Hatcher Pass Marathon

This was my 8th time to run the Hatcher Pass Marathon. It's really a hard race because it's basically all uphill.  You do get a brief 2 mile respite from grueling uphill for most of the last 2 miles, where you descend on a very steep road down from the top of the pass.  The elevation gain is about 5000 feet.  I'm not a good uphill runner at all, but do always manage to find my way to the finish line.  This year the race was complicated by rain from about mile 6 for me.  I did do the early start which gave those who worried about making the 8 hour time limit, an extra hour. It meant getting up at 3 am for me, so I could get ready, drive 10 miles and drop my dog off with my friend, Mark, then drive 57 miles to the start line on Shirleytown Road a few miles up Willow Fishhook Road from Willow.  As I write this, the official results have not been published, but according to my GPS running app, I took about 8 hours and 5 minutes.  I'll update when I get the official results.  It was still very slow for me, and as usual I was the last person to finish, and certainly the oldest character out there punishing themselves running up that mountain in the rain. But I wasn't too far behind the previous finisher. I was surprised to look at my results from my previous races though. I was significantly faster this year than the previous 4 times I ran this race. I was 30 minutes to an hour faster than all 4 of them.  While I was running, I was seriously wondering if I would finish at all, much less in the time limit. I really felt like I was struggling, not because of my legs but because I got so short of breath every time I tried to run uphill.  I ended up power walking almost all of the uphill parts. My saving grace was the 2 mile descent from the pass summit.  It was pouring rain by then and I was both soaked and cold. But I do well on downhill. I think I ran down that long hill faster than I've ever run anywhere.  I was flying down that hill! It really helped my final time. It wasn't as beautiful as this race normally is, because of the rain and fog along the way. The mountains were mostly obscured by fog and low clouds, but it was nice temperature and not raining hard enough to make the road too muddy. They have a nice metal medal this year, which I prefer to the wooden plaques from the previous years. But running this race is always an accomplishment and although I usually suffer the whole way, I'm always glad I did it.  I'm sure I'll be back next year to do it all over again.