Good evening friends!!
Saturday is nearing an end and I wanted to update you all on my new feat of conquering Mt. Spokane. As you all know from my previous post, I picked to run up Mt. Spokane in preparation for Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back, Utah. I climbed 7 miles up hill and it was brutal.
First things first though. I was able to get some grocery shopping done Friday during my lunch break, so I would have more time to unpack all my boxes from moving.
I also found some great chocolate that I couldn’t pass up grabbing.
Dark chocolate is my guilty pleasure. I love it!!
Ok, now we can get down to business. I woke up at 6 am this morning to get ready for my run. I had to drive about 20-25 minutes to the base of Mt. Spokane to begin my run. Luckily, I currently stay closer to Mt. Spokane, so the drive was way shorter than usual. I hydrated with some Nuun on the drive up.
I have done a lot of hiking and cross country skiing at Mt. Spokane, but I have never tried to run up it and I don’t know if I ever want to do it again. I shot some photos on my drive out there.
The country side is so green right now.
I parked my car on the side of the road about 5 miles from the top and started running around 7 am. I love the fresh mountain air and hearing the creek and birds. I started early so I could beat the traffic. I headed in the opposite direction of the mountain to warm up for 2 miles.
Then I turned around and started the climb. Before I passed my car, I was nearly attacked by a dog. I tried backing away slowly, but it kept getting closer and closer. I started to scream so the owner in the house could hear me. It was 3 feet away with gnarly teeth, before the owner came out yelling at the dog. He apologized and I carried on. My heart was beating so fast and my adrenaline helped to propel me up the mountain.
I passed my car at mile 4 and I was already feeling the burn in my butt and hamstrings. I thought, well this is good, I need some work on my “no butt.” Maybe after this run I will actually grow a butt.
I was second guessing the whole run. My knee had a sharp pain by mile 2, but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way. The pain dissipated until I reached mile 6, but I only had 3 more miles of climbing so I couldn’t quit.
I passed the rangers station at 6.6 miles and my legs felt like toast. All I could think about was how the worst of the climb hadn’t even begun, and my legs for Ragnar Relay were going to be much more steep. I kept thinking, “Poop, this stinks!!”
The miles were dragging on, I reached mile 7 and finally had to walk for a little bit. I ran walked the last two miles up to the top. I loved the forest below me and all the green trees.
The road just kept winding up and up.
Mile 8 came and went, very slowly. I was only a mile away.
As I got closer to the top, I stopped to take a picture of the view, about half a mile from mile 9.
Such a great view. I could almost see the city from there.
Finally, I reach mile 9 and wanted to scream at the top of my lungs that I had just climbed 7 miles uphill!! I knew it was all downhill from there!! Woot Woot
I didn’t make it to the very top as planned, because I parked too far from the top. The signs on the road were a little off. I covered 9 miles in 1:20, not bad for going uphill.
I had runners high after that and couldn’t stop smiling. I began my descent down the mountain and captured some great views of the winding road.
I covered the last 5 miles in less than 35 minutes, which was great preparation for my 7.9 mile descent in the Ragnar Relay race.
I caught a glimpse of this little beauty and couldn’t have been happier!!
I knew I was done and I accomplished the run in under 2 hours, which was my goal.
I didn’t care if I had to walk up some of the mountain. I don’t know if anyone could run the entire way up Mt. Spokane.I didn’t know what to expect, but I was surprised that it wasn’t as challenging as I expected, but still did a number on my legs and butt. I honestly didn’t know if I could accomplish it.
I drove over to my sister’s and stopped by the farmers market to grab some produce. I showered and Marc and I headed into the city for some refueling.
I grabbed a great organic smoothie with coconut water, romaine, spinach, pineapple, cucumber, pear and agave at Methods Juice Bar.
It hit the spot and was delish.
After some more wedding registry, we grabbed some grub at Huckleberrys for our late lunch/early dinner.
I love their pasta bar. Marc and I have literally ate it 3 Saturday’s in a row.
Mile Splits:
- Mile 1: 7:14
- Mile 2: 7:21
- Mile 3: 7:53
- Mile 4: 7:34
- Mile 5: 7:41
- Mile 6: 9:21 (as you can see it’s started to get a little bit tougher as I went along)
- Mile 7: 9:55
- Mile 8: 12:09 (this was the go ever so slowly mile)
- Mile 9: 11:11
- Mile 10: 7:05
- Mile 11: 7:04
- Mile 12: 6:45
- Mile 13: 6:37
- Mile 14: 6:26
What was the highlight of your weekend? Get any good runs in? Climb any mountains?
[…] ← Previous […]