Ridgeline Ramble 10K

(My race report from active.com)

Well I did it! I have officially completed my first 10K .... even AFTER nursing an injured hip for almost a month!

This particular race was the Ridgeline Ramble 10K/20K trail race in Eugene, Oregon. Oh my was it a doozy!  Okay, let me back up.

My alarm went off at 4:30am and eventually I rolled out of bed. Around 5:45am I was on my way north and going through waves of feeling confident and completely petrified. Just last week I had ice on my hip at work, and here I was off to do the longest run of my life!  I made it up there pretty quick and checked in to get my number and tech shirt. What a bummer - the tech shirts hadn't arrived yet, so they are going to mail them to us later this week. I always like to have my shirt to wear around the rest of the weekend, so I guess that will have to wait until next weekend. There weren't that many people there - I think it was capped at less than 200 runners - which made sense when I saw how narrow the trail was for most of the course.

At 8am the 10K runners were shuttled up to our starting line out in the middle of nowhere. It was really pretty though, and nice to see a new part of Oregon that I didn't even know about.  8:30 the cowbell started us off, and we immediately had to start going up a muddy hill.  Now let me just say when I read over the description, I was under the impression that this was mostly downhill, while the 20K course had the insane steep ups and downs for the 1st half of their race. Oh how wrong I was!  After about 1/2 a mile I was already in last place. I knew going into this that I was going to be at the back of the pack though, so I was fine. I took in the beautiful scenery and smells. It seriously smelled like I was running through Christmas trees!

To sum up - it was insane! Steep up and down, like a roller coaster, the entire time. The terrain kept changing. Mud, puddles, jagged rocks, gigantic crevasses amongst the rocks, a dirt path up a hill, a neighborhood with mansions lining both sides of the road. I literally ran up and down a mountain. Had a great view of the city, though! And I totally didn't feel bad for stopping at the top to take a couple pictures. I had to walk more than I normally would, but considering I was injured, I had to make sure I could get to the finish line - and of course I crossed, still running - with a smile!

After the race they had a huge spread of food to make burritos, and chips, cookies, bananas, drinks. I was pretty impressed. It was a nice, laid back atmosphere. Everybody looked worn out, stiff, limping. The 20K people were covered in mud, and I saw a few covered in blood. I wasn't even surprised. I don't know that I could possibly describe how crazy the course was. I'm really happy I did it. I feel like it helped give me the little boost I needed. But I'm not sure I will do it again next year. That night I ended up at home with ice on my hip and my knee wrapped up. It was certainly hard on the body. I'll be sticking to road races for quite a while I think!

Overall it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes. I'm actually shocked that it was that fast considering the video/picture taking and the moment I stopped to lay on a bench for a photo op.  I was 47 out of 51 people. I have no idea how I beat 4 people. I only passed 2. I am wondering if the other two got too close to the start pad and were getting timed before we actually started.   All in all it was certainly an unforgettable experience!!