, and kept going. Oh the relief when I saw the glistening water of Horseshoe Pond! I stepped up the pace as much as my poor legs would let me and finished! 2:37:50. Not great, and actually quite a poor pace. But for my first half marathon, and with 1600 feet elevation gain, I'll take it.

Such a trail run (as opposed to crowded road runs) is good because for most of the run, I was on my own, occasionally catching sight of someone ahead. This is not to say that people did not pass me or vice versa. Just that it didn't seem clustered. So whether I was exclaiming over a pretty wildflower or cursing the hill, I didn't have to feel too embarrassed about it! Plus you get to share your experience as it happens with fir trees, just-out wildflowers, tranquil ponds, and yes, even those nasty hills. The Enviro-sports volunteers and most runners were friendly and in high spirits. If there was one downside, it was that many portions of the trail were too narrow even for 2 people to cross each other without stepping off the trail. I would recommend Enviro and trail running, but probably not as your first half- or full-marathon. A road run would have probably given me the practice running the distance, and then I could taken on the elevation change as the next step. Very enjoyable and memorable nonetheless. Yay!