Sunday, February 26, 2012

Race report: Lord Hill 5mi

Today was the Lord Hill trail race.  I waffled on doing this one a bit - the race was nearly an hour a way and it's tough justifying being gone for 3+ hours on a weekend when that's my toddler time.  Then again, last night I enjoyed toddler time from 3-6am when Cole decided to start screaming  because he wanted up.  Last night I was 95% certain I wouldn't do the race - I was already mapping out my long run while drifting off to sleep.  I had one of those internal "momologues" where I thought "what's it mean to be a great mom" and "how can I balance"? 

This morning I woke and decided to do the 5mi course instead of the 10mi.  So after getting the boys situated for breakfast and trying desperately to find a pair of running shoes that matched, I bee-lined out of the house and hit the road.  Getting to the event itself was tough - my directions said to take the 520 but as soon as I got to the 520 I found it was closed (!!)  Then I re-routed in a much further direction.  On the road I went through a sunny patch, then rain, then snow.  During one of these weird weather changes the car in front of me had a major blow-out and the tire popped, literally, causing fire.

After the adventure of driving to the race, I made it just in time to park, run down to the check in desk, get my number, and go.  The race was muddy.  That doesn't even do it justice - I got dirtier than when Matt and I did the Rock 'n Run.  The course started through a stream, then up a hill, then another, and then a third.  The hills were tough, but almost worst was the fact I kept sliding backwards down - yikes!  The course cut off into what looked like an Ewok forest on a single track trail through the trees.  Then I was sprinting downhill hoping I wouldn't hit a rock or stick.  When the course flattened out I fell into a giant puddle of mud only to get up and run back through the stream that was at the start - at least I could clean off.

In the end I WON - hurray!  I came in first woman at 42:03.  Not too shabby for not wanting to race this morning.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow! That is great!

Lucy Autrey Wilson said...

Great post. Race sounds like fun. Wish I could have done it with you!