I Love Hills (just not this one)

In Photo: My conquest! (this is just the first 1/2 of the hill)

I don’t know if this hill is called “breakhard hill” or “breakheart hill”. It’s up for debate, but I guess it depends on which direction you are going. There is no question… whichever direction you are heading… it’s a mother of a hill!

Last week I ran into an old friend who loves this hill… primarily because he enjoys giving out speeding tickets at the bottom (though he’d never admit that) and also because he enjoys sprinting up this hill for training. Ever since I spoke with him… I’ve wondered what it would be like to run the hill. Don’t they say… curiosity kills the cat? Anyway… my friend said that he parks at the bottom and then runs the hill as his full workout (I assume he means running both directions). I thought to myself… seriously? It’s only 1km one way… that doesn’t seem very hard… ahhhhhhhh well until I tried it! It’s definitely enough of a workout and next time I run the hill… I’ll park at the bottom too! *smiles*

Today, I had to an appt at the car dealership. It’s 1.5 kilometres from this mother of a hill. I decided instead of just sitting around watching tv in their customer service area or texting my friends that I’d go for a run. I already ran intervals on the trails with Dawn and Krista this morning… but I felt like I could go for another run… it’s Friday… I deserve a treat. So I decided to crank the Black Eyed Peas on my iPod and jog to the hill as my warm-up… then go for it when I get to the bottom.

For those of you not familiar with this hill… the total length from base to crest is exactly 1km… steady incline with varying degrees of difficulty. Normally, it takes me 4 1/2 to 5 minutes to run 1km… I was pretty certain that it might take me upwards of 15 mins to run this hill… I really had no idea… but to my surprise it only took 6 mins and 23 seconds!

In Photo: This is about at the 1/2 way mark! (again the entire hill cannot be viewed in one photo – but take my word for it… it’s intense)

Honestly, 2 mins into the hill I was tasting blood (or whatever that taste is in my mouth that reminds me of the first day I started running)… I didn’t let that stop me… I kept a steady pace and there was no way my body was going to stop until I hit the top. After about 4 minutes in, I could see the crest of the hill coming so it got easier to finish.

Needless to say… when I reach the top I felt like I just climbed Mount Everest… only I didn’t have a little Canadian flag with me to mark that I made it!

Once I reached the top, I decided that I definitely needed to walk down the hill to let my body recover… unfortunately my heart rate monitor is broken so I have no idea how intense my heart was beating while I ran up this hill… but I could feel it beat through my skin! At the bottom of the hill I decided to run the 1.5kms back to the dealership… I was out of water which really sucked… but I thought I could make it. Within the first 200 feet of running my calves started cramping… I thought to myself… ok what does this mean? Am I not giving these muscles enough oxygen or do I need more potassium in my diet? Regardless of what was causing the cramping… I decided to walk back to the dealership instead of pushing it since I did achieve my goal already (and I still have bootcamp tonight). The first thing I did when I got home was eat a banana (just incase it’s a vitamin deficiency… even though I’m pretty sure that was not the problem)!

Am I glad I ran the hill today… Yes, definitely! Am I interested in running it again anytime soon? Not really! *smiles*