rebeccmeister | Dec. 10th, 2005

Back when I was growing up, my dad would take my brother, my sister and me on an annual bike ride called the Chilly Hilly. It was a well-named event. It took place in February and circled around Bainbridge Island, which has no shortage of impressive hills. It used to take us pretty much the whole day to complete the 33-mile bike ride, although things got better as we got older and faster.

Today's run resembled the Chilly Hilly in a couple of key aspects. We arrived at the starting area (a place called Betty's Corral) before sunrise and were quite grateful for the campfire that Betty provided. After the gunshot (and some said they thought it might have been a real gun, but I think it was the usual starting pistol), some 30 or so people took off along the 22-mile course which was, yes, quite hilly.

I think the run went pretty well for me overall, although a muscle in my calf complained so much that I had to walk the last 2 or so miles, and of course the whole thing took me a loooong time because it was so hilly--4 hours, 42 minutes, and 14 seconds. On the other hand, I did a test-run with the iPod nano, which made me exceedingly glad that I didn't get a larger iPod. It was nice to be able to listen to music, especially while struggling up a couple of the bigger hills. I also enjoyed some quiet time as well, for the record. The desert area where the event was held was beautiful, and I think the route would have been fun to bike along. Probably the most frustrating things were the ATV's that zoomed about, creating massive dust clouds that us hapless runners were forced to inhale. My lungs appear to be pretty sensitive to dust and such, so I've been mellifluously coughing and hacking away. Yum.

And that is all for now, for now it is time to go to