This spring Trevor, his two brothers, and I decided to register for our first Scramble. I was a little intimidated at first after watching some YouTube videos of the Mt. Hood Scramble that took place last year. People were crawling up hills, climbing over huge boulders, and rolling through large streams. However, because I had been training for a marathon and had already made it through my 10 miler run I though ehhh piece of cake. If I can run 10 miles I can surely go 5 miles hopping over a few rocks and climbing a few hills. RIGHT? Not even close! Of course I sprained my thumb climbing the first hill which put me in a great mood then rolled my ankle a few seconds later which put me in an even better mood... and by the third hill my legs were burning, my arms were throbbing and I was about ready to throw my hands up in the air and say the heck with it. Then I looked up the hill to find my husband, who by the way hadn't ran a mile since high school, frolicking up these hills like he was Tarzan!! This was not OK!! Growling to myself I bucked up and started putting one foot in front of the other and continued on growling to myself as I pushed to make it up at least a mile of straight up hill dirt, mud and ferns. At times I felt just like Chris Farley in Black sheep begging those little roots to stay strong. I figured as long as I didn't finish last, I was OK. I mean there were at least 150 people running and I knew we started the race with about half that many behind us. So I felt I was in good shape. By time we reached the top of our scramble route, I started to feel better, mainly because we were about to head down hill and I could catch up with my breathing. Quite a few people had passed me by now and Trev, Chris, and Brian were nowhere is sight. I hoped there were still a few runners behind me but I couldn't tell because the forest was to thick. We began to head down a narrow path that wrapped behind a waterfall and slanted steeply back up to the road above us. As I made it around and back up to the road I glanced back to see how many runners were left behind me. There were none...none behind the falls, none on the path, none in the forest above. I stopped for a moment to listen for voices and heard none. I knew then that I really was going to be the last runner to finish. Now I felt even more defeated, but knew I had to at least finish. The rest of the scramble was pretty challenging. I climbed over fallen trees and brush, splashed through a few creeks and by the time I headed over the last hill I could hear a bell ringing and knew I was just around the corner. I was so nervous to come around the bend. I didn't know if I was the last one and if I was, there would be so many people watching me come around the corner... ahhhh!!! As I saw the finish line through the trees I was so relieved. But there was still no one ahead of me and no one behind so of course all eyes were on me, which I hate. I gave my legs one last push and made it through. Everyone cheered and it was a great feeling to have completed such a challenging race. The best part was I was't last, in fact there were a ton of runners behind me and my time was just under 1 hour and 15 minutes not to long after the boys. It was a great experience and I will definitely be signing up for next year. I'll just have to do a little more training!!
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