Running uphill is difficult stuff!

Posted on July 25, 2007
Filed Under Running

This past weekend Chris and I took part in a little race called the Notch Run. Imagine, if you will, driving to the top of Mount Charleston (a little higher than 8000 feet elevation), parking your car and being bussed 4 miles back down the mountain. Now, get out of the bus (willingly) and now you have to get back to your car… on foot.

The mountain and scenery was absolutely beautiful. I took a couple photos (1, 2, 3, 4), but my camera battery was zapped so after only 4 shots, it had had enough. The weather was great, too. When we got there bright and early, it was right around 50 degrees. A little chilly for just standing around, but once we started the run, with the sun at our back, the weather proved to be perfect.

As for the race itself, it was quite difficult. The entire race was uphill with varying degrees of incline ranging from just a little uphill to a metric shit ton of incline. And of course, the largest amount of incline was nestled between the mile 3 and mile 4 markers making for a fantastically slow finish on my part.

I am happy to report that I finished the race a full 4 minutes faster than I projected. I had assumed it would take me 1 hour to make it up the hill. 55:59:98 was the official time I crossed the line. I was quite pleased with that considering it wasn’t just an every day 4 mile run, there was also 1200 feet of vertical climb thrown in for fun.

After we got home from the run, I had a poker tournament to go play in. I lasted about 2 hours before I foolishly gave all my chips away. By the time I was done with poker, my energy was completely gone. I came home and dozed on the couch the rest of the afternoon/evening before it was finally time to give up the fight and go upstairs and hit the sack properly.

On Sunday morning I got up at 4:45 am and headed out to our weekly meeting with the Las Vegas RoadRunners for a nice 5 mile run. I was a little sore from the previous day’s race, but once I got going, I felt pretty good and ended up running pretty strong. I averaged the exact same pace throughout the 5 mile run as I had the previous week when we only ran 4 miles and not having run the day before. This was certainly a good sign.

Once again it was proven to me that running with a partner is way better than running alone. On Sunday Justin and I kicked some ass on the road. However, on Monday, with nobody at my side to keep me going, I gave in to the power of my normal lazyness (and the oppressive humidity) and cut my morning run short, considerably. This morning I was able to keep myself motivated and ran my full 30 minutes at a satisfying pace. I can definitely feel the progress.

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