OMG-that-was-the-hilliest-rundate-ever

OMG-that-was-the-hilliest-rundate-ever.

And I frickin’ loved every single, sweaty, puketastic second.

Like really, really, really, really loved it.

The verdict? Oh damn do I need to do MORE of that shiznat, and as soon as possible.
It was HELL, but it was so, so, so good.

But lemme back up a sec. The rundate plan originally. It started out as a simple “hey coworker friend, whatcha say to a rundate next time I’m in Cali?”

Her response “sure, but you’ll kick my butt.”

My thinking – no way, man. Rundates aren’t about racing eachother, it’s about the experience of it all, getting in some miles in a new city far, far, far away from home. And that’s that. The experience. Not the journey, not the miles, not any of that.

Soooo she agreed to join me (mind you, she’s getting ready to embark on her first half marathon journey which I’m super psyched about!). What she neglected to tell me? The route she had in mind for us. One that she claims she only settled on in her mind right before we left for our rundate.

I’m kinda glad she didn’t clue me in any sooner now that I think about it. 😉

The route she had in mind took us up this winding, rolling, hilly, up, up, up trail to the top of a mountain, basically. I have no pictures to prove it (I realllly wish I had my iPhone with me for some picture #PROOF!) but when I tell you it was one long uphill drive? I.am.not.kidding.you.

It looked something like this:

Steep uphill climb to “warm-up” as my coworker put it. Up a steep incline and around the corner and up another steep incline. Leveled off for a bit where we met a bit of a rolling incline and then two more steep up, up, up incline turn-backs before we leveled off and took a very short recovery break.

Steep uphill climb number two nearly killed me. I legit thought I was either going to pass out, puke or die at various points during this section of the uphill “run” (if you can call it running, it was more like fast hiking LOL). It was a lot of uuuuuuuup and arounnnnnd and uuuuuuup and arouunnnnd. Lots of turn-backs here too. (which sucked more than the steep uuuuuups right after, I swear)

We leveled off once more and finally got a bit of a repreive before the final steep uphill and rolling climb to the very top. The rolling climb was one of those tricky ones that sneaks up on ya real good. It was at this point that I just put my head down, refusing to look at how far the rolling climb truly was and just powered through to the top.

And the top? OMG was it gorgeous. Not just scenery-wise but run-wise. I was never happier to be on flat ground in my life. For reals. Let’s just say the downhill run back to our starting point was glorious. I felt like I was running on air in comparison to what we’d just endured.

In all? This was freakin’ intense. The most challenging hill work I have EVER done. Ever, ever, ever.
…but I loved, loved, loved it.

Loved how strong it made me feel.
Loved how fit it reminded me that I am.
Loved how sweaty and endorphin-high I felt at the end.
Loved the experience of it with my fab coworker (who claims I pushed her to work harder…um, I beg to differ, she’s the one that picked the route, one that I’d have never picked on my own!).

Moral of this story?
Hills are evil. And I need more of them in my life.
Stat.