Seymour Hill- be my friend?

There are not many things about running that I dislike. Most things that I don't like, I learned to like. For example, when I was training for my very first Marathon, my run leader used to always say "hills are your friend", so, I learned to like hills because I knew they would make me stronger and the more you do hills, the better you get at them. Now,I've realized, hills aren't so bad.

In 2006, after my 1st Marathon, I met my match. The race was called "The Seymour Hill Run". It consists of running 13km uphill with lots of switch backs. It starts at Parkgate Shopping Center and ends at the parking lot at the base of Seymour Mountain. I had never considered dropping out of a race before but on one of the hottest days of the summer, it was all I could think about. The switchbacks were never ending and at one point I stopped to wait for my friend Jurgen. When he came around the corner I decided to run with him. He was moving a lot quicker than myself at this point and I told him to run ahead and he refused. After some friendly banter, I convinced him to go and did end up finishing the race. I felt great at the top but honestly swore to never do that race again.

My boyfriend Peter and I were going up the mountain on Wednesday to do some snowshoeing and he was commenting on how long the drive up was. It brought me back to race day and I decided that maybe it was time to attack this hill again. It was definitely a character builder and I guess it's time to go build some more!

Update: Well I am back (after taking the old loser cruiser "the bus" to Parkgate and back) and character was built. I ran the entire way and it took an hour and a half. Kept my heart rate low and didn't feel much fatigue in the legs at all. Had a few comments from some people who drove by me on the way up, they were all curious as to what made me decide to do something like this. I don't know if my answer "because it's challenging and it kicked my ass once before" made it any clearer. The run down was fun and not as bad as some people had said it would be. When I did the race my time was 1hr 23 min, so I know I can do it faster, maybe in a few weeks!

See you in the trails!