That was quite a hill!
Today was the first ever sanctioned Tiger Mountain Trail Run put on by Northwest Trail Runs. It was run on the backside of Tiger Mountain and had distances of 5k, 12k, Half Marathon and 50k. I had originally signed up for the half but given the nearly 3000′ of climbing and the 9:30 start time I had my doubts I could get done in time to take our new pup, Lira, to the vet by 1 p.m. so I switched to the 12k course. As usual I arrived early to do registration and we had a rocking reg team with Suzanne and Ann both of whom I had worked with before so things went very smoothly. The 50k started at 8:30 with about 25 runners, the half at 9:30 with about 100 and finally the 5k and 12k started at 10:00 with a total of about 115 runners and we started on a different loop than the other starts.
The 12k course began on a logging road with some ups and downs but nothing major for the first few miles. Then we began a big downhill descent and at around 3 miles branched off on our cutoff to a single track trail that was just pretty much straight up from the start. This climb of about 1000′ lasted for 1 mile and there was a LOT of walking involved, I would trot any flatter sections but for the most part walked that mile. I ended up walking and chatting about Luna Sandals, Born to Run and Paleo with a woman who was behind me and after a while we heard some whoops so figured a downhill was approaching. The downhill was fast and fun but you had to really pay attention to your feet, lots of trip potential on this trail. We finally connected back to the road and past the aid station then up the Iverson Railroad Trail which was the 5k cutoff trail. Again some climbing involved at the start of this one but not nearly as grueling as the other climb. Finally the downhill began and we could see the tents at the bottom. I crossed over in 1:26:21 which was about where I figured I would end up on a course of that steepness and distance, 17th overall out of 89 runners.
I wore my Luna Leadvilles and a pair of Injinji merino socks for the run, they worked great and finally no need for the Tabus. I kept up my nose breathing on this run though again didn’t wear my heart rate monitor, I know I was over 125 but I never got to the point where I needed to gulp air. It was interesting because people would pass me on flats or downhills then on slight uphills they would be in oxygen debt and panting and I would just run on by passing them breathing steadily through my nose.
Next up I’m back on the Half Marathon Trail Series at the Spring Eagle run on the 30th. Hopefully by then I can just run in Lunas w/o the need for socks.