Last week's Portland Trail Series race was advertised as "5.56 miles of Forest Park goodness." (Race #1, Race #2)
Two days before the race, organizers post the map and tiny description: "What? Downhill? This week's race includes Holman Lane, which we usually send runners up, but not this time."
Most of the other racers run regularly in Forest Park, but because I don't, I'm really running blind. I just follow the people in front of me and try to hang on. So I was pretty excited when it mentioned downhill. The problem was, we paid for that steep downhill with a long uphill after:
And since I don't know the routes, I don't know if I should go hard or hold back because of what's still to come. Also... my TomTom seems to lose signal a lot in the canyons so I don't have a good sense of how long I'm actually be running. My GPS had this at just 5.17, and I was happy to be done a half-mile "early"! :)
I finished in 56:36. My pace, calculated on the 5.56 distance, was 10:10. I placed a bit better this week - 11/16 in my division, 42/55 in females, and 102/125 overall.
I will say it again... these are TOUGH! I am in way over my head. But I'm so glad for the challenge and for the experience. :)
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