unendingly uphill

I ran a 5 mile race at the local Creekbend Vineyard on Saturday. It was very hot and there was one stinking hill after another. The three biggest hills were labeled: The Hill of Discomfort, The Hill of Despair, and The Hill of Death. In between were lots of other hills that were not labeled with encouraging names so I didn't know whether to expect discomfort, despair, death, or something heretofore unimagined. On one hill we breathed a lot of dust. It could've aptly been labeled The Hill of Choking Dust. They could've drawn a little brown lung.

Shortly after the Hill of Despair, many of us were stung by an underground nest of yellow jackets which had been quite riled up by the runners who were ahead of us. I got stung on the ankle as did several other people. It hurt. After the Valley of Stings came the Hill of Death, and I would say that getting up that hill hurt even more than the sting, which was throbbing a bit. The signage even related how long the hill was and the degree of incline--160 feet of 23 degree slope. If you drew a 23 degree angle, you would think, eh, this is not straight up. If you have run a 23 degree slope, you would know that, given the way the human leg moves, and the fact that you are attempting to go forward at a fast clip, this does indeed work out to be straight up, despite the actual geometry.

Needless to say, this was one of the more challenging five miles I've ever run. It was for a good cause, and there was supposed to be free wine and food afterwards. Turns out there was only free water and oranges and we had to buy the wine and food. But there was a band. They said there would be and there was. I'd talked my niece into running the one mile kids' run. It was her first race and she did very well, coming in 7th out of 50 or so kids. Well done Maddie! It was really hot and the last half mile of the kids' run was a steep uphill, too. I ran the last half mile with her, encouraging her to keep going up the hill as she was starting to flag a bit. She took off running again and ended up doing really well. After she recovered for a couple of minutes she said, "Now that I'm not running, I think I feel like running some more!" Like I've always contended, running feels so good after you stop. :) It was fun to share my love of running with my niecekins.

After I washed my face and caught my breath I was fine. Despite the heat and hills, it was only five miles, which is a usual kind of distance for me. And after all was said and done, the race was in quite a beautiful place--vineyards and pine forests. We walked through the vineyards and ate a lot of burgeoningly ripe wine grapes which were delicious. We sat on a blanket and had homemade cookies and fresh bread and pesto, fruit and veggies from the farmer's market and wine, and listened to the band. The sun started setting, red and orange, and as we drove out, the vineyards and surrounding hillsides were just stunningly beautiful. We could've been in Italy. It was a good evening to be alive.