My level of anxiety was considerably less going into this race than for
the Moab Red Hot three weeks ago. For one, no extensive traveling was involved.
Flying to a race comes with its own repertoire of worries: carry-on versus
check in, lost luggage preparation, liquids in baggies, delays, germs…the list
goes on. No, for this race, just a 2 ½ hour drive south the day before. Can’t
decide what to pack? Bring everything. No problem.
I also had the opportunity to check out the course two weeks ago.
Knowing the course prior to a race always relieves a significant amount of
nerves for me. And, to be honest, I was
so worked up over the Moab Red Hot that I was still too tired to be that
emotionally strained.
Don’t worry; I was plenty nervous the morning of the race. The
Hillbilly Half is a tour of Capitol Forest, just outside of Olympia, WA. Runners,
volunteers and support crews gathered at the Rock Candy Mountain Trail-head in
mild weather conditions. The Mountain Marathon took off at 8:00 a.m. and the
Hillbilly Half thirty minutes after. During my warm up it started to rain a
little, then a lot.
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| Into the woods. Photo from race volunteers. |
We took off, climbing up and down a gravel service road for the first
mile and a half before disappearing into the woods. Within the first half mile,
I was alone. A group of La Sportiva men took off ahead and I had dropped everyone
behind. Being alone in a race is always a tough spot. You have to be careful to
not become complacent and lulled into a pace that you only think is ‘fast.’ You
must constantly check in and monitor your effort. Luckily just before 4 miles I
started to catch up to the marathoners and their encouragement pushed me
onward. That is, until I came up to one woman.
The encounter was on a single-track trail with a foot deep of mud water
on one side. I approached the woman and said “coming by!” I don’t know if she
heard me, but she didn't budge. I came up on her, put my hand lightly on her shoulder and said excuse
me with no hostility at all. Her
response was shocking, completely baffling and made me question humanity. She
dropped a couple F-bombs in conjunction with some name calling. I told her
there was a race going on (which I thought was obvious?). Apparently she was
f***ing jogging and I disturbed her peace and tranquility. Maybe she just
started and her endorphins had not kicked in yet. Whatever the case, she scared
the crap out of me and I ran the next mile in disbelief of what just happened. I
was scared she was going to get me disqualified, spread rumors about what an
awful human being I was or trap me into a dark corner after the race.
I came to the turnaround which opened back up on to a service road. Within
seconds of the 180 degree turn, I saw that there was a woman right on my heels.
I immediately ditched the idea of having a GU and took off for the 6.5 mile
sprint down the mountain. Then as fate would have it, the crazy woman was
coming up the road. As I passed, she called me the worst name in the history of
vulgar language. I am too embarrassed to even insinuate what it was. Just think
about the worst name you could call somebody and then kick it up a notch. I
couldn't believe the hostility of this woman. It was a definite ‘Curb your
Enthusiasm’ moment. I never got angry. I think I was too stunned and hurt. For
a moment I felt tears well up into my eyes, but shook it off because I had a
race on my hands for crying out loud.
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| In the heat of the chase. |
I ran as hard and as fast as I could. Terrified of another traumatizing
encounter, I apologized profusely for getting in the way of runners coming up
the mountain and thanked those who stepped out of my way. When I popped back
out on the service road for the final mile and half descent, I knew the 2nd
place was right on my heels. Unfortunately, I didn't have the speed or the strength
to hold her off. Sigh. Well done, Paige!
Regardless of the psycho woman and getting passed with a mile to go, I
am happy with my performance. I was only 2 minutes off Megan Kimmel’s course
record and I just felt good. Now I have a solid 6 weeks of training before my
next race; plenty of time to get in quality miles, become stronger and faster
and hopefully be able to hold off my competitors in the last mile.
Stereotypical Pacific Northwest weather continued to rear its ugly head
after the race. The wind was blowing sideways, tents were being blown over and
everything and everybody was soaked. But that didn't stop all of the wonderful
volunteers from feeding us deliciously warm food and cheering in the finishers.
Thank you!
I ran to the car and changed into a completely different outfit hoping
to disguise myself from the profane spewing monster should she show up at the
finish line.
A big thank you to Guerilla Running and race directors, Rachael Jamison
and Craig Dickson, for staying calm, cool and collected in the midst of chaos.
(See their FB page for stories of flying bullets, confused logging trucks and a
stolen car chase.)
Thank you to everyone at La Sportiva, Ian and Everett for all of your
support. Congratulations to all of the fine performances by the La Sportiva ambassadors; way to represent!
Thank you to Seven Hills Running Shop for helping to sponsor the race
and for the $50 gift certificate- awesome!
