Luke - 7.8

7.8mi, 62:49 (8:03)

Zack had a couple friends in town, one (Porter) a Marine and the other (DT) a runner (he was in town last year a bit, ran a Beer Mile with us...has run 15:40 for 5k). The four of us drove up to the Willamette Street parking lot of Ridgeline and took the trail four miles out, to the top of Mt. Baldy, and then 3.8 miles back (a slightly shorter way on one section of the trail). On the way out I led, and didn't go too crazy fast since this was a pretty tough route and Porter had been running a lot more than he's used to (for the test he has to take there's a 3-Mile run, and a perfect score is anything below 18 minutes, so that's his goal). Everyone was breathing pretty heavily as we got to the turnaround--the last section is pretty steep (Chris, this was on your section of the Ridgeline Ramble, where you said you'd mountain biked before). After a few minutes' rest, Zack led us back down the hill. After crossing Fox Hollow Road there's a big uphill section with lots of switchbacks, and Zack was picking it up very gradually, very sneakily. I noticed right away. I asked something like, "So...are we racing back then?" and he just sorta laughed. Pretty soon he was keeping up a torrid pace, and around each switchback, where it's the steepest and a normal runner would be taking a few slower steps, Zack was surging mightily. DT was in second and I was in third, and Porter was breathing really heavily but hanging tough. I kept thinking of passing, but Zack was going just fast enough that I couldn't pass DT and him in one go. A bit after the trail turned into rolling hills instead of just uphill, Zack finally peeled off and let me and DT pass. I surged past DT shortly thereafter, when the trail was wide enough, and he stuck on me as we started flying through the trails. (Steve, this is the section you went fast on that time we went out there with that KB guy.) I was sprinting all out and DT was right behind me the whole time. I kept trying to run the legs off him, but I just couldn't shake him. We were going a suicidal pace, and around one blind corner we had to pretty much stop cold, as there was a giant bottom-of-a-tree-trunk that the trail went around sharply. Every once in a while I'd go from a sprint to a very fast run as my energy ran out, and I kept thinking that DT would pass me, but he was on the same sprint-rest schedule as me and just never had quite enough to go around me. I think if I hadn't passed him as soon as I did I would have been right behind him the whole time. I pulled away slightly right at the end, as I went just a little bit more recklessly down the steep gravelly hill.

Our time was 35:29 going out and 27:19 coming back (though the return journey was about a minute shorter due to taking the different trail on that one section). I cannot overstate how much fun it was going so fast for that last mile and a half or two miles. A good run to look back on when a day of training just feels rough and I'm wondering why I'm out there...it's so I can do runs like this.