Mt. Ashland Hill Climb -- 2:21:21

Working hard, heading uphill, of course. :-)

Beautiful Ashland, Oregon, is the location of this crazy race, the Mt. Ashland Hill Climb. I ran it once before, two years ago, when it surprised me with a ridiculous last half mile of scrambling straight up a steep mountain top. Although the race is only 13.3 miles, I think it's fair to say that it's about the equivalent to 20.5 miles of your typical relatively flat marathon road course.

I ran the race well and paced myself well, and I'm very happy to have shaved off 4 minutes from my previous attempt. I finished 24th, out of 230 finishers.

I got a good laugh out of my Garmin data, especially for the last half mile or so. I think it took me about 16 minutes to go the last 5 or 6 tenths of a mile.

The course is mostly shaded, and although the predicted high in Ashland was 91F that day, I never felt overheated. I didn't carry any water bottles and I drank a cup or two of sports drink at each aid station. I ate one energy gel, around 54 minutes into the race.

My training was somewhat unusual. I didn't exactly taper for this race, since I'm focused on the Santa Rosa Marathon which is just two weeks after this race. So, I ran a slow 12 miles, two days before the race. I bicycled a few miles the day before the race and the morning of the race.

Jennifer, Claire and I enjoyed river rafting on the Rogue River and Jennifer and Claire attended a play at the Shakespeare Festival while I ran the race.

That's my big girl. 12 years old!

Random data:

• Results (click on '2014'): http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=16404#
• Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/566604883
• I chatted with a volunteer, Des Barnes, who ran Miwok 100K this year and plans to do Tahoe Rim Trail 100 next year. Cool! I plan on running TRT 100 also next year.
• Met Win Goodbody, who also ran the Boston Marathon this year, which I ran also.