I'm Alive

Well, that was intense.  Ha!  I did the Observatory and I lived to tell the tale.  Not gonna lie...it was absolutely the toughest hill so far, so hard it actually deserves it's own blog post!

When I first arrived, the group was all standing around...we were all buzzing with a bit of excitement and a lot of trepidation about what was about to befall us.  Jason arrived right on time, and after a brief description of today's workout, we were off.  First part was a steep trail that led up to the Observatory...because we had to go single file, for the most part it was a quick walk up the trail and a good warm up.  We ran back down to where our cars were and got primed for the meaty part of the workout.  We had to run up the road to the Observatory, which is a steep 2.5 km hill but we were doing intervals so had to run up for three minutes and then walk back down for one minute and keep repeating this until we made it to the top.  My legs were already feeling burnt out from bootcamp this morning, but somehow I managed to find some gas and made pretty good time getting to the top.  One girl actually said to me that she noticed I was booking it up the hill and ran behind me while imitating my cadence and said that it was way easier than what she normally does!  I credited Marilyn of course...she taught us proper technique on how to run hills.  Instead of overstriding and pulling yourself up with your quads, you lean and kinda fall up the hill while taking small steps.  I know, it sounds weird...but seeing as Marilyn can run a 1:15 half marathon, she probably knows what she's talking about!

What goes up, must come down...and the run back down was really nice.  Shady and cool, I relaxed, turned off my brain and practiced my downhill running. 

Observatory Road...conquered.  Gonna sleep well tonight!