Running with Altitude

Today's Run:
Beech Mountain Club 5k
31:45 unofficial, First in Age Group

I searched high and low for a race to run close to me while I was on vacation in the mountains of NC. I secretly hoped the race would be on the low side. I wasn't that lucky. The only race within an hour of me today was at 5400 ft. Crap! Sign me up!

The drive up to Beech Mountain is intimidating. The switchback turns make your GPS think you are actually making left and right hand turns, not going around curves. I was a tad nervous this morning, mostly about dying. There was no course map and I had no idea how tough it might be, so of course I thought the worst.

The course was actually on the Beech Mountain Club's golf course, which was pretty cool. Starting at the recreation area of the club, we ran up the road and on to the course, around the back nine and a water obstacle, then back up to the club house. The terrain was a bit like an obstacle course - asphalt to gravel to concrete to grass (we ran on the fairways!) to concrete to gravel to asphalt. The hills were steep and plentiful. The downhill parts were kind of scary - especially on the gravel.

I felt good the first 2 miles. I could feel I was running a slower pace than I normally would, but there were at least 4 large hills in the first 2 miles of the race and I didn't stop on any of them. Personal victory. But I struggled through mile 3. My legs felt strong - not tired at all. It was my breathing that became a problem. I seriously thought that somewhere on the back 9 of that golf course someone removed a lung from my body. I walked probably a quarter of the last mile just trying to slow my breathing down and get back into a rhythm. I finished strong once my body figured out how to use oxygen again.

Because I had no cell signal and my GPS was screwy, the app I use to track my splits wasn't really accurate, so I only have the time I saw on the clock at the end. They haven't posted the chip time yet, but I think I was 31.45 - fast enough to be first in my age group. Okay, so there were only three in my age group, but I wasn't last.

I'm not shy. I'll talk to just about anyone. And I found myself chatting with a family waiting for the race to start. Lori and her husband (Mike I think) and their 10 year old son, Jack were vacationing in the mountains from Columbia, SC. On the out and back I spotted Jack and his dad on the other side of the course and they both gave me a high five (too cute). Lori has been a personal trainer for years and she is seriously in amazing shape. She came up behind me as I was struggling on mile three and helped me get through my lung suddenly turning black.

Lori's friend Judy (who looks closer to 50 than her real age) was a total inspiration to me. She had just run in an ultra relay in Florida on a team called 100 Shades of Gray. They wore handcuffs and t-shirts that said Laters, Baby. Awesome, right? Judy has done it all - triathlons, cycling, marathons, ultras - and she didn't start running until she was 39. There's hope for me yet! Both Lori and Judy were running The Bear at Grandfather Mountain on Thursday and invited me to tag along with them - even after they realized they are way out of my league. Unfortunately, I'll be back to my real life by then, but we've all exchanged information and will absolutely keep in touch. The Bear is on my bucket list for sure.

This was the slowest time I've ever put up in a race. But in retrospect, between the heat (yes, it was 78 degrees even in the sky), the altitude and the hills, I feel like it was a great test for me and I had so much fun meeting Lori and her family. Really, it was a win/win kind of day - blue ribbons and new friends!