The Mt. Hood Scramble!

Where to begin?! Earlier this year I participated in a "diet contest" at work. One of my co-workers and I would often egg each other on to put in greater and greater effort. It was all in good nature and I guess it worked, as each of us lost over 20 pounds in 12 weeks. When the contest stopped though our desire to maintain a new active lifestyle did not.

Meanwhile, back at home one night, Heather and I were watching a reality show that covered an adventure run at Camp Pendleton called the "Mud Run." It looked like a freaking blast, so I showed the website to my co-worker and we both thought it would be an awesome thing to do.

Flash-forward about a month and my co-worker found another adventure run here in Portland and DARED me to do it. She wanter to enter too, but would be out of town on the date of the event. I had about a month and a half to prepare and I had been running quite a bit to lose weight in my diet contest, so I figured "why not."

Unfortunately, as I began running more frequently...AND...began running on different types of terrain, a ligament along side my left knee (known as an ITB or Iliotibial Band) became inflamed regularly and never allowed me to run more than two miles at a time. Even the week before the run the issue had not been remedied and I visited the doctor to see if there was anything that could be done. He said take a lot of Ibuprofen and hope for the best.

Sunday, June 15th, was a gorgeous day up on Mount Hood! Sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-60s greeted the 400'ish other crazy runners. The race started at 10:00am, with a course that stretched out 6.8 miles criss-crossing along White River and working up and down the surrounding sno-park. Terrain was mostly snow, but also included trail, gravel, boulder, thick brush, and rushing river. What had I gotten myself into!?

As the race began I took a slow pace to try and not go out of the gate all amped up and flare my knee right away. With the narrow trail winding throughout the landscape I often found I could only run as fast as the person in front of me, sometimes coming to a walk when the masses would bottleneck at a tricky area such as the river crossings or rock drop or such. I was actually really enjoying the run, the atmosphere, and attitudes of the other runners as they would yell out whenever danger was near, such as 2-3 foot holes in the snow that were barely visible and could easily been stepped in as you ran along the trail.

As expected though...about two miles into the run my ITB flared up and the fun run quickly turned into an agonizing walk. It was at this point that we looped back by the start/finish line and I was cheered on by Heather and the kids, who also came up and entertained themselves while I was running. It was a nice encouragement to see them.

The next two miles were the toughest from a mental perspective, as every step was uphill (sometimes STEEP) and moving further away from the finish line was annoying. Many, many times I thought "Man, my knee is killing me. I can't keep going. How much further up this mountain do I have to limp!" I just had to keep telling myself that every little step I was making was one step closer to the finish line though, even if I was moving further away.

Then came that glorious turn-around. I had reached the top of our trail and it was all downhill from here...back towards the finish line, so the mental challenge was over but the physical challenge was just beginning. Every step I made, on slippery snow, downhill, was agonizing on my left knee. I was so bummed not to be able to run! I know I had more gas left in the tank! But the knee wouldn't allow it, so I tried to keep it stiff, like a peg-legged pirate, to alleviate the rubbing of my ITB. It was useless on the snow though! Matter of fact, I actually started overcompensating so much that my right ITB started hurting. I was like "oh great!" But I just kept going. One step, slide, stumble, whatever, at a time!

And then...FINALLY...there it was...the finish line! With Heather and the kids waiting, cheering, happy to see Daddy make it alive! What a fun and challenging day. I'm still sore three days later, but I'm glad I took my co-workers challenge (and 1400mg of Ibuprofen) and conquered the Mt. Hood Scramble. The race took me 2 hours and 20 minutes, and I swear when I crossed the finish line a guy told me I was 199th, but tonight the results have been posted and I'm 277th. Oh well, I knew I was slow as molasses, and I'm still just glad I did it. You can bet there will be other races once I get my knees all figured out!

You can view all the pics from the Scramble here. If you want to search for me, I was racer #6, but most of those pics are cheesy and lame. The one that we thought was cool is posted below, as are the other pics we took.

When we arrived cars and runners were everywhere.

That's me at registration. Wait, am I crying ALREADY!?

Such a gorgeous day up on Mt. Hood!

The participants are lining up behind me. Better take one last pic with the kids in case I don't make it back alive!

You know you're old when even the stretching hurts!

Here goes nothing!

Off we go! I wish I had a camera out on the course to show you more of the trail!

This picture was taken by the official race photographer, Brian Conaghan. One of the many times we criss-crossed over White River. It was usually thigh deep and you had to be VERY careful of your footing or you were gonna fall face-first into the river!

Here's me looping back at about the 2 mile mark.

That there is PAIN as I kept trying to run on a bum knee.

6.8 miles later I get a high-5 from Evan as I near the finish line.

At least I wasn't last...barely!

The group was very laid back and fun. The organizers had free soup, beer, gatorade, watermelon, and plenty of prizes.

BTW...many runners brought their dogs who also ran the route. Nothing like getting passed by a dog.

While I was running the kids played and entertained themselves.

No...Evan is NOT peeing!

What good kiddos!

A little well-deserved post-race rest.

Wait a second...shouldn't "I" be getting the back rub???