It’s a MOUNTAIN, stupid.

The Pisgah Mountain 23K trail race.

Okay, I admit it. I just raced something a little over my fitness level. It’s a MOUNTAIN. I kind of forgot that when I signed up. I figured, well, a hilly trail run, right? with elevation changes of 900 feet at a time over a mile or so, you get the feeling really quickly that you’re on a MOUNTAIN and not a hill.

(Did I mention this was a MOUNTAIN).

The announcements were: it’s really wet up there, so get ready to swim. There are pink trail marker ribbons up. At one point, it looks like we’re asking you to run through a pond. We are. Oh, and a tree fell a few miles in, so you have to jump over that. Ready, go. (nothing more).

The first mile or so was on pavement, and that chewed, especially since for whatever reason being on a MOUNTAIN was causing my heart rate to flip out. I was up to 90% within the first 500 yards. Okay, yeah, whatever. I’ll just keep running. There were 52 people running the 23K and about 53 running the 50K. I was next to last out of the gate (mostly on purpose). It was me and this older guy who looked cooked before the first big hill.

Almost immediately into the second mile, I found myself running with a girl whose boyfriend had split off to do the 50K. She’d done three of these already, and we were perfectly paced, so I went with her. It made the running exceptional, because we talked about this and that race, and careers, and crap like that, for the whole race (except when I was wheezing up the steepest parts of the mountain).

The mountain (MOUNTAIN!) was beautiful. There were streams and brooks everywhere. Trees of all colours. We saw a little orange salamander that looked like something out of a kid’s toybox, but was real. There were these huge red mushrooms and tons of moss.

Technically speaking, the race was amazing. There were all kinds of roots, rocks, mud, moss, steep descents where you ran and prayed, and huge killer inclines that you just had to walk. There were two really well-stocked aid stations with all kinds of treats, including fruits, ClifBars, m&m’s, fig newtons, etc.

The last mile chewed, because it was onto this super hilly carriage road and then, back onto cement. But we were really feeling great from making a decent pace of it, and hey, this was 14.1 miles of MOUNTAIN behind us. We raced into the finish line, and I was thrilled to be the last finisher of the 23K distance (not counting the old guy, who I’m not sure if he finished).

But then I wasn’t last, because some girl got lost at an easy place to get lost, and she ended up adding eight miles to her race. So, she was last by about 30 or 40 minutes more than me.

Time: 3:14:20 for 14.1 miles of MOUNTAIN.

And then afterwards, the wonderful people had a barbecue, with pots of chunky vegetable soup, burgers and dogs, a sheet cake, and all kinds of other goodies. I had a burger and a 1/2 cup of soup, and then hit the road. I stopped a little later for a real victory meal of steak tips done bloody rare, fries, and a 25 ounce Newcastle Brown Ale.

It was a KILLER perfect day, and the only thing I have to do better for next year is remember that it’s a frickin’ MOUNTAIN!

Thanks to everyone for their support and kindness.

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