Superfans (wife, mom, and people who should be doing something more productive than web-surfing) I bring to you a tale about a footrace up a hill in the land of Shakespeare and hippies--a land where high-culture-gucci-linens and no-bras-hemp-skirts seemlessly flow in unison up and down Main St. A sort of Heaven on Earth for those who prefer extremities but odd for fodder for the eye for a farmer from Salem: land of moderation and mediocrity.
Anyway, a year ago I'd never heard of this iconic Southern Oregon race: the Mt. Ashland Hillclimb. Sometime this Spring I did a little research after stumbling upon it someplace in the interwebs. I saw that it was a very logical course from the town center to the top of the local ski hill, it had a pretty deep history of 30 yrs or so, it was competitive, it was affordable, and it gained 5600' in 13.3 miles. It seemed so... European. So Chamonix, if you will. I was in... within minutes of registration's opening up.
I decided that I would try and hold myself together this summer with this race as sort of a focus. It was tough to do so as summer's are just so damn busy but I'd grade my training at about 80% of what I had hoped for it to be. That said, the half marathon distance was much better suited to my summer schedule than last year's attempt to train for an August or September 50k.
We made it down to Ashland and eventually camp at Howard Prairie (east of town) in good speed and good fashion (just one headlight out). Camp was a bit rowdy with thunder roaring in the night sky and a hearty serving of drunk boaters smashing beer cans on their foreheads (well, that's what it sounded like) but I slept right through it all after polishing a bottle of Chardonnay with Kattie.
Alas the race deets: I don't know if it was something I ate (or drank?) or if I actually got some butterflies about about me but I felt like crappola the next morning. My stomach was queezy and I was sort of lightheaded as we descended into Ashland. Folks at the start line looked well-sunned and quite trim: the competition looked fierce even though everyone was just sort of mellowly jogging about and doing a little pre-race chatter. They said go right on time and we took off up, up, up and away. The queezys faded soon enough and I was able to stay focused on the shuffle of my feet below me. The hills were consistently runnable and consistently "there". Around mile 5 or 6 it seemed a bit steeper (a 10+ min/mile) in grade and mile 9 or so was sort of flattish (a 7 min/mile). The final half mile from the lodge up to the summit had about 1-200 yards that could be run, the rest was super steep, hands on the knees or rocks in front of you climbing.
From what I recall, it was all jeep roads except one short spot leaving Bull Gap AS on trail. After the first mile or so where everyone sort of settled into their general positions I was passed by one guy and I passed 3-4.
I finished the ordeal in 2hrs and 5min. Good enough for 7th overall and 3rd in my ever competitive age group. Almost everyone else in the top ten was from Ashland or some other hilly locale. I was definitely the only flatland farmer in the mix. As usual.
Kattie and Pete were at the top cheering and we stuck around a bit to witness others suffering before heading down the roads to the lodge 1000' below. There we savored a beer got in the car and drove back to Ashland trying to figure out which ridge I'd run. Lunch at Standing Stone was good and 10 bucks off thanks to their generosity and the race director's genius collaboration with them and all other awesome local biz.
The following day we went out to do a little recovery run around part of Howard Prairie Lake. What was supposed to be 90 minutes (Kattie's schedule) turned into a 3 hr. 15+ mile epic that I don't want to talk about... let's just say we should have turned around instead of getting the idea that we could just keep going around the lake (the lake that would never end!).
Following a brief disaster episode with 25cent 5 second showers we made our way out of boaters paradise and over to the hills of Jacksonville and the Applegate Valley for some wine country shenanigans. Kattie brought bottles of fine Pinot from her work and we traded for 4 great bottles of awesomeness! Mix in some tasting and cool people and it was fun as a day in this remote wine area can get! Alas, a day that started off a bit rough finished a success.
Rodger out Superfans! Hasta la vista bebes!
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