Worth The Climb

This was pretty freaking awesome. It is an 8 mile run in Liberty Lake Park and it was beautiful. The Trail Maniacs hosted the run; they are a group here in Spokane that puts on a trail series in various parks in Washington and Idaho. I think they do some other organized runs as well, I am not sure. Since my current job only has maybe a week of schedule out at a time I was surprised to learn I was off this weekend so I could do this run. Jesse ended up having to work from 6am to 6pm at his job so it was a solo adventure for me. It was supposed to be a crappy rainy day but it ended up sunny and beautiful. There was only one rain cloud that sprinkled a few drops on us late in the run. 

Now, since I signed up last minute, I didn’t really research what this was going to be like. I read the brief description on Ultra signup but didn’t give it too much thought. Then when I got there I saw that they were selling these awesome sweatshirts. I was not going to get one since we have so much stuff already but it was the last one and it had an elevation profile on it of the course. The interesting part was that they had it in comparison to Bloomsday. Now if you read an earlier post, Jesse did that run and loved it. Comparing the two could not be more different of course, road vs trail, world known with 42,000 runners vs a local run with about 150 runners. But what made me nervous was how intense the uphill was; hell one of them was pretty much vertical. Images and reality are often different and yes it was hard to do but not impossible. Plus the views were worth it.

We started off on a gravel path before heading to the single track. The first mile was pretty level and then we got to the hill named Edith. It is actually named for a person that did a great deal of work with the parks but it was steep! Just about everyone I could see was walking and the RD did mention at the beginning that we probably would be and there is no shame in walking.

After what seemed like 4 miles of up, we came to an aid station. Unfortunately they had run out of cups and I wanted something other than the water in my hydration vest so I ate half a banana and used my banana peel to drink some of the blue Gatorade. It worked! I should probably invest in a folding cup so that doesn’t happen again.

Now we came to the downhill part and it was awesome! There were waterfalls and stream crossings and fun creaky bridges. It was great. I felt giddy and really enjoyed myself. I probably could have had a better finishing time had I not stopped to take so many pictures but I could not help myself. It was wonderful.

What you cannot experience with these pictures is how perfect the temperature was. I love running when it is a little cooler and with the trees, and the fact that it had rained a bit overnight it was just right for me. Also the intense aroma of pine and cedar from the surrounding trees was great. At that time I was all alone and just running along this great trail experiencing all the sights and sounds and smells and I could not have been happier. It was one of those times that make you feel lucky to be able to run. I need to bring Jesse back with me so we can hike it in reverse. I have a hunch I missed some nice waterfalls because I was enjoying the downhill running too much!

At the finish they had pancakes and sausage with some other snacks and of course beer. I enjoyed all of it and sat in the sunshine for a little while. It was a great day and a great run. I can’t wait to go back and take Jesse with me. Washington running has been good to me.

 

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